ZOOM OUT!

After having to deal with the most politics related books ever in my life, I couldn’t help but question why I had to read almost all the same things over and over again. I tried to keep an open mind as I skipped from one book to another and back just in case I was missing out a point or two hidden between the lines. At times, I would even get stuck in a page reading it over and over again realizing that all it wanted to point out was how different Japanese politics was from that of another country’s. More often than not though I would find myself staring blankly into space hoping to find the reasons as to why such dealt with or had a relation to the film Rashomon. As I continued to read, similarities popped out left and right.

So what do all these readings have in common? Well for the obvious fact that this subject is Japanese government and politics, all 5 including the reading in our “compiled-works book” concerned the history of the Japanese political scenario. Each reading had its own way of perceiving and explaining things. They all had their own unique approach to Japanese politics.

Honestly, reading isn’t really my type of thing so I have to admit that I would sageway to youtube from time to time. I found the trailer of the 1950’s movie Rashomon very interesting. One is because of it being very old which explains why its still in black and white and another because it seemed to be so complexed. I did not understand much of the dialogue to tell you frankly but since actions spoke louder than words and from watching the trailer over and over again I think I somehow got how the story flowed. But to understand the film even more I decided to take the extra step and read articles and accounts about it. Yes, I turned to our all time favorite Wikipedia, but just like what we all agreed on I used it as a spring board to have an idea of what the film was all about. This meant reading once again. Wow wow wee.

So what does Japanese Politics have that Rashomon has? What do the 2 have in common? How are these two entities of different sectors related? Let us see.

First we must understand that the movie Rashomon is a story about the misfortune of a married couple wherein the wife was raped and her husband murdered. So you come to question how Japanese politics is related to such a disaster and you come up with the weirdest reasons ever. Such answers I’d rather not mention because of its absurdity. So what then should we do next? Simple, dissect the movie even more. Then you realize that looking at the bigger picture isn’t quite the way to go so you decide to delve deeper into the plot and *tada* you somehow feel that you are getting somewhere. I accidentally overlooked one important thing which at first I thought was not so important. The movie was told from different views. So what now your thinking. Well this is where one and two are finally going to meet. This is where we will come to learn and understand the relationship of Japanese politics and the film Rashomon.

Ready?

Ok. So the whole movie revolved around one story alone and that was all about the raped wife and murdered husband but in order to come to know of such tragedy it was told in four different accounts. These accounts differed in ways which made them unique but in the end boiled down to the main thing. On the other hand, I started off this blog by ranting to you how I dealt with the readings one after the other with an open mind hoping to find some difference amongst them since it all concerned the same thing. And not until just awhile ago I realized that the readings were just like the film not because of the story itself but because of how it was told.

Meiji Era, World War II, bla bla bla all these were constantly mentioned all throughout the context of each material but what I at first neglected soon made its way known to me again, this was HOW it was told and not WHAT was told. Just like the movie which showcased the different perspectives of the ones telling the story, the readings were of such as well.

Believe it or not but this experience; of having to read the most politics-related books in my life ever, taught me an important lesson in life. Honestly it wasn’t so easy to determine such a similarity between the 2 separate and distinct entities because I wasted so much time. I concentrated so much on the content, reading and making personal notes and summaries of each book, that I neglected the simple things which actually pointed out the answer to the question for this blog. In life we too make the same mistake. Sometimes we try too hard that in the end we become our own enemy; complicating our own lives. This is exactly what happened. I was too much on the reading and analyzing that I forgot to actually zoom out of the picture to see how it was told and written. The answer was as simple as this: Japanese politics is similar to Rashomon because of the approaches used to explain the story being told. But no, I had to read read and read. I had to fell stressed. I had to complain. I had to complicate my life. I am not saying that what I did; read, make notes, and summaries, were useless because I really learned a lot and somehow kind of memorized a thing or two from having to deal with the same story over and over again, its just really sad that I dwelled on it too much. As the song goes "too much of something is bad enough...too much of something is just as tough...."

Thanks to this online session I was reminded to let loose. Life doesn’t have to be so complexed because at the end of the day we call our own shots therefore making us the creators of our so to speak destiny. We shouldn’t get intimidated by what we see, hear, or read because life is what you make it to be.