Veiled messages?

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

Novella, Author: Yukio Mashima(1963)

Film version: 1976

Thanks to MEV for introducing this novella to me.

A little bit of background on the Nobel Prize-nominated writer opens a different perspective to the story altogether. Yukio Mashima had an illustrious life; born to a samurai family, living with an eccentric grandmother and later a disciplinarian father, failure to be drafted into the Imperial Army, his involvement in the performing arts and literary work, his fascination with the spirit of Japanese bravery and right-wing movement, a failed coup at overthrowing the Japanese Government and subsequent committing of seppuku in 1970.

In summary, this tale is about a 13-year-old boy, Noboru, whose father had died five years previously. He lives with his mother, Fusako, and a helper. Fusako has a novelty shop that deals with chic Western/modern haute culture. During Noboru's visit to a ship, a sailor, Ryuji, meets Fusako and gets close. Long story short, Ryuji and Fusako get romantically linked and has plans for marriage.

Noboru is a lonely child. His mother locks him inside his room, for he had once disappeared into the night to meet his friend. Noboru has a 'gang' at school - a group of five precocious and intelligent boys. They refer to each other as numbers, 1 to 5, Noboru being number 3. The pack leader, known as Chief, is a rich man's son who has a tight grip over the rest. A bit too intelligent for his age, Chief influences the rest with his Nietzchean look at life, about the purpose of it all and the nihilism that it brings. Chief once dissected a live cat to show the essence of life, the mighty raw power, and appreciate life's soul. 

A man needs to explore his full potential. There should not be any authoritative body to curtail his pursuit of greatness. In Chief's eyes, fathers, teachers and everyone do just that. They douse the spirit.

Noboru's keen pubescent mind yearns to analyse and make sense of things around him. In his locked room, he discovers a crack in the wall that opens to the adjoining room, his mother's. It is a kind of his pastime to peep into his sexually deprived young mother's bedroom. Noboru thinks his world is perfect; at least, that is what Chief tells him. Fathers are no good.

When Ryoji comes into Noboru's life, he is initially excited. Ryoji is the conduit to his fascination, the sea. Through Ryoji, he learns about the unknown and the dangers that the sea had to offer. Scaling the sea tests human power and resilience.

Watching Ryoji and Fusako engaged in passionate love-making through the cracked wall, and when Ryoji decides to hang his seaman cap, Noboru develops a kind of oedipal envy. He and his gang schemes a devious plan to kill Ryoji and reap out his heart like they did to the cat!

Many analysts had looked, some would say overanalysed, into this novella. Extrapolating things that happened in the author's life, seppuku and all, they posit that Mishimo is exploring the boundary of life and death. He is perhaps telling that Man has to be free from the trappings of life to explore his true potential. Maybe Man is unsure what he wants in life, like Ryoji, who runs away from land to the sea, escaping the miseries surrounding his early life, thinking that his true calling is the seas. After scaling the oceans, Ryoji finds that the unknown glory at the waters does not satisfy and yearns to stay put on dry land to start a family.

Some look at this novella as an allegory of the loss of Japanese values in society. Going to the sea was a Japanese thing to do, compared to when Emperor Meiji encouraged locals to go forth and explore after Commander Matthew Perry landed in Kyoto with what the Japanese thought was the celestial dragon. Ryoji was displaying his 'Japaneseness' by venturing out to the sea. Hence, Ryoji returning to land to marry Fusako, a lady who delved deep into Western merchandise, represents the post WW2 generation that traded traditional lifestyle to modernity. Hence, it had to be ended, the murder of Ryoji. So too with Mashimo, when he failed with his coup de tat of overthrowing the Japanese government. The honourable thing to do when he failed is performing his samurai duties, seppuku!

The film version has a slightly different feel to it. Unlike the book, where the story was set in Yokohama, this is done in Devon, UK. The lack of depth in the movie version is compensated by the appearance of the heart-throb of the 70s, Kris Kristofferson, and the liberal display of flesh by the leading actor, Sarah Miles, who plays the role of the mother.

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The problem with twins...

Thadam (தடம், Track, Tamil; 2019)

One often wonders about the fascination of Indian movies with identical twins and the commotion, confusion and melodrama that the swapping of roles brings to the screen. Well, it does not only happen on the silver screen. Living up to the adage that 'life is a stage and we are all actors', art mimics only what takes place in life. In the police archives, one can find many of such shenanigans created by such identical twins. Occasionally, the legal system gets confused. Sometimes the perpetrators get away scot-free. 

This 2019 police procedural Tamil drama highlights such one case. For the records, this story is based on an actual crime in Malaysia, with a little spicing up using artistic liberty.  

In the original case in 2003, a suspect abandoned his car at a police roadblock and scooted off on foot. The police gave chase. The vehicle's trunk was later shown to have held one of the police's most prominent drug haul. The police caught up with the suspect at an apartment. Upon dashing into the apartment, they found two individuals fitting the description of the man they were chasing. They saw a pair of twins and arrested both of them.

The investigation team was at tenterhooks trying to pick out the real culprit. Even though one of the twins was bespectacled, the suspect was not donning glasses at the time of the chase. As they were both using the same car, both men's fingerprints were found in the vehicle. As we know, even though the DNA make-up is the same in identical twins, their fingerprints differ as it is influenced by intrauterine conditions. 

The prosecution team put two brothers on the stand with the charge. The case was, however, dismissed by the presiding judge. Two persons cannot be charged with a crime done by one person, but Forensics could not identify the real McCoy.

'Thadam' is based on the above. To give two over hours' screentime and the ticket's worth, the filmmakers had to drag the storyline to make it a wholesome watch for the whole family. There are love interests, fractured families, feuding parents, a mother with gambling problems, murder and a convoluted storyline to top it all. 

A murder is recorded, and the police investigation identifies a man in a picture snapped by a bystander. The distribution of the image to various police stations revealed two identical twins. The more police look into the suspects, the more either of them could be the murderer. To top it all, the police chief has a personal vendetta against one of them. With a sympathetic cop in the picture who wants to do the right thing and sidekicks who create dry humour, this movie is worth the while.

The postscript credits tell of similar unsolved cases around the whole involving confusion created by identical twins. In 2009 Germany, Husran and Abbas were accused of a multi-million dollar jewellery heist; in 2016, in England, where Patrick and James Hennessy possessed deadly weapons, and 1999 saw Jerome and Tyrone Cooper as serial rapes. All of them escaped conviction.

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Of family politics...

Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi (Ramprasad's Final Rites, Hindi; 2019)
Written and Directed by Seema Pahwa

All families will have their own internal politics. Over property, money or ego, family members may squabble and refuse to descend from their high horses. They refuse to see common ground. Nature sometimes play games to remind everybody of how fragile each of us is and tries to put us in our respective place. The easiest way Nature does this is to invoke death within the family. 

The scurrying of family members gives an opportune time to meant fences. The warring factions may rescind, albeit for a short time, only to return to their old ways once the mourning period is over. 

Human relationships are so fragile. More often than not, we do not say what we mean and mean what we say. Everything is sugarcoated to maintain harmony on the surface, but beneath it all, resentment brews. Everyone is concerned with their own survival. Family dynamics have evolved over the generations, and the extended family concept is so yesterday. Migration to towns and immersion in post-Industrial revolution age type of pigeon-holed urban housing makes nuclear families the norm. Filial piety takes a backseat after marriage, and afterwards, honouring the elders is only confined to weddings and funerals.

The film tells about the death of an elderly music teacher, Ramprasad. His children and close relatives congregate in his house to pacify and fulfil the final rites (Tehrvi). Soon, the family politics come out one by one. The sisters-in-law bitch about the youngest of them, who is an actor. The sons complain about their father. Old wounds start festering. It reached a crescendo when it is discovered that the deceased has a big unpaid mortgage on their family property. Nobody is in a position to chip in to save it. In fact, the father had taken loans to finance each and one of the offspring.

The grieving mother sees the family members like they are there for an extended vacation, catching up on all stories, snapping photographs and the sons having drinking sessions most nights. Nobody seems to be grieving. She thinks that maybe she and her husband had failed in their duties to instil hardship on their children. By just shielding them from life challenges and pad them at every fall, maybe they had made them weak. She also realises that all her kids had their own challenges to meet within their family.

The mandatory thirteen days of mourning ends. The children return to their own lives, letting the mother alone to fend for herself. Life moves on. She continues the music school for children.  

A slow-moving movie that peels the layers of unsaid and unspoken politics in every typical Indian family.

(P.S. The story and settings of this film almost parallel that of another of Netflix's offerings, Pagglait. It is also about family politics and funeral, but from the POV of a grieving widow.)

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The robe and the abacus...

Never trust a man in a suit and tie.

He may hide his evil intentions behind

his haberdashery perfection. In the

same vein, a female who reveals much

more than is needed to hide the 

necessaries may be masking the real 

thing she is hiding. 

It is said that the mark of the fall of an economy or, to go as far as a civilisation, is the disproportionate increase in the numbers of accountants and lawyers in society. Disproportionate to what, one may ask. For a community to propel to higher heights, we desperately need educators, engineers, scientists and health care workers. Educators to teach the young minds, engineers to push the boundary of the mind to explore new frontiers, scientists to discover ways to ease living and health professionals to ensure healthy bodies and minds for continual progress. As society becomes complicated, or the piece of the economic pie gets smaller, there would arise the need to protect or usurp material as much as possible, the legal way. After all, good times do not last forever.

Furthermore, the generation next would not be so resilient or antifragile to handle things given to them on a platter. Still, prosperity has to be continued down generations. Hence, there is an innate compulsion for good times to continue rolling within the family. Finances need to be fixed.

The significant jump in the numbers of lawyers and accountants may also mark the decline of morality. Whether the downfall of society is because of their increase or as a response to the fall, it is a matter of conjecture. When one sees things that used to be settled with a gentleman’s handshake amongst close-knitted friends or relatives now mandates legally signed documents to seal the deal, we know we are going down the rabbit hole of mutual distrust.

Washing dirty linen in public and broadcasting intimate detail to shame the other party is in vogue these days. The accusers think that they could play the victim card by putting all lewd pieces in the open. Little do they know, the public says a free daytime soap opera.

Trustfulness is now a forgotten virtue. When a person used to be entrusted with our monies, we did that not because he could give a beautiful account of our income and expenditure. We knew that there was no doubt about his trustworthiness as he would guard his assigned duty with his life. Now, we want a nicely executed (maybe concocted) Excel sheet with all the 't's well crossed and the 'i's meticulously dotted. Creativity and documentation supersede honesty and hard work.

Honest toiling and passion do not count in this material. All one needs to be successful and marketable in a colourful resumé with skills of articulation Lawyers and accountants help us towards that end. Teachers and medical personnel do not serve to broadcast their deeds. There do it because it is a service to mankind. At least, that is how it used to be.

[P.S. Writers and literary figures are still needed for they need to stir emotion and push boundaries, for we only know our limits when we push them to the brim.]

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There is a reason why leaders stay atop!

Grahan (Eclipse, Miniseries E1-8, Hindi, 2021)
Director: Ranjan Chandel, 

based on the book 'Chaurasi' by Satya Vyas.

I remember some workmates who were in India studying in 1984 during PM Indira Gandhi's assassination. They described it as scary times when many Sikh students took refuge in their non-Sikh friends' homes. Some have them actually had to crop their mane very reluctantly just to stay alive. A turban sticking out in a mob situation where Sikhs were targeted must be a chilling affair. 

It was at a time following Operation Blue Star when Mrs Gandhi ordered the Army to march into Amritsar's Harmandhir Golden Temple complex to neutralise Bhindranwale, who stocked weapons there. His faction wanted to fight for a separate state called Khalistan. His endeavours were supported wholeheartedly by Pakistan Government.

For desecrating the august temple with military boots, many members of the Sikh community were apparently hurt. So, when Mrs Gandhi's personal bodyguard, a Sikh, assassinated her, the general public was livid. They thought it was a tit-for-tat reaction to the temple invasion. Almost overnight, civil unrest spread all over India. Three areas badly hit by disturbances were Delhi, Kanpur and Bokaro, which is now in Jharkhand. Bokaro is an industrial city that used to be part of South Bihar, but since 2000, it is under a new state.

Bokaro saw 70 (some say more) Sikh deaths in the unrest, which some allege is a genocide. It is often compared to other heart-wrenching moments in Sikh history, i.e. Jallanwala Bagh massacre and Partition. Many Sikh families in Bokaro who were affected by this 1984 anti-Sikh riot still have not been given proper closure, explanation or compensation for their loss. No one had been identified officially as the perpetrator. At most, it had been described as a spontaneous display of emotion by the aggrieved public of the death of the nation's leader. The talk at the ground level is that it was the instigation of Congress and the willful inaction of the police that is to blame.

This web series made it to my radar when I read about a group of family members of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots who put up a legal against Disney+ Hotstar for screening a twisted version of the riots in a deliberate attempt to hurt the sentiments of the Sikhs. Funny, after watching the whole show, it appears that the Sikhs are portrayed as victims and are painted as caring members of the community. 

This show tells the tale of a policewoman appointed to head a task force to re-look into the Bokaro massacre 37 years after the fact. She soon realises that not everyone is forthcoming with information regarding the going-ons of the fateful night, which saw a bloodbath, Sikhs in the hands of Hindus. The local politician is feeling hot under the collar, so is the Chief Minister. Her father, it seems, has a dark secret that he is trying to hide.

Times 
37 years on, wounds run still deep.

The show is quite entertaining with its excellent acting, pacing and cinematography. The story paints a very bleak impression of the conduct of Man. The people in the lower rung of society (the ruled) are easily riled up by fear of the unknown. At the very thought that their position in society, their right, is threatened, they recoil into the most primal instinct of all lifeforms - violence. People with similar aspirations or cultures will flock together to ward off opposition from perceived enemies in ancient times. Now, as people are individualistic, their psyche is infiltrated via social media.   

The ruler also is one step ahead of the ruled. Sticking close to Machevellian teachings, he is always equipped with Plan B, C or even D. It is no wonder that the Ruler in most localities can use adversities for their own benefits. At the end of the day, it is always the poor who will lose.

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Any news is good publicity?

Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)

At the time when the movie was about to start production, many financiers pulled out. They feared that Christians worldwide would be offended as it makes a parody of the events around the birth, life and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Luckily for the filmmakers, George Harrison arranged for the finances.

It is a true and true parody of the Saviour. It starts with three wise men going to the wrong manger in Bethlehem, only to greet by a ferocious sounding whiny mother. This child is Brian. The wise men soon realise their mistakes and proceed to the real Son of God. 

Brian grows under the thumb of his domineering mother to become a timid adult. The rest of the story is made up of dry British humour, centred around Brian's involvement with a resistance group out to oust the Roman occupation of Judea, called 'People's Front of Judea'. Brian is mistaken as a Messiah; long story short, he is off the Calvary for the crucifixion. The movie ends with a chirpy song, 'Always look on the bright side of life', as Brian and the others on the nearby cross whistle away to the tune.

After its release, the film got plenty of unwarranted attention from the censor boards the world over. As they say, any publicity, good or bad, is good for show business. It was even restricted screening in certain localities in the UK. All this notoriety just spiralled at the box office as cinemas promoted the film as 'too funny that it is banned in Norway'!

The initial hullabaloo was initiated by people who had not viewed the movie. Over the years, people started to accept it as artistic expression. It is even considered one of the greatest comedies of all time, grossing record ticket sales over either side of the Atlantic. 

Like many of the religion-themed movies that came out after this, so much uproar surrounding their release eventually proved to be non-events. People soon went to the daytime duties, and the producers laughed all the way to the bank. Remember the controversies surrounding 'The Message' (1976) and 'The Passion of the Christ' (2004)? 'The Message' caused such a hue and cry as people thought Prophet Muhammad was depicted in the movie. In reality, he was neither seen nor heard. 

But looking at the current environment and easily triggered stance upheld by most parties, a similar portrayal of the Prophet is undoubtedly not a good idea. Just for interest, the other day, I was watching an abbreviated version of Dante Algieri's 'Inferno'. (Thanks, Danny.) The makers of this animated presentation were so fearful of offending the sentiments of Muslims that they decided not to mention by name one of the occupants of the 8th circle of Hell but hinted in not so many words.

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Convincing enough for a conviction?

The Staircase (Documentary, 13 episodes; 2018)
Netflix

No, the truth does not somehow mysteriously appears out of thin air and settles the score. Often, the perpetrator goes scot-free. It is not unusual for fall guys to carry the burden. Innocent bystanders who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time sometimes get suckered in. Tonnes of news of the incarcerated getting reprieve with newer modern scientific revelations, e.g. when DNA evidence comes to fore, is evidence of this. Truth does not manifest on its own. We have to make it appear. At the end of the day, the determinant is money. With ever-increasing legal fees and protracted trials that last forever, proving innocence is the domain of the well-heeled. The impoverished are just left to the spiralling uncertainty of time and divine intervention. 

It is a game of poker. It is a question of how long can one hold his card. Court cases can run till the money runs out or the accused is out of breath, metaphorically and biologically. Anyway, at the end of it all, the court does not give a bill of innocence. It merely states that the accused is 'not guilty' when it acquits someone. It does not say 'innocent'. It is saying, "damn, you managed to defend yourselves with good legal representation that money can buy. It is no match against our prosecutors and the evidence that the State had collected!" Justice does not fall in the equation.

'The Staircase' is a documentary presentation of the trial of a fiction writer, Michael Peterson. The Durham, North Carolina 911 helpline, in December 2001, received a call from a near-hysterical Michael asking for help after his wife's apparent fall of the stairs. A week later, Michael is charged for the murder of his wife, Kathleen. Kathleen had broken thyroid cartilage but died primarily of blood loss from seven laceration wounds on her scalp.

Citing disproportionate blood loss for a simple fall from stairs and the unaccountable scalp wounds moved the prosecutor to charge Michael for murder. Then the bag of worms came out. Michael's desktop hard drive showed him entertaining gay porn sites and liaison with a particular gay prostitute. The prosecutor surmised that the discovery's of Michael's sexuality probably inspired an argument, and in the heat of emotions, Michael could have struck Kathleen on the head and subsequent fall. 

Michael, an ex-Marine, was once stationed in Germany. He was married with two kids then. His neighbour, Elizabeth, an American and a close family friend, also died after falling off a flight of stairs. Even though her death was certified as an intracranial haemorrhage, her case was linked to somehow to Kathleen's. Elizabeth's body was excavated for re-autopsy, but nothing incriminating was found.

The trial went on and on. Michael's family was fragmented. On his side were his sons from his first marriage, his two adopted daughters (Elizabeth's daughters) and Patricia, his first wife. The deceased, Kathleen, was Michael's second wife.

Kathleen's sister and Kathleen's daughter, Caitlin, from her first wedding, were ferociously working with the prosecution to get a conviction for Michael after initially rooting for Michael!

The jury found Michael guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment. After repeated appeals, 8 years into incarceration, Michael finally had his appeal heard. In an unrelated case, a vital defence witness who appeared in Michael's trial had falsified evidence. Michael was put on house arrest awaiting retrial. By then, money had run out for the lawyers. David Rudolf, who was doing an excellent job representing Michael, excused himself but later appeared pro bono.

In 2017, 16 years after the nightmare started, Michael Peterson finally took an Alford plea to voluntary manslaughter to end it all. He vehemently maintains his innocence till today, but on paper, he is guilty.

People are divided on Michael's guilt. The police have a bone to pick with him. As an editor in a local newspaper, Michael has often highlighted the police shortcomings and inefficiencies. 

Another theory that had been floating around is the 'rogue owl theory'. Batted owls are known inhabitants of the woods around Michael and Kathleen's habitat. Owls have been reported to attack people unprovoked. This could have happened to Kathleen. Feeling tipsy with wine and startled by an owl clutching her scalp, she could have run and tripped down the flight of stairs. The peculiar scalp laceration, extensive blood loss and absence of skull fracture and brain injury could be due to the talons of a barred owl. In retrospect, micro-feather fibre and bird feathers were found on the body.

The justice system is flawed. It metes different justice to different people. A starving person is imprisoned for stealing, whilst a politician who embezzled billions is still gallivanting around because he has not exhausted all the legal avenues available to prove his innocence. It should be read as he still has enough money to hire cunning legal eagles to look for a loophole in the system or get the bench members convinced with some kind of junk science or sly sleight of hand. Period.

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