Go onto your dreams!

One Wonderful Sunday (Japanese, 1947)

The theme in this movie is somewhat similar to that of Kurosawa's 'Stray Dog'. Set in the post WW2 Japan where poverty is the order of a day, it narrates a day a couple who have big dreams for their future together spend a Sunday together, the only day they meet in a week before they head different directions at the end of the day for their respective job requirements.

It is an extremely slow moving movie but the pace is essential to aptly portray the trying times of the war ravaged country. People are generally poor. The only short cut way to quick success is black marketeering. The law abiding conscientious ones had to slog it out with their measly paying jobs.
Isao Numasaki, a disillusioned war veteran, is an obvious victim of PTSD. He has no faith in humanity, is frustrated with the system and has no desire in life. His fiancé and childhood girlfriend, Chieko Nakakita, seem to be the only good thing that is happening in his life. But even thinking of their future together makes our hero morose. That is where his ever smiley fresh faced fiancé comes in. She goes at great length to cheer him up.
With limited cash at their disposal (35yen) , the couple try to maximise their time together. Even in dire straits, there is nothing wrong to dream the wildest dream, Cheiko reassures a gloom filled hero. "Dreams don't fill the stomach" he replies.
I think he feels that he does not get the respect that he should be accorded. After all he defended the country!
They visit a show house even though they cannot afford it. And Cheiko fantasises the home arrangements. Isao then indulges in a baseball game with the lads by the street. Again, they try to forget their gloom by getting a cheap ticket to the symphony orchestra. Unfortunately, their hopes were dashed by the black market ticket sellers who bought all the tickets and inflated their price, which was unaffordable to our couple.
Frustrated, they wonder around. Isao managed to convince Cheiko to drop in at his leaky depilated rented room with private intentions on his mind. The timid Cheiko, however, is hesitant.
They have an intervention on their deepest worries.
At the climax of the movie, they act out as conductors of a symphonic orchestra in an abandoned amphitheatre.
In the end, they realise that having a dream is useful. It gives them purpose in life. There is a goal upon which they can put their energy and effort into to unshackle themselves from the rut of poverty and hopelessness.
There are many political innuendos in the film. The snobbishness of the upper classes, the swipe at the leaders, a sneer at our social system, the Westernisation of Japan, inclusion of American culture is all out in the open for our consumption. Unlike, Thulabaram and many of the Tamil movies that overdramatise and depict a negative picture of poverty, here the maker shows dignity in being poor and that hope is all there. Anyway, he tells us to make the best of what is available in the present time.

Yet another perspective!

People of different age groups talk about different things when they meet up. Many of my friends seem to looking for the real meaning of life. One guy actually goes around paths not frequently scaled upon along God forsaken regions of the world like interior of Kashmir, rural Punjab and remotes areas of Thailand in search of The Truth. In fact, he has found some interesting discoveries about himself. His chronic age old medical malady has miraculously disappeared from his system baffling care providers and himself alike. He attributes it to his chance encounters with sages who carry with them an aura that defies logical scientific explanation. Like a drug, he keeps on his pilgrimage and the search.

Another friend found some rather ground breaking discovery in his research into Hinduism. His research, however, will not be approved by any academic professional as his source of research is... Youtube!

In the course of his 'research', he heard of some revolutionary things about Hindu religion. When I mentioned about the bastardisation of the religion by the introduction of the caste system by the Brahmin clan, he vehemently disagreed that it was a Brahmin invention. He proposed that the early practitioners of the Hindu way of life along the Indus River and Indus Valley had already discovered different individuals' varied temperaments and attitudes. Hence, they understood that different individuals are suited for different line of work; the intellectual or those with solid thinking faculties would be doing works related to worship, law, healing and leadership; those with raw power and quick temperament will be the fighters and guardians; those with financial skills as merchants; those dextrously skilled as hard smiths, goldsmiths, masons etc.; simpletons happy with repetitive non challenging menial works and so on. 

This workforce hierarchy was not created to confine skills to stay within a family but rather to reap the benefits of everybody's aptitude and ensure that the workforce is always ready for society. Somehow, along the way, things got lost in translation, and the work distribution system became a restrictive, condescending system to divide and rule society.

They say you are the oddball!

Ikimono no kiroku (I Live In Fear,  生きものの記録, aka Record of a Living Being or What the Birds Know, Japanese; 1955)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

You work hard all through your life, earning for your family, ensuring that they do not lose out on you did not have. You want there to be no obstacles along the way so that they can explore their own true potential. You secretly hope that they would scale heights which were unattainable by you in your lifetime. You play your part to the tilt hoping that they would do theirs.

What you get instead is the title of being a workaholic madman who cannot keep still and let the younger generation take charge! Your other half who used to be the better one, decide to take sides and you can see all your life's hard work crumbling right in front of you. The world is not on your side, and all the accusing finger is pointing at you, only you. And you know they are so wrong. So, what do you do? They use the same knowledge that you try to impart on to them against you, chucking you into the looney bin.

This message, together with Kurosawa's favourite of Atomic Bomb devastation form the crux of this film which is a somewhat not so popular offering. It, however, made its way to the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. 

Dr Harada (acted by one of Kurosawa's regular actors, Takashi Shimora) is a dentist who does part-time arbitrating family issues at a local court. He feels personally involved in a recent family feud of a wealthy foundry owner.

Kiichi Nagajima (Toshiro Mifune, another of Kurosawa's favourite) is accused by his family as being mentally incapacitated. Kiichi has the irrevocable fear that the A-bomb would hit anytime as it did before and he wants to sell off his whole property, lock, stock and barrel and migrate to Brazil, with his wife, mistresses and children.

The family thinks that he is over-reacting and vehemently disagree with his crazy plan to start life anew in Sao Paolo. Actually, everyone, his children, children-in-law and mistresses are only interested in his money. They want to inherit his fortune. They worry that Kiichi may use up all the money, leaving nothing for them to spend.

Kiichi is actually a kind-hearted man who cares for all his dependants and his subordinates too. He is usually rash and abrupt in his speech. His unshakeable belief that the atomic catastrophe would repeat itself pushes the court's decision against his favour. He is deemed mentally incompetent even though his mind is crystal clear.

In a fit of rage, he burns down the foundry that everyone has laid their eyes on. Little did he realise that is action would hit his workers badly. Kiichi is slowly drawn into psychosis. He thinks he is on another planet, away from Earth which he imagines having self-destructed!
Dr Harada visits him in the psychiatric ward. He feels partially responsible for his state. He understands that Kiichi may be right after all. We are living in a world full of insanity around us. Perhaps, Kiichi is the sane one who managed to shield himself from the ludicracy of the world around him.

Your hard earned money and others decide how it should be spent.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Money rules

The Bad Sleep Well (Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru, Japanese; 1960)
Director: Akira Kurosawa

Films are made day in and day out but a classics like Kurosawa's stays eternally in the minds of film lovers. This is another movie highlighting the evils that corporations do to syphon off public funds for their own interest but what makes it an evergreen is the depth of the plot. It is supposed to have elements of Shakespeare's Hamlet in its narrative.

The movie starts with journalists waiting patiently passing sarcastic remarks of a wealthy tycoon, the Vice President of a public listed company which develops public land, daughter's wedding reception. They are hoping to pick up a scoop to report. Their moment of truth comes when one of his assistants get arrested for corruption during the reception through some embarrassing moments for the guests.

The story gets very complicated but becomes crystal clear at the end. Nishi (Toshiro Mifune), a dashing young man who is the Vice President's secretary, is sniggered for marrying the crippled daughter, Yoshiko. They accuse him of marrying for money. Another embarrassing moment happens when a cake is ushered in announced in the shape of a building where one of the directors, Furuya, is said to have jumped off!

The plot thickens when suspects associated with corruption case and money goes missing. And apparitions of dead people start manifesting.

You see, Nishi is Furuya's illegitimate son who is out to avenge his father's death by exposing the corrupt practices to the authorities. He marries into the family incognito to this end. Part of the story involves the soliloquy of his wanderings about playing with the heart of the innocent like Yoshiko. He realises that he is slowly falling in love with his wife even though his sole intention initially was revenge.

At the end of the day, Nishi's slick manoeuvres are discovered by his father in law. An automobile accident is staged to kill off Nishi, leaving Yoshiko to lose her mind! In spite of all these, the Vice President continues on with his money making mission without batting an eyelid.

The film tries to highlight the feudalistic mindset that prevailed in Japan at the time of the movie was made. It showcases the extent people would go to show their loyalty to their paymasters. Truth and justice take a back seat, and money shows its muscle. Hey, 50 years on, the exact thing is happening in Malaysia. People do not know what constitutes being faithful to the nation and what is being a racist!

A quirky dark comedy

Fargo (1996)
Story, Production, Direction: Joel and Ethan Coen

Homespun murder story on embroidery frame?
Get the punch line?

This movie can be said the most successful one coming from the Coen brothers with their special brand of quirky dark comedy. They start the film with a caption with says...

"This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred."

At the end of the credits, however, the usual inter-title claiming that the characters are all fictitious still appears. Now which is which?

It is set in dead cold winters of Minnesota. People who are native to Minnesota who are well versed with the Minnesota accents will appreciate the sing-song nature of their speech. The film goes at length to poke fun at their accent and some mannerism which sounds more like Swede or Norwegian - with the yaahs...

Along the way, you also notice the subtle jibes towards modern living where people are eating all the time and people tend to go agape over food that look so gross and unappetising!

The story is essentially about a docile car salesman, Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), gets into money trouble after some bad investments. Even though he is a manager, the business belongs to his domineering father-in-law who thinks that his son-in-law is good for nothing! Jerry hires a duo of bungling gangsters from the neighbouring town of Fargo to kidnap his insecure wife to ease his financial woes.
The brutal gangsters leave a trail of destruction and dead bodies, including a policeman.

In comes an almost fully pregnant investigating police officer, Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand who went on to win an Academy Award for Best Actress), to the fore.
William H. Macy gives a sterling performance as a domesticated son-in-law who tries to cover up his deficiencies and his crime at the same time tries unsuccessfully to deal with the ruthless hoodlums.

The joy in watching the movie is not guessing the outcome of the story as it quite predictable but in the subtle jokes can be seen 'in between the lines'.

Crime passionnel

Dance with a stranger (1985)

The Brits have a passionate relationship with the protagonist of this show, Ruth Ellis. Ruth Ellis was the last lady to be hung for murder in the United Kingdom in 1955.
Ruth Ellis had the unenviable penchant to fall in love with all the wrong guys. It appears like she goes all the way to fall flat for guys who are abusive in their relationship. This, together with the influence of alcohol and the need to care for two young kids proved  too much for this 28 years old lady who ended up at the gallows.
Ruth was working as a manageress in a nightclub taking care of her 2 kids when she met David Blakeley. At that time, she was going through a divorce from her husband, an alcoholic and abusive dentist. She goes beyond her call of duty as a hostess to entertain men for extra income. She also had a passionate relationship with a quiet man, Desmond Cussen, who went out of his way to care for her and her children, financially and emotionally. David was a dashing and suave race driver who charmed ladies with his flamboyant lifestyle. In reality, however, he was broke, abusive and was engaged when he met Ruth.
She was conveniently had a two timing relationship whilst Cussen stood at the fringes seeing her got her in the painful affair. Somehow, Ruth appears not to come out of the relationship despite all the beatings and the bruises. It looked like a classic case of battered 'wife' syndrome. She always went back to David.
The hay that broke the camel's back moment came when Ruth suspected David of infidelity. She shot him at point blank outside a pub.
The movie just ends here without highlighting the post murder social discourse and court case that rocked the British society afterwards.
Actually, she kept her silence but admitted killing her lover in cold blood. The jury did not have much to deliberate about her guilt and sent her to the gallows for premeditated murder.
At that time, in the UK, there was no provision for crime of passion and murder after extreme provocation. The society wanted to punish someone to make the streets a safer place. The origin of her gun was not discussed much but apparently Cussen had taught her to use a gun and Cussen himself had an axe to grind after many violent outburst with his 'competitor'. The court decided not to pursue the matter into Cussen's involvement as Ruth had been hanged by then.
Cussen migrated to Australia. Ruth's son committed suicide at the age of 38. In the late 60s, the country moved away from capital punishment and Ruth Ellis remains the last woman to be hanged in UK.

These 10 Photos Show The World Of Difference Between Iraq's Past And Present

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/22/mosul-photos_n_5862248.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000010

This combination of two photographs shows a 1932 image of the Crooked Minaret mosque next to a Yazidi shrine in Mosul, northern Iraq, from the Library of Congress, and the same site, without the shrine, on June 8, 2009. (Library of Congress/AP)

At the beginning of June, Islamic State militants launched a lightning offensive in Iraq. Just four days into their campaign, they captured the country's second largest city, Mosul, taking over roads, banks, courts, schools and hospitals. The group issued religious decrees governing daily life according to a rigid interpretation of Islamic law. Many of the city's Shiites were persecuted or forced to flee and their iconic shrines and landmarks were destroyed.

Since its capture, Mosul has become a symbol of the hardships people face living under the Islamic Sate. The Associated Press has taken a look back at the city in a different -- more peaceful -- time. The agency collected dozens of photographs, which were housed at the Library of Congress and taken in the autumn of 1932 by staff from the American Colony Photo Department, and contrasted them with images of Mosul from today.

In the photo from 1932 above, the AP writes, "the Crooked Minaret towers over a street in central Mosul, adjacent to a Yazidi shrine. The shrine was gone long before militants overtook the city, but it reveals a time when different religious faiths could coexist here."

See the AP's photo comparisons below:

BEFORE:

Men pause on a lorry on the road to Mosul, northern Iraq, 1932. (AP Photo/American Colony Photo Department via Library of Congress)

AFTER:

In this file photo taken Monday, June 23, 2014, fighters from the Islamic State parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq. (AP Photo)

BEFORE:

A 1932 image of Lady Surrma of the Assyrian community posing for a portrait in Mosul, northern Iraq. (AP Photo/American Colony Photo Department via Library of Congress)


AFTER:

An Iraqi woman looking at a shop display in central Mosul after the Islamic State ordered clothes shop owners to cover the faces of the mannequins on Monday, July 21, 2014. (AP Photo)

BEFORE:

In this undated handout photo provided by the Library of Congress taken during the autumn of 1932, the Tigris River stretches out in the distance as seen from Mosul, northern Iraq. (AP Photo/American Colony Photo Department via Library of Congress)

AFTER:

File photo of smoke rising during airstrikes targeting Islamic State militants at the Mosul Dam on Monday, Aug. 18, 2014. (AP Photo)


BEFORE:

A 1932 image of Nebi Yunis, the tomb of the prophet Jonah, in Mosul, northern Iraq. (AP Photo/American Colony Photo Department via Library of Congress)


AFTER:

Iraqis walk in the rubble of the revered Muslim shrine after it was was destroyed on Thursday, July 24, 2014, by militants who overran the city in June and imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law. (AP Photo)


BEFORE:

In this undated handout photo provided by the Library of Congress taken during the autumn of 1932, Iraqis pause in the market in Mosul, northern Iraq. (AP Photo/American Colony Photo Department via Library of Congress)


AFTER:

Demonstrators chanting pro-Islamic State slogans as they carry the group's flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul on Monday, June 16, 2014. (AP Photo)