today i went to see "japanese story". it's a very solemn piece. it's more like an exploration of the topical layers of sadness. i would recommend for someone to know as little about it as possible before they watch it.

what i liked about the film was though it may have presented some stereotypical things about japanese culture, i think it displayed really well how japanese act in terms of body language. i also liked the little lesson on how versatile the word 'hai' is, though it's just the tip of the iceberg. i think the impression non-japanese have of japanese people is that they're always saying 'hai'. it is a word that is used a lot and now i hope that some will understand why that is so.

the one little thing that bugged me is something that very few would notice. the main theme song, as it were, the 'japanese' melody that is played twice is actually okinawan. at first it's instrumental and i thought, just let it keep playing, perhaps it's merely a similar scale. but then the vocals kick in and the woman is singing in okinawan dialect. (i have never been able to speak the dialect and my ability to understand it is almost nil, but i'm pretty sure the song was about sadness so that was a nice touch lyrically.)

the character is not okinawan. i'm pretty sure they said he's from kyoto. also, his name is tachibana, which is a definitely mainland japanese name. i remember once when i was visiting tokyo and they just couldn't believe me when i used the last name of 'chibana'. they would do a double take because they thought i must've made a mistake. (as it is i have a hard enough time talking to some people just because they look at me differently for being half, but once you throw the okinawan thing in there it can really mess things up--you instantly become a novelty.) even my fucking airline ticket had on it 'tachibana''. i think i laughed because that was the first time i had ever heard that last name before! my mother had to explain to me that japanese have never heard the name chibana before.

i know non-japanese wouldn't notice this element but japanese will notice. when they hear the music, they will know it's not theirs, it's that southern island. something like that. okinawa vs. mainland japan: it's a different culture, different words, different last names. to have okinawan music associated with a mainland person is like showing an american film with a new england wasp type character in it and their associated soundtrack music is a native american song. it just doesn't gel.