RIFLE RANGE BOY

Ugetsu Monogatari (Japanese,   雨月物語 ,  Rain-Moon Tales; 1953) Director : Kenji Mizoguchi Geopolitical strategists will want us to believe that war is a necessary evil the human race must endure to advance. For a nation, a race or whatever name we give to a group of people with the same thinking to survive, they must engage in combat to stay relevant. Failing which, their ideology will have to change to suit the aspirations of the victors. Again and again, we see wars are started by great powers to create business. The whole military-industrial complex thrives on it. Citizens sleep well, knowing their neighbours will not overpower them anytime soon. Leaders think they are serving the nation excellently by marching into wars. They purposely overlook the pain, destruction, sorrow and inner demons that it brings out to devastate humanity. Families are torn apart. Food production is disrupted. Peace of mind is broken into pieces. Social mores are shredded. Human values take a backs...

Sansho the Bailiff ( 山椒大夫, Japanese; 1954) Director: Kenji Mizoguchi At the outset, we are told the story occurred in "an era when mankind had not yet awakened as human beings." I pictured that time can any time in Man's history. We just have yet to awaken. We can scream all we want that all Men are created equal in the image of God and whatnot, but the fact is that people always try to dominate each other. Humans always try to be one up against their neighbour and, if possible, push him down an imaginary hierarchy. Even before the mass transatlantic migration of slaves from Africa to the New World, slavery was already very much alive in every civilisation. There was a penchant for white slaves as brown people (read Arabic) prospered. The Vikings and Barbers were famous for the trade of white slaves. Some were captured crew members of small ship-jacked vessels. Others were bundled up when pirates landed on shores to snap up unassuming bystanders. There are stories of pira...

Asia Reborn (A Continent Rises from the Ravages of Colonialism and War to a New Dynamism) Author: Prasenjit K Basu The 21st century, especially the second half, is considered an Asian century. Still, no single nation is said to have successfully challenged the Pax Americana of the late 20th and early 21st century. A continent ravaged by events from the 18th through the 20th century, Asia is making a comeback. As they say, time is cyclical. From the Common Era (C.E.) to the 1600s, when Europe and the Middle East were pretty much in the dark ages, more than half of the world's GDP came from India and China. Both these countries were the world's superpowers and ruled the greatest oceans. Suddenly, there were either domesticated or decided to close their doors. The European and Arabic powers, who all these while were running around like headless chickens, morphed into a force to be reckoned with. They ushered in mercantilism, slavery and colonialism. They embraced Industrial Revolu...

Old enough! (Japanese, since 1991) Reality Show For a long time, people in Japan have been in stitches periodically, seeing toddlers who are barely able to walk going off on a journey to perform their first chore. Children between two (yes, as early as two) to five are assigned by their parents, as planned by the documentary makers, to go out of their houses, out in the street to run a list of errands.  It is thunderous to see these easily distractable cuties wobbling around with bags strapped over their shoulders, out in the streets, looking at buildings around them, reminding themselves how to get to their destinations. The camera crew who accompany them are not allowed to help them out. They act out as mere passers-by. Invariably, the children will end up completing their tasks. Besides seeing the kid's antics, viewers will also have a picturesque panoramic view of the landscape of different small towns in Japan. To market, to market, to buy a fat pig, Home again, Home again, ji...

Ikigai,  Discover your Reason for Being Justin Barnes (2019) Modern living has become complicated. From a community which used to live simply using age-tested traditions, we had evolved to one that simply lived for the moment, fulfilling the hedonistic desires of senses of the individual self. They thought they could live long lives enjoying the gift of life indefinitely unlike their forefathers because they knew the sciences and they had the armamentarium of modern medicine as a shield. Unfortunately, life proved to be empty despite the vast knowledge and precise know-how that they had discovered over the leaps and bounds of various industrial and scientific revolutions. They started looking for answers to fill this void. They wanted long modern lives but not aches, encumbrances and the emptiness associated with it. They look around, and they saw the Okinawans who were happy and led extremely long lives. They postulated that probably it is their moai - the safety net of lifelong f...

Wild Geese (Gan, The Mistress, Japanese; 1953) They are at a crossroad; between fulfilling their traditional roles playing the second level as the Rock of Gibraltar at the home level versus their empowerment to stand unaided against the elements of Nature. On one end, they have a biological duty to perform to justify their existence. On the other side, there is an element of not wanting to be typecast. What started as complementing one another has turned out as an inter-gender competition, a tit-for-tat. The barrage of information and the bombarding of call for reform proves too confusing. The constant fear of taken for a ride is palpable. They want the cake but eat it too, and ending up losing both; enjoy the ecstasy of being put on a pedestal and the joy of accomplishing biological duties. For some time now, probably from the turn into the 20th century, there has been a perpetual struggle between individualism and the need to fall in line with the demands of society. This conundrum i...

Greatest Events in WW2 (Netflix, 2019) We all know almost everything about WW2 and how humanity showed its ugly face in annihilating each other. What makes this offering unique is that, beyond the colourisation of old films, it gives a somewhat good account of why both sides acted the way both the feuding parties did what they did.  It narrates the sequence of events of the Second World War in Europe, on the Western and Eastern Fronts as well as the Pacific Wars. It tries to shed light, or at least give a viewpoint to the many controversies of the day and the many questionable decisions made by the world powers of the day. In wars, they say, nobody wins. There is no doubt, however, that the act of war promotes technological advances and stimulates the economy while it lasts. The aftermath of war also is an advantage to the victors as they dictate terms of conquest and take the lion's share of re-development of the losers territories. In essence, WW2 is the cont...