#Lady Joker

[mrsjellymunson]

Okay, I need cheering up. It’s my birthday 🎂, and I’ve woken up with costochondritis 🙄, so with that on top of *waves at generally everything* I’m feeling pretty sorry for myself. Fortunately, a friend gave me a gift wrapped with this paper that has my Lady Joker costume face on it! How cool is that?!

If anyone fancies sending anygood wishes/fun things/silliness my way, I would absolutely love it and love you forever.

(I guess this counts as a face reveal, although you might not recognise me in the street unless I was dressed like this all over again 🤣)

Tagging some friends + moots who might like to see this/where the crazy comes from 😆 @joejoequinnquinn @jamdoughnutmagician @guiltyasquinn @airen256 @sunshinepeachx @the-unforgivenn @80s-addict @munson-blurbs @wonderlanddreamer @maedesculpaeusoubi @mediocredreams @rebelfell @pedroschka @bettyfrommars @somnambulic-thing @ghost-proofbaby

[poetlcs]

books read in 2024 - no. 10

lady joker by kaoru takamura (trnsl.  marie lida &  allison markin powell )

[world-literatures]

just read: Lady Joker by Kaoru Takamura

This is a complex crime fiction novel loosely based upon the Monster with 21 Faces case. It's also quite lengthy, to me possibly slightly overlong, but still very well plotted and paced.

I'd describe this book as challenging, but rewarding. It's detailed and complex, with a large cast of characters which weave in and out of the narrative. An expansive look at modern Japan, capitalism, greed and crime this novel is thematically rich and immersive.

Some parts were more entertaining then others and yet, I never felt my interest waning. I did find some of the cultural touchpoints and references eluded me - a Japanese person I think would feel more connected to this. And yet I was happy to come along for the ride anyway.

One highlight is the translation - it's excellently done. Meticulous prose that never feels clunky or confusing.

genres: crime

translator:  Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell

rating: no rating

themes: capitalism and greed, corporate corruption, crime and justice, post-war Japan

One of Japan’s great modern masters, Kaoru Takamura, makes her English-language debut with this two-volume publication of her magnum opus.

Tokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have little in common except a deep disaffection with their lives, but together they represent the social struggles and griefs of post-War Japan: a poorly socialized genius stuck working as a welder; a demoted detective with a chip on his shoulder; a Zainichi Korean banker sick of being ostracized for his race; a struggling single dad of a teenage girl with Down syndrome. The fifth man bringing them all together is an elderly drugstore owner grieving his grandson, who has died suspiciously after the revelation of a family connection with the segregated buraku community, historically subjected to severe discrimination.

Intent on revenge against a society that values corporate behemoths more than human life, the five conspirators decide to carry out a heist: kidnap the CEO of Japan’s largest beer conglomerate and extract blood money from the company’s corrupt financiers.

Inspired by the unsolved true-crime kidnapping case perpetrated by "the Monster with 21 Faces", Lady Joker has become a cultural touchstone since its 1997 publication, acknowledged as the magnum opus by one of Japan’s literary masters, twice adapted for film and TV and often taught in high school and college classrooms.

[ladyjoker01]

Lady Joker

It's not my art, I just edited it (color)

Original characters: Ara Haan - Elsword Artist: @kurisucurry (On twitter)

[alasion-art]

Unwilling revolutionary 💢

[very-grownup]

Book 26/27, 2024

It's good to get out of your comfort zone with fiction. That's one of the reasons I try to read works in translation regularly and also why I try to avoid setting too much store by genre. This means sometimes I will just add an author or title to my list of books to buy and by the time I've gotten to it, I've long forgotten how it came to my attention in the first place.

Such is the case with Kaoru Takamura's not-quite-mystery novel, not-quite-literary-fiction 1997 work (a cursory glance at wikipedia suggests it came wright between Takamura's writing mystery novels and her moving on to literary fiction, which explains the odd place it exists, genre-wise) "Lady Joker". Inspired by the the kidnapping of the president of Glico in the 1980s and the unknown group's subsequent extortions and product tampering (read up on the Glico Morinaga case, it's interesting), "Lady Joker" is a sprawling novel spanning several years in the 1990s, but it starts in the 1940s with a dissatisfied and dismissed beer company employee writing a scathing letter alleging workplace discrimination and everything that comes after goes back to this one man's letter.

This is all invention on Takamura's part. The actual Glico Morinaga case has never been solved.

In the 1990s a recent graduate of a prestigious university has an unsuccessful job interview with a major beer company and dies in a car accident.

A pair of shady men visit the grieving father with a copy of the old letter and the suggestion that it, and a familial connection hidden by a web of adoptions, is the reason behind his son's rejection by the company and, ultimately, his death.

The grieving father takes half-hearted steps to threaten the beer company before he second guesses himself and pulls back, eventually dying by suicide.

His father-in-law finds out about the letter and the beer company's possible involvement in the deaths and it acts as the fuel for a criminal plot by him and his acquaintances who bet on horseraces, a plan for kidnapping and extortion without any real victims, but which will economically hurt the company which, like all companies, takes and takes from people and never benefits any but the top brass, eventually forming a group they refer to as Lady Joker.

The motivations and backstories and connections of the members of Lady Joker are the focus of the first part of the novel and then disappear from narrative view almost entirely until the end of the novel, as Takamura focuses on the kidnapped executive who is threatened not with death or violence, but with damage to the company's reputation and stock value by tampering with a newly launched beer, other executives, members of the press, and detectives investigating it.

It's a lot. "Lady Joker" is a dense book and as wide ranging as its subject matter is, it's probably inevitable that certain parts are more engaging than others. The stuff dealing with the members of Lady Joker was probably my favourite and, unfortunately, those sections only bookend the dense middle of the novel where there isn't a mystery and you're kind of on the side of the men of Lady Joker. The knots of corporate obligations and expectations the kidnapped president twists himself into, his justification of the decisions he makes and what he does and does not share, are interesting but do little to make you /not/ want Lady Joker to succeed in their scheme and get away clean. The parts about the newspaper and other media reporters had me really struggling to stay engaged. The fact that it became increasingly apparent that Lady Joker was NOT going to get caught made the police sections feel odd, almost treading narrative water. I was far more interested in the main detective's increasing disillusionment with the police and his persistent refusal in recognizing his ex-brother-in-law's romantic interest in him.

It's an interesting novel with lots of good bits, but knowing it was a transitional novel for Takamura helps me understand why some things worked so well and others didn't.

I think I may have also had a bit of difficulty because the translators of "Lady Joker" are not interested in giving you much in the way of extra-textual cultural information that you, the reader, might lack, not being a Japanese citizen in the late 1990s. It's not that I mind, I've read plenty of translated works without handholding, but I'm wondering if more context would have helped me in the areas I found more sloggy. Who can say.

I'm glad whatever happened that brought "Lady Joker" to my attention. It was interesting and different and well-worth the effort to push through the areas I found less than interesting. It's just cool to read something off your usual path sometimes.

[cheeriosgreg]

So in Joker 2 filmmakers raise the question: what if there was a lady Joker?

[booksofdelight]

Lady Joker Book Guide and Review

Read the Lady Joker Book Guide and Review to see if this series is for you!

The Lady Joker volumes by Kaoru Takamura and translated by Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida are epic mystery novels. They tell the tale of a kidnapping in Japan and what follows once they release the hostage. Find out the what we thought of the books in our Lady Joker book guide and review article! Lady Joker Books Lady Joker Volume One Lady Joker Volume Two Lady Joker Series Summary The…

[dailyflicks]

JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX Official Trailer

[deejay]

[animusrox]

JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX (2024) dir. Todd Phillips

[nicolacoughlan]

JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX Official Trailer

[jokerous]

JOKER (2019) // JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX (2024)

I'll tell you what's changed. I'm not alone anymore.

[bet-on-me-13]

Danny runs for Mayor

Simple Prompt: Danny runs for the Gotham Mayor position

Extended Prompt: Danny is an absolute little shit throughout his entire campaign but still manages to win because he is legitimately one of the best candidates around

Just imagine the crack that could come from this!

Reporter: What is your stance on Vigilantism? Danny: Well I agree that Vigilantes are helpful for the communities that need them, and they should work with the police at every opportunity, I feel like the idea will always be a city where Vigilantes are not needed. Also I fail to see the relevancy of the question, there are no vigilantes in Gotham Reporter: What do you mean? What about the Bat-Family? Danny: No, Batman isn’t a Vigilante. Batman is a Crime Lord.

Or

Danny: As mayor, I promise that I will not be infected by corruption. Not because of my moral standings, but because I absolutely fucking hate clowns and I will never accept a bribe as long as that guy is still alive. Yes this is me putting a hit out on the Joker. Crime Bosses, if you want to try and bribe me, you gotta kill him first or I won’t even consider it!

Or

Batman: Why is a Meta-Human running for Gotham Office? You know this city doesn’t have a very good track record with people like you. Even the Signal had a rough start. Danny: Well, I just had a strong compulsion to help this city reach the peak of it’s potential *looks over Batman’s shoulder to see Lady Gotham holding up Cue Cards telling him what to say. She promised to help with his paperwork for the next 50 years if he became Mayor and helped fix her city* Danny: Such a strong compulsion...

Or

Penguin: Look kid, I don’t care if you have enough power to destroy me at the subatomic level, I have enough money to ruin you, your sister, your parents, even your uncle! Danny: Oh really? I could get the souls of every person you have ever killed to get confessions out of them. Or I could give them the power to rip you apart. Or I could even just possess you and donate all your money to charity.

Or

Danny: Oh god dammit! Vlad: Hello Badger! Glad to see you followed in my footsteps instead of your fathers! Danny: This wasn’t because of you! Lady Gotham asked for help! Vlad: A WIN IS A WIN!

[daily-joker]

I'm not alone anymore.

JOKER: Folie à Deux (2024)

[dailygcsirens]

Lady Gaga as Harley "Lee" Quinn JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX (2024)