Video

Novels

Manga

Features

Ningyo ga Ningyou

ニンギョウがニンギョウ

• by NisiOisin
• published by Kodansha

The narrator's sister as died, so he is going to see a movie. He sees a movie whenever his sister dies. He was twenty three sisters, but it is always the seventeenth one that dies. She has died four times now, so he has seen four movies. She killed herself once, was killed in accidents twice, and this time she killed herself again, so if she gets one more of either, she'll have a full house.
An eleborate homage to surrealist novels, this slim volume is printed and packaged to look like it was published in the thirties. Even the typeface looks handset and printed with cheap ink.
The book inside reads like some of Edogawa Rampo's crazier work, and, like Rampo's work, it's very hit and miss. There were bits in the story that amused me endlessly, and other bits that just seemed to drag on and on. I only read the first of four chapters, because this is very much the kind of book you have to be in the mood for. Much like Guy Maddin's films, this isn't a straight surrealist novel -- it knows exactly how strange it is, and has a sense of humor about it.