Message from ccrawford

[Anonymous]

Sept. 19, 2006 from Cathy Crawford, HS World History, 06 seminar
I watched a film last week entitled, "The Sea Is Watching". You can find it on google for producers, directors and actors with some interesting critiques and background info.
For those of you who have seen it, I jotted down some impressions and connections to our class. For those of you who have not seen it, I recommend it. Being new to Asian films, I like everything! But, being a romantic, I really like this one.
The story is about a group of women who are prostitutes in Edo period Japan, their hardships, their friendships and their relationships with clients. It's a small group, so you get to know their personalities and hierachy amongst themselves. One girl keeps falling in love with her clients. I don't dare give away the unfolding, as she falls deeply for a couple of different men; and so will you. That is, of course, if you like samurai and respect for women.
Meanwhile, the older men come in different shades of connection to the women. One is kind and is more like a brother juxtaposing the one who is frustrated and demeaning, and utimately, violent., The village takes care of its own, and the prostitutes take care of each other and support the female protaganist who loses her parents and brother, only to be responsible for her younger sister.
Storms are symbolic for the torrents of tears, for the winds of change and the breeze of a new beginning. Watch this film and be swept away with emotion and imagination. The directors went to great effort to recreate the time period and the social practices of the era.
For those of you who have seen it, here is my free flow.
Good vs evil
inhumanity, hope, humaity...redemption
cat fight detail (girls bickering and a cat meows angrily)
village life, kimonos, lanterns
sub titles, I find myself not reading consciously and hearing the timbre in the voice, since I don't undrestnad the words, except arigoto and a city or person's name
Poverty, prostitution, norms, finding the good in an unfortunate life
Irony (young samurai who did not realize O-Shin loved him)
Seasons change in a frame, microscopic of a few characters and one venue
Laugh, cry, marvel, ponder, gratitude, beauty
love for the patron......but, the love of the girls for each other
The interaction with the regulars, jealousy, theft, tenderness
The lies to help make life bearable

A frame could be seen as a piece of art; the colors, sounds, visual poetry

some critics feel it is trite. but I liked it

Afterall, I would not ordinarily watch a Japanese film; except after the UCLA class, it was homework!! And.....as itturns out, I enjoyed it. Because of the class:
I was more familiear with the period
I was more familiar with the caligraphy
I was more familiar wtih Japanese history in general
Key: I was much more conscious of film as an art and the camera angles, the use of persepctive (seeing from the character's eye, literally, not just his/her point of view!) Using the same tree to show cherry blossoms an then green, showing the season changed; same with the wheat swaying and the same field in snow, without any story, just to show us that the months and years go by. Smbolically, I see that the life of the prostitutes can't get better, that they are stuck. However, they dream and hope and encourage each other; that life can improve.
the lanterns going down the river and the prayers as they send them off.

The family banishment and pre arranged wedding of the samurai

The despair of the 2nd man O-Shin was in love with, talk of suicide and how he did not know how to get a good job (but, his kindness as an ophan feeding the dog and sleeping with him showed he was a good person)
the samurai is SUPPOSED to be noble and kind, yet he was oblivious to anyone's feelings, not malevolent, just brought up to be unaware, and egotistical by training.........whereas, thhe orphan was the good one; although he felt like a victim, he did not want to treat others the way he ha been treated
When we discuss the Golden Rule, maybe we should have students inverse it it to bring it home even more clealy.
Don't treat others the way you don't want to be treated.
I plan to show clips in class: kimonos, men's hair (que) and to get them used to sub tiltes, hearing Japanese language. The world is bigger than Temecula.