Randokuha

新生事物春满园 妇女顶起半边天
The Garden is full of new things/Women hold up half the sky

A collection of essays exploring literature, philosophy, and contemporary culture.

July 26, 2025

Notes & Summary, Parenti’s Blackshirts & Reds

This is not an academic review or analysis. I am not trained in polsci. I’m writing this summary to internalise and ask myself questions about this book. I am publishing this online because I believe ...

6 min read Essay
July 7, 2019

Taxi Driver and the POV shot

Four decades past its release, Taxi Driver’s gun-toting, Mohawk-sporting, aviator-wearing protagonist Travis Bickle is as iconic as ever. The opening scene introduces Travis as a war veteran. He tells...

4 min read Essay
July 30, 2019

On Writing Fiction

Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

2 min read Essay
January 17, 2017

The Soul of Souseki

The beauty of Kokoro isn’t in what Souseki writes, it’s what he leaves out.

5 min read Essay
January 16, 2019

Roma (2019)

Roma was the first movie in a long time to make me sob uncontrollably! It’s one of those times I’m glad I’m not a film critic. I’m just a fan of movies. Which gives me the license to gush about this m...

3 min read Essay
January 14, 2019

Battle Royale (2000)

Battle Royale. Even if you haven’t watched it, you’ve definitely heard of it. If not because of The Hunger Games, maybe from the game series Danganronpa? Or the entire genre of video games named after...

3 min read Essay
January 12, 2019

House (1977)

“That’s ridiculous!”

3 min read Essay
February 8, 2020

Gardner’s Art of Fiction Summary Ch 1-3

“John Gardner was almost as famous as a teacher of creative writing as he was for his own works. In this practical, instructive handbook, based on the courses and seminars that he gave, he explains, s...

1 min read Essay