Andrew Laszlo: "Banjin" - the American Hungarian Federation, Founded 1906



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Banjin is the latest novel by acclaimed Emmy-nominated cinematographer and AHF member Andrew Laszlo....

Masahiro, a thirteen-year-old fisherman’s apprentice, is shipwrecked and rescued from certain death on Mujin-Shima by an American whaler, Captain Higgins. He learns whaling and becomes Americanized during the adventure-filled half-year-long ocean voyage from Japan to Massachusetts. Now, as John Mong, Masahiro is educated in the United States. He decides to return to Japan, in spite of the barbaric treatment that awaits returning expatriates. As a despised Banjin, he endures almost a year of torture. But due to the discovery of a small daguerreotype photograph in his possession, he is befriended by one of Japan’s high Lords. Over the ensuing years, now as Lord Tanaka Masahiro, advisor to the Imperial Court, he succeeds in bringing about the opening of Japan by Commodore Perry and the birth of modern Japan.

J.Fauer writes:

"It's no surprise that BANJIN reads like an epic mini series or major motion picture. That's because it was written by Andrew Laszlo, ASC, who was the cinematographer on SHOGUN, the 10-hour, Golden Globe-winning saga starring Richard Chamberlain, based on James Clavell's bestselling novel.

The prolific Andrew Laszlo is well known as one of the top Directors of Photography in the business, having shot more than 60 motion pictures and television specials. He is also famous for his prodigious storytelling prowess, as show in this, his seventh book. It is his best book yet.

Told with a cinematographer's attention to detail and a filmmaker's gift of creating images from words, BANJIN is the kind of historical fiction that keeps the reader spellbound and sleepless--because it's impossible to put down.

In SHOGUN, the year is 1600. The place, Japan. Rival Samurai warriors battle to become Shogun. John Blackthorne, English navigator on a Dutch trading ship is shipwrecked on the coast of Japan. He becomes an ally of Toranaga, falls in love with his interpreter, and becomes assimilated into Japanese culture.

BANJIN picks up more than 200 years after SHOGUN. The year is 1843. Another shipwreck. A Japanese boy, Masahiro, is blown in storm away from his village to a desolate island, rescued by American whalers and brought to New Bedford, Massachusetts in a voyage that would make Conrad, Melville or Dana proud. As John Mong, the boy is well educated at Exeter, advises Congress, goes back to sea, joins the Gold Rush in California, and returns home to Japan. He becomes Lord Tanaka Masahiro, and helps open Japan to the west as a leading character in the Meiji Restoration.

There's enough action, intrigue, passion and character development to fill a half-dozen regular novels or Hollywood movies.

Andrew Laszlo's book BANJIN will undoubtedly become, as we like to say, Soon to be a Major Motion Picture."

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As an author, he has written numerous articles in most of the leading industry publications, as well as the books, "Footnote To History," (an autobiographical account of his childhood, growing up in Europe during WWII, and surviving the Holocaust), Every Frame A Rembrandt (a comprehensive study of the making of five of his feature films), and his first novel, The Seven Graces Of God. It's A Wrap! (about off-beat experiences during his years in filmmaking) and The Rat Catcher were released in 2004.

Other films available for purchase:

Andrew Laszlo's career in film and television spans nearly fifty years, from the original “PHIL SILVERS SHOW” (Sgt. Bilko) to Walt Disney Pictures “NEWSIES,” "RAMBO: First Blood," "POLTERGEIST II,""STAR TREK V: The Final Frontier," and Emmy Award nominations for Emmy nominations for THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY in 1973 and SHOGUN in 1980

About Andrew Laszlo

Andrew Laszlo was born László András on January 12, 1926 in Pápa, Hungary... His education in one of Hungary’s best private schools was interrupted by the German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944. Shortly after, Mr. Laszlo was conscripted into a forced labor unit of the Hungarian Army. He escaped twice and was recaptured and transported to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany, and from there to the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia. Having survived the camps but losing his family, he immigrated to the United States on January 17, 1947.

After a difficult start learning the English language, he continued his childhood infatuation with the camera, working in various jobs that involved photography. He was the first person drafted from New York City during the Korean War and spent two years in the United States Army Signal Corps as a combat cameraman with the rank of Sergeant.

While in the service, in 1952, he married his wife, Ann Granger. After being honorably discharged from the service he eventually established himself as a cinematographer and rose to prominence as one of Hollywood’s top cinematographers.

He has traveled extensively throughout the world in connection with his professional activities, and accumulated close to forty major feature films, and an equally large number of major television, credits.

He is a member of “The International Photographers Guild,” “The Directors Guild of America,” “The American Society of Cinematographers,” “The Motion Picture Academy,” and has served two terms as a Governor of “The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.”

Mr. Laszlo received Emmy nominations for filming Edward Everett Hale’s classic: “THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY” in 1973 and the epic mini-series “SHOGUN” in 1980. In 2001 he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Worldfest – Houston International Film Festival, and with a second Lifetime Achievement Award at the Alba Regia International Film Festival in Hungary in 2006.

Mr. Laszlo lectures extensively at many of the country’s top Colleges and Universities. He has also given numerous seminars for industry professionals and future filmmakers in the U. S., as well as in Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Kodak Visiting Artists Program.

Mr. Laszlo’s hobbies include, quite naturally, photography, writing, flying, wood and metalworking, and above all, fly-fishing. He lives with his wife on Long Island, New York. See his entire [Filmography on IMDB]

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