More About Alan Booth

[gregory starr]

Just a few personal notes about Alan Booth, in case anyone wants to know mor
e about him.  He was an aspiring stage actor in England before coming to Jap
an, and actually won an award as most promising young actor, before coming t
o Tokyo to study Noh, with which he had become fascinated.  Anyone who'd bee
n out drinking with him--which usually consisted of awesome amounts of beer-
-would know that had continued his acting career of sorts as one great mimic
, of anyone from Katsu Shintaro to Winston Churchill.  As Mark mentioned, hi
s reviews were biting and caustic, and he often said that he considered his
reviews more as social commentary than as commentary on the state of film-ma
king.  Since his death of cancer, his wife has taken his daughter Mirai and
his writings  back to her home in Malaysia, and though there was talk about
publishing a posthumous collection of his various articles to compliment his
travel books, nothing is being discussed at this time.  It is a shame that t
here's nowhere to read those film reviews.  They were definitely some of the
liveliest writings about Japan in the 80s around.
Greg Starr