The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Monday, November 16, 2015 — 5A

Classifieds

Call: #734-418-4115
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ACROSS
1 Honolulu “howdy”
6 Cozy eatery
10 Exasperated
sound
14 Access the
Internet
15 Word-of-mouth
16 Merely
17 *Malicious prank
19 Memo writer’s
“Pronto!”
20 White Monopoly
bills
21 Church recess
22 Sarcastic in a
mean way
23 Approximately
3.26 light-years
25 One doing simple
math
26 Written in few
words
28 Has __ for news
30 Flood
31 Trumpeter Alpert
33 Spanish eyes
36 House cat, e.g.
37 *Winter storm
school closing
40 Cries of pain
41 Part of IRA: Abbr.
43 Corrida cheers
44 Like the old
bucket of song
46 The __ Boys:
fictional
detectives
48 Moorehead of
“Bewitched”
49 Last Greek letter
51 Speak sharply to
54 Fall guy
55 Japanese
detective Mr. __
56 Director Kazan
60 Bombeck of
household humor
61 Employment
opportunity, and
a hint to the first
word of the
answers to
starred clues
63 Iranian currency
64 Similar (to)
65 Govt.-backed
investment
66 Ill-fated Boleyn
67 George Eliot’s
“Adam __”
68 Boat with an
outrigger

DOWN
1 Gucci of fashion
2 Pork cut
3 Storybook
meanie
4 Trendy club
5 “ ... have you __
wool?”
6 The “C” in USMC
7 Get up
8 Kings, queens
and jacks
9 Antlered grazer
10 Son-of-a-gun
11 *Humor among
friends
12 Forest clearing
13 Really keyed up
18 Small fruit pie
22 __ Paulo, Brazil
24 Greek war god
26 Design detail,
briefly
27 *Employee who
does the firing
29 L.A. Clippers’
org.
30 Place for a mani-
pedi
31 “Gee whiz!”
32 Barnyard female
34 Has obligations
35 Govt.-issued ID

38 Drop (off)
39 Discipline using
mats
42 Bric-a-brac
disposal event
45 Rabbit ears
47 Unit of hope or
light
48 Per person
49 “Aida,” for one
50 County on San
Francisco Bay

52 “I pass”
53 Make amends
57 Animal Crackers
feline
58 Really digging,
as a hobby
59 “A Death in the
Family” author
James
61 Quick poke
62 List-ending 
abbr.

By Robert E. Lee Morris
©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
11/16/15

11/16/15

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Monday, November 16, 2015

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

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FILM REVIEW
‘Sushi’ not political

Muddled cross-
cultural dialogue 

impedes new drama

By VANESSA WONG

Daily Arts Writer

With the current media land-

scape facing increasing pressure 
to depict issues of diversity in 
art, “East Side 
Sushi,” featuring 
both high-defini-
tion shots of food 
and a challenge 
to 
traditional 

interpretations 
of race, seems 
promising. 
Unfortunately, 
the film suffers 
from a predictable script that shies 
away from controversy, rendering 
the film ineffective.

Enthralled by the artistry of 

sushi, Juana (Diana Elizabeth 
Torres, “Private Number”) aban-
dons her fruit vending cart in 
favor of working at a Japanese 
restaurant. One of the chefs, Aki 
(Yutaka Takeuchi, “Letters from 
Iwo Jima”), notices her agility with 
the knife and takes her under his 
wing. Aki teaches her how to pick 
fish, make sushi rice and, eventu-
ally, champions her talent. How-
ever, Juana faces backlash from Mr. 
Yoshida (Roji Oyama, “Mumford”), 
the stern restaurant owner who 
refuses to promote her to her right-
ful position as a sushi chef.

“East Side Sushi” could have 

used this story to make power-
ful criticisms of racial stereotyp-
ing in America, but unfortunately, 
it plays it safe and oversimplifies 
the issues for feel-good activism. 
Though recognizably true to life, 

the characters are distilled only to 
their ideologies — the oppressed 
minority fighting for her rights 
to career advancement, the rac-
ist villain, the ally, etc. — and dull 
scriptwriting leaves little room 
for character development. Its 
storyline unfolds mechanically, 
following a pattern of inspira-
tion, problem, hard work, repeat, 
making the scenes predictable 
and leaving viewers antsy for the 
credits to roll.

The scope of “East Side Sushi” 

is inherently microcosmic, but 
its specific issue — Japanese res-
taurants keeping Latino workers 
hidden in the back to maintain 
“authenticity” — fails to feel rel-
evant to the current national dia-
logue about racial profiling.

Mr. Yoshida’s character lacks 

nuance. In general, “East Side 
Sushi” ‘s melodramatic dialogue 
veers into the contrite, making it 
impossible for tropes to mature 
into multifaceted characters. The 
ending’s racial tension is resolved 
too neatly to be impactful — Mr. 
Yoshida finally learns to do the 
right thing and ends the problem 
of racial stereotyping when real-
ly he is taking a stand and joining 
Juana and Aki in the fight.

Despite avoiding charged state-

ments, the film does show an 

appreciation 
for 
cross-cultural 

awareness. In a key moment, Aki 
calls Juana “Konnichi-Juana” 
and the camera zooms in on their 
two cups toasting to each other. 
Juana brings Japanese food to a 
wider audience by adding Mexi-
can flavors, leading her initially 
disapproving father to support 
her interest in a new cultural cui-
sine over the course of the film. 
Another great decision: unlike 
many films meant for an English-
speaking audience, “East Side 
Sushi” uses almost exclusively 
Spanish (with English subtitles) 
spoken in Juana’s home. This 
bilingualism is a crucial aspect 
of the multi-generational immi-
grant experience that rarely finds 
its way on screen.

However, 
the 
impact 
of 

these moments still can’t shine 
through 
the 
dull 
character 

development. The film serves up 
sound bites of popularly accepted 
ideas, content for the audience 
to vigorously nod their approval 
at and quote on Facebook when 
they return home, but nothing 
substantial. Not acknowledging 
how the full spectrum of race 
relations obscures the nuance in 
character motivations that would 
have made “East Side Sushi” the 
robust statement it wanted to be.

C+

East Side 
Sushi

State Theater

Blue Sun Pictures

BLUE SUN PICTURES

“I got wasabi in my eye!”

FILM REVIEW
‘Suffragette’ suffers

By MADELEINE GAUDIN

Daily Arts Writer

The more things change, the 

more they stay the same, right? 
That seems to be the resound-
ing message in 
Sarah Gavron’s 
(“Brick Lane”) 
latest, 
a 
dull 

British 
period 

piece about the 
women’s 
suf-

frage movement 
in 
England. 

The film fol-
lows four working class women as 
they become foot soldiers fighting 
(often literally) for the right to vote. 
Told in the manner of a PBS special 
screened for high school history 
courses, the film loses the punch it 
could pack.

Carey Mulligan (“An Educa-

tion”) is a dream as Maud, a young 
laundress who finds herself in the 
middle of the suffrage movement. 
Her performance is full of emotion-
al intensity, which is no surprise 
because Carey Mulligan is always a 
dream. Held against the lackluster 
performances of the other actress-
es, Mulligan is not enough to give 
“Suffragette” the heart it so greatly 
lacks. That heartlessness extends to 
Gavron’s palette, which, like many 
films in its genre, is characterized 
by blues and greys that scream, 
“This is London! It’s drab and drea-
ry!” Unfortunately, that message 
applies to the entire film. 

We must watch “Suffragette” 

through the lens of the modern 
world — a world in which many of 

the issues acknowledged (but not 
addressed) by the film still exist for 
women. The factory scenes seem 
oddly modern in the way work-
place sexual harassment is swept 
under the rug. Maud’s boss (Geoff 
Bell, “Kingsman: Secret Service”) 
gropes her in front of her husband 
Sonny (Ben Whishaw, “Spectre”) 
without causing Sonny much con-
cern. The women of “Suffragette” 
are at the same time powerless and 
powerful, an oxymoronic state that 
feels familiar even in 2015.

“Suffragette” 
falls 
into 
the 

recently expanding genre of social-
justice historical dramas (a genre 
categorized by powerhouse films 
like “Selma” and “Milk”). If histori-
cal dramas are responses to modern 
social movements, “Suffragette” 
would appear to be a response to 
the ever-dismissed, ever-important 
fight for women’s rights. However, 
“Suffragette” isn’t completely rep-
resentative of feminism today. The 
early stages of the suffrage move-
ment were not interested in racial 
equality. Therefore, the film is 
forced by nature of its subject mat-
ter to present a completely white-
washed version of feminism, a 
portrayal that alienates a large por-
tion of its target audience. We need 
a movie about the feminist move-
ment, but this is perhaps the wrong 
historical moment to try to make 
relevant to 2015 feminism.

In light of recent events, the 

treatment of the “militant” activi-
ties of the suffragettes is difficult to 
watch, mainly because what these 
real women did, and what their 
fictional counterparts are doing in 

“Suffragette,” is a form of terrorism. 
They cause no physical harm, but 
all their destructive actions hold 
the threat of harm. Explosions in 
mailboxes, bricks thrown through 
windows, the destruction of an 
entire home in the country all capi-
talize on fear (also known as ter-
ror) in order to make change. Why 
then are they called militants and 
not terrorists? That word choice is 
key because when labeled as mili-
tants their actions are dismissed 
as acceptable — acceptable because 
we agree with their cause. What 
“Suffragette” highlights, seemingly 
accidentally, is the fact that some-
times the “good guys” and the “bad 
guys” have the same strategies.

“Suffragette” didn’t come out on 

the wrong weekend, it came out in 
the wrong world, a world in which 
terrorism controls the lives of a con-
stantly growing number of people. 
The glorification of this type of 
activism, then, reads not only as 
insensitive but also elitist. “Suf-
fragette” could have possibly been 
saved had it decided to address the 
duality of the movement as both 
progressive in 1912 and problematic 
in 2015.

“Suffragette” could join the 

ranks of throwaway British period 
pieces (unique only by its lack of 
Keira Knightley) but the film’s con-
text within the modern world pro-
vides the possibility for longevity 
— it makes cultural points, but not 
necessarily the right ones. Maybe 
“Suffragette” will only be remem-
bered for what it does wrong, but at 
least it will (unlike many of its peer 
films) be remembered.

C

Suffragette

Michigan 
Theater

Focus Features

ALBUM REVIEW
No direction

By DANIELLE IMMERMAN

Daily Arts Writer

Let me preface this by saying I 

don’t like One Direction. I think 
they’re an artificially manufac-
tured boy band 
that has only 
found 
main-

stream success 
because 
their 

bubblegum 
pop 
ballads 

and 
charm-

ing good looks 
appeal to the 
entire 
teen-

aged female population of the 
world. However, just because 
I disapprove of their “X-Fac-
tor” origins and bland songs, 
it’s important to note that One 
Direction is relevant and their 
name will always be known. 
Their relevance ranges from the 
fact that all four of their albums 
topped the Billboard 200 chart 
to their impressive worldwide 
arena tours in support of each 
album they released. Monetari-
ly, One Direction was the high-
est-earning band of 2015, raking 
in $130 million. If a band can 
find so much success with music 
most critics would deem medio-
cre at best, you have to give them 
a little credit.

Over the course of the band’s 

five years of existence, they have 
managed to pump out an album 
every year accompanied by a 
worldwide arena tour in support 
of each album. 2015, however, was 
a turning point for One Direction. 
With Zayn Malik’s departure 
mid-tour, the band scrambled to 
reconfigure songs without the 
support of their strongest vocal-
ist. As if Directioners weren’t 
devastated enough, the new 
quartet announced in August 
that they would be taking an 
extended hiatus after the release 
of Made in the A.M. Of course the 
charming band reassured the 
heartbroken female population 
of the world that they would be 
back, but many have speculated 
that this is the end of the British 
boy-band. With such suspicions 
circulating its way through the 
music industry, special attention 
has and should be paid to Made 
in the A.M.

First, Made in the A.M. feels 

like a goodbye. The only lyrics 
that manage to make a state-
ment are those that bid some-
one (Directioners, maybe Malik, 
maybe a girl) farewell. In “Love 
You Goodbye,” the boys croon 
“It’s 
inevitable 
everything 

that’s good comes to an end / 
It’s impossible to know if after 

this we can still be friends.” The 
hopeless message in “Love You 
Goodbye” is then countered by 
the promising lyrics, “This is not 
the end / We can make it, you 
know it, you know” in “History.” 
Aside from the finality present-
ed in many of the lyrics, Made 
in the A.M. has a gloomier feel 
than their past albums; perhaps 
this change in mood is meant to 
mourn the One Direction they 
once were.

Aside from the fact that Made 

in the A.M. could be One Direc-
tion’s 
last 
album, 
attention 

should be paid to it because three 
of the 17 songs are actually quite 
promising. “Never Enough” is 
by far the most unique song on 
the album — when it first started 
playing I legitimately questioned 
whether or not Spotify was play-
ing the right song or not. “Never 
Enough” features intense horns, 
drums and bombastic a cappella 
that’s reminiscent of everything 
that was good about the ’80s. 
The next promising song on the 
album is “Olivia.” Recorded at 
Abbey Road Studios, the band 
made every effort to channel 
The Beatles in this song, and it 
paid off. Obviously, it’s nowhere 
near The Beatles’s level of artist-
ry, but it’s definitely a milestone 
moment for the boys who sing to 
arenas full of 12-year-olds. 

Unfortunately for 1D, aside 

from the aforementioned songs, 
there’s 
nothing 
different 
in 

this album. Once you’ve heard 
one One Direction song, you’ve 
heard them all. The same inno-
cent lyrics in one song carries 
through to them all; the pre-
dominantly pop sound charac-
terized by unimpressive vocals 
remains constant in each track 
manufactured for profit. Though 
you could argue that some songs 
are more promising than oth-
ers, at the end of the day, I think 
this could be One Direction’s 
final album. Realistically, boy 
bands have a shelf life of less 
than a decade with only half 
of those years as prime-time 
years. Maybe this hiatus will 
give the band time to individu-
ally mature as artists, allowing 
for their fanbase to mature as 
well. Who knows, in two years 
we could all be marveling at the 
new and improved One Direc-
tion, but for now, I am going to 
say that this is the end of an era. 
Made in the A.M. makes it clear 
that the One Direction we know 
today will not be the same One 
Direction we know a year from 
now.

That is, if they are even 

around a year from now.

B-

Made in 
the A.M.

One Direction

Columbia

