Mr.Shindo Kaneto, a great Japanese film director, passed away a few days ago. He was born in 1912, and was just 100 years old. Having been born in Hiroshima, and gone through military experiences, many of the films he has directed give us a strong anti-war message.
Here I would like to tell about his last film, named "A Postcard"(2011). In his long working life, he has said on several occasions that this time it is going to be his last film. It has gone wrong on every previous occasion. But this time it has unfortunately come true.
I saw it only two days before his death. Until then I had misunderstood the meaning of the title. In Japan up to August 1945 there was military duty. When an eligible person gets a call either from the Army or the Navy he has immediately to report at the stated place at the stated time. The call usually came by a postcard in red colour, which was known as the red piece of paper. I was under the impression that this was what the title meant.
It was not. Shortly after the film begins, you will find yourselves watching a group of 100 soldiers. They are mostly middle-aged, and are not considered fit for fighting. Still 94 of them are sent to three different battle grounds, only to be killed, all of them. Only six of them have survived, as Japan surrendered while they were waiting to be sent somewhere.
One evening while the original 100 were still together, an elderly one hands over a postcard to Keita, his younger comrade, with a request. It was a postcard he had received on that day from his wife, saying that it is the night of the festivals but since you are away there is no joy, signed Tomoko. The request was that since he has no hope of coming back alive, he would like his comrade to visit her and and tell her that he has certainly got this card.
Surprisingly, the story thus far is based on Shindo's own experience, Keita being himself. Shindo preserved this story for his very last film. So he survived the war, one of the lucky six. He has to find the widow to fulfill the promise.
When Keita met Tomoko at her house in a hilly village, he came to know that she had been going through one tragedy after another. After the death of her husband, she married his younger brother according to the local customs. He was also called, and though he told her that he would come home alive, as he had loved her by this time, Tomoko became a widow for the second time. Her father-in-law died of a heart attack, and the mother-in-law hanged herself. The family had sold out the only piece of rice field when Tomoko came to them, for the first time, and now had depended on a piece of rented field.
Keita by this time had decided to go over to Brazil to make a living, but the meeting with Tomoko and staying in her house for a day or two changed his mind. Finally they two have started working together on that piece of field. The solution was there itself.
Here I would like to tell about his last film, named "A Postcard"(2011). In his long working life, he has said on several occasions that this time it is going to be his last film. It has gone wrong on every previous occasion. But this time it has unfortunately come true.
I saw it only two days before his death. Until then I had misunderstood the meaning of the title. In Japan up to August 1945 there was military duty. When an eligible person gets a call either from the Army or the Navy he has immediately to report at the stated place at the stated time. The call usually came by a postcard in red colour, which was known as the red piece of paper. I was under the impression that this was what the title meant.
It was not. Shortly after the film begins, you will find yourselves watching a group of 100 soldiers. They are mostly middle-aged, and are not considered fit for fighting. Still 94 of them are sent to three different battle grounds, only to be killed, all of them. Only six of them have survived, as Japan surrendered while they were waiting to be sent somewhere.
One evening while the original 100 were still together, an elderly one hands over a postcard to Keita, his younger comrade, with a request. It was a postcard he had received on that day from his wife, saying that it is the night of the festivals but since you are away there is no joy, signed Tomoko. The request was that since he has no hope of coming back alive, he would like his comrade to visit her and and tell her that he has certainly got this card.
Surprisingly, the story thus far is based on Shindo's own experience, Keita being himself. Shindo preserved this story for his very last film. So he survived the war, one of the lucky six. He has to find the widow to fulfill the promise.
When Keita met Tomoko at her house in a hilly village, he came to know that she had been going through one tragedy after another. After the death of her husband, she married his younger brother according to the local customs. He was also called, and though he told her that he would come home alive, as he had loved her by this time, Tomoko became a widow for the second time. Her father-in-law died of a heart attack, and the mother-in-law hanged herself. The family had sold out the only piece of rice field when Tomoko came to them, for the first time, and now had depended on a piece of rented field.
Keita by this time had decided to go over to Brazil to make a living, but the meeting with Tomoko and staying in her house for a day or two changed his mind. Finally they two have started working together on that piece of field. The solution was there itself.
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