Coin Locker Babies


Coin Locker Babies, 1980, is a novel by Ryū Murakami about coin-operated-locker babies, translated into English by Stephen Snyder. The translation was published in 1995 by Kodansha International Ltd and republished in 2013 by Pushkin Press. A Bildungsroman novel, Coin Locker Babies is known for transcending genres, containing elements of social commentary, surrealism, dark comedy, philosophy, noir and horror.

Plot summary

It is the surreal story of two boys, Hashi and Kiku, who were both abandoned by their mothers during infancy and locked in coin lockers at a Tokyo train station in the summer of 1972. Both boys become wards of a Catholic orphanage in Yokohama, where the tough and athletic Kiku comes to the defense of the slight, and often picked on, Hashi. They both experience difficulties, and are given mental treatment involving playing the sound of an in utero heartbeat to them, a sound they will later search for after having forgotten it.
They are adopted by foster parents, the Kuwayamas, who live on an island off Kyushu. At the age of 16 both find themselves in a diseased urban wasteland in Tokyo named Toxitown. Hashi, whose voice has a profound effect on those who hear it, becomes a bisexual rock star, employed by an eccentric producer named D. Hashi falls in love with his manager Neva and they marry. Kiku becomes a pole vaulter and, with his girlfriend Anemone, a model who has converted her condo into a swamp for her crocodile, searches for a substance named DATURA in order to take his revenge upon the city of Tokyo and destroy it. Along the way, however, in a search for Hashi's real mother, D finds a woman and arranges a meeting with Hashi on live television. Kiku watches and sees Hashi break down, and goes to help, but ends up shooting the woman, who is actually his own mother. He is sentenced to five years in prison.
While Kiku is in prison, Hashi's music career grows, but he starts going mad from the stress, eventually trying to kill Neva to try and hear the sound he heard as a child. While in prison, Kiku embarks on a naval training ship, which is caught up in a typhoon and has to put in to land, saving some Thai fishermen on the way. Here, he and some other prisoners, Hayashi and Nakakura, make an escape and are picked up by Anemone. They travel to the island of Garagi, where Kiku had read about a large quantity of DATURA being buried in the sea. They go to the dive site and find the DATURA, however Nakakura takes some in and attacks Kiku and Hayashi, killing Hayashi before Kiku kills him. Anemone and Kiku then "bomb" Tokyo with DATURA. The book ends with a scene of Hashi, now in a mental hospital, escaping to find the city destroyed. He takes in some DATURA and has an urge to destroy a woman he sees nearby, grabbing her by the mouth and trying to rip her apart, when he realises that she is his mother.

Main characters

Kikuyuki Sekiguchi
Hashio Mizouchi
The Kuwayamas
Anemone
Mr. D
Neva
'''Kimie Numata'''

Film adaptation

A film version began development in 2005, with a screenplay by Sean Lennon to be directed by Michele Civetta. The film was originally to star Val Kilmer, Tadanobu Asano, Asia Argento, and Lennon, but production never got off the ground.

Production

In an interview conducted by Steve Erickson, later collected by Ralph McCarthy for Kyoto Journal in 2011, Murakami revealed the original idea that drove the novel:

Criticism

The controversy over the treatment of child abuse and the depiction of violence shown in the novel has also been addressed by the author:
When asked about his connection with nihilism, in an interview conducted by Joseph George for Vice in 2013, Murakami stated:

Legacy

  • The creators of the video game Silent Hill 4: The Room stated in an interview that this book was an influence for that game.
  • The character Anemone from the series Eureka Seven, and her pet Gulliver, were named after the character and her pet alligator from the novel.
  • Japanese rock band The Pillows were originally called "The Coin Locker Babies", after the title of the novel. The name was used from 1986 to 1988 before a major shift in the band's line-up.
  • Japanese rock band Urbangarde titled a 2015 song "Coin Locker Babies" after the novel.
  • The plot of the video game Yakuza: Like a Dragon was heavily inspired by this book, with Chapter 13 even being titled "Coin Locker Baby" as a nod to the novel.