Essays, 2021
Reincarnation Rose
"You are a reincarnation of Anne Brontë", said a fortune teller to Agnes Chan.
It was about a half century ago in a TV show that the most popular singers in Japan, Agnes Chan and Minami Saori (Cynthia) were told about their former lives.
(I truly regret that I can't remember who Cynthia was in her former life.)
I was impressed by the literary knowledge of the fortune teller.
Those days "Wuthering Heights" and "Jane Eyre" were famous masterpieces and there were several translations for each, but few people in Japan knew the youngest sister also was a writer.
So when I was watching the TV program, though I hadn't read "Jane Eyre", I actually felt a little proud of just knowing about the youngest sister, who was said to be the most beautiful and the least talented.
However, after looking over a book about the Brontës to write this essay, I was surprised to learn Charlotte had two elder sisters, who died too young, at the ages of 11 and 10.
They were five sisters!
Tragically none of them lived out their natural life.
Charlotte died aged 38, Emily, 30 and Anne, 29.
I am very sorry for their short lives, but it seems that Anne has got a new life in the literary world; her works are being estimated more and more highly in the 21st century.
I read "Wuthering Heights" as a college student, "Jane Eyre" as an English teacher, both in English, always leaving "Agnes Grey", which I believed to be an uninteresting book, on the bookshelf, although it is now on my reading list.
There is a website which can tell you about your former life for free.
According to the computerized fortune teller, I was a peasant in the Edo period who survived in spite of hard conditions in life.
How disappointing!
If I paid some money to a human fortune teller, could I get a more specific answer such as "Bromwell Brontë", be it better or worse than being a simple peasant?
Last winter I planted a rose sapling named "Emily Brontë" in my small garden.
Though Juliet might say, "What's in a name?", I like to imagine that Emily's spirit lives in this rose; I somewhat believe in "kotodama" or the spirit of language, which is a thinking that language has miraculous power.
The rose lost all the leaves in summer, but it had one beautiful bloom in autumn.
I searched the internet florists for sister roses only to find none.
Someday, if new varieties, "Charlotte Brontë" and "Anne Brontë" were created, I would like to plant one of each beside Emily.
December, 2021
Brutus, who became a woman.
On Culture Day, Japan's national holiday on November 3, I went to see "Julius Caesar," which was played by actresses alone.
While in most historical plays the stage is full of actors playing the roles of kings, noblemen, soldiers, or priests, this performance was so brilliant with all the main cast wearing similar dresses, red or purple.
A few days before the performance, there was a general election that resulted in the proportion of female members of the Lower House decreasing from 10.1 percent to 9.7, while the global average is 25.0.
In contrast with Japan's present situation, at the theater, I had a chance to see unreal scenes of only women deciding the destiny of a state.
Several years ago I saw "Julius Caesar", directed by the late Ninagawa Yukio, in which Abe Hiroshi played the part of Brutus.
Abe is the first actor that Japanese people think of when it comes to choosing Japanese actors to play ancient Roman citizens.
He played an ancient Roman architect, who designed bathhouses, in two popular movies "Thermae Romae" and "Thermae Romae II"; his clear-cut face became a toga very well.
Brutus in the female version was played by Yoshida Yo.
It is true that Abe was visually so perfect that he really looked like a Roman hero who had come back to the 21st century, but it seemed to me that the integrity of Brutus was better conveyed through Yoshida's body and voice.
What brought me to this conclusion?
Abe was so tall and full of masculine energy that it struck me that he could have been a Caesar or an Antony, whereas Yoshida looked more prudent and modest.
And I don't want to forget to add that the beautiful Antony (Matsui Rena) chilled me to the bone with her cold-bloodedness.
Someday, in reality, will Japan have a female Brutus or a female Antony? November, 2021
An Actress and a Kan-chuhai
While I was shopping in a nearby supermarket, I hit upon the idea of buying the new kan-chuhai which Matsu Takako drinks in a TV commercial.
As I didn't remember its name, I searched my smartphone for it, using two words,"Matsu Takako" and "kan-chuhai."
The first web site showed "Kokushibori (squeezed body) Premium" by Suntory Spirit Co. Ltd.
However, after making two rounds of the spirit department I didn't find one and so I gave up, thinking TV commercials sometimes precede delivery.
Here I'd like to insert a note, for overseas readers, about "Matsu Takako" and "kan-chuhai".
Matsu Takako is one of the most popular actresses in Japan. She also is a singer and may be known globally as the first Japanese singer to sing a song ("Into the Unknown") at the Oscars.
"Kan-chuhai" is a canned "shochu", a clear distilled liquor and soda with a fruity flavor like lemon, plum and grapefruit.A kan-chuhai costs from 100 to 140 yen, which is half the price of a beer.In the kingdom of alcohol, wine is noble, while beer is bourgeois, and kan-chuhai is common.
A few days later, having not found Suntory's "Kokusibori" in any store, I searched the Internet for it again and this time found a fifth Web site showing "Hakko(Fermented) Lemon Sour" by Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd., which turned out to be the kan-chuhai I'd been looking for.
Surprisingly, the first four Web sites were occupied by "Kokushibori", which, released three years ago, is no longer on Suntory's product list.
I don't know what kind of trick there is for the order that Web sites appear but what interests me more is that the images created by the two commercials are very similar: a woman and her husband (the new husband looks younger) are drinking the brand new kan-chuhai in very pleasant surroundings, with a beautiful afterglow and a chic exterior behind them.
Whichever company it is, the fairy queen who emits visions of happiness is the same.
After all we don't care which company produces it; we will drink anything she drinks.
April, 2021
Etsunen Lovers -- a cinema reflection"Classic books", someone once said, "are those which are known by name, but read by no one."
In that case, I think stories written by Okamoto Kanoko are classics.
So, when I learned that one of her stories, "Etsunen" was being filmed by a Taiwanese woman, I became interested in it.
What in that Japanese classic, unread, old story attracted her?
Actually "Etsunen Lovers" is an omnibus film made up of three independent episodes and the first one is based on the book "Etsunen" by Okamoto.
There is no English word for "etsunen".
越Etsu means "pass" and 年nen means "year", so "etsunen" means to pass across the border between years.
The three episodes are set in "etsunen" time, which used to have much more importance in Japan, than it does now.
As the years change, so do a woman and a man.
The English title, "Love Talk" seems to me to be too banal.
In the adaptation the story carries us from the old Tokyo to today's Taipei, but the synopsis is mostly faithful to the original story:
After collecting her year-end bonus, Du Hsaio-lan, a young woman, is leaving her office, when Wu Ying-shu, a male colleague, gives her a slap without any reason and then leaves.
She begins to search for him in the town at night, with Yeh Nah, a kind young female coworker.
After several vain nights, they find him and Du gives him a slap back.
Later she receives a letter from Wu telling her about his motive for the violence.
In fact he is in love with her, unable to confess it.
Before he moves to Malaysia for his new job, he wants to leave something that will remain in her heart, even if it's hatred caused by a slap.
Knowing his secret feelings, Wu, feeling happy, flies to Kuala Lumpur.
The last scene is the most vivid and beautiful: in her imagination Du and Wu give each other slaps endlessly under the blue sky, creating a euphoric atmosphere.
It maybe unprecedented, as it is the most curious love scene in the history of movies, but there is a much more violent precedent in the German classic, "Penthelesia", a problematic play written by Kleist.
Penthelesia, head of the Amazonian female warrior tribe, and Achilles, an ancient Greek hero, love and fight each other.
In the end, Penthelesia tore him apart in a fury of madness, in spite of her love for him.
The director, Kuo Chen-Ti writes, "Revenge and love are similar in essence because they are both blind".
"Etsunen" is a pleasant, bright and happy love comedy, but between two loving hearts may lie an unfathomable abyss that only blind madness can pass over.
March, 2021ここにテキストを入力