Tag: children

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Wolf

My son watched the story Wolf and the Seven Young goats. I was surprised about the racism and prejudice of this folklore. It’s worth noting that the wolf was only guilty of kidnapping (or attempt of killing by digesting the child goats) while the mother effectively and decidedly murdered the wolf. It’s a revenge story. The wolf is simply just bad and no mention is made about the obviously severe life conditions of the wolf, so the ‘justice’ is one sided at best.

Children need stories to help them to develop their soul. We have a choice of what we tell them, but also we have responsibility of teaching them media literacy.

(Moomin is pretty high on my list.)

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Beautiful Place

Kindergarten Glass

My son goes to a kindergarten here in Midori-ku. It became clear to us soon that the place we chose is exceptional. Teachers there have this relaxed aura in them, their smiles have no hint of tension or forced expression. Children are just doing their children business, playing, running, screaming and crying. The place has big windows and the gate is never locked.

LovelyIn Japan it is common to put children to pre-school from early age, where they wear uniforms and try as much as possible to behave like adult. Even some kindergartens pose strict rules for children and forbid children making loud sounds. But this is nothing like that. This is gift from the sky.

I was planning to make documentary of the kindergarten because I was so moved about the beauty of the people there. I even shot it half-way and was on my way to start to negotiate a deal with Finnish broadcasting. However I was forced to cancel the project because of privacy concerns; you can’t really shoot documentary of kindergarten without showing the children.

Interviewing one of the teachers was so surprising and moving experience. She described her job as fulfilling; although her body is tired after work her heart is full. So she said she wants to dedicate her heart for her work. She was shining as she was in front of my camera.

It’s possible to meet truly international people in surprising places. It is never matter of language or culture, but something completely different. I find this openness inspiring and beautiful.

Ariel Playing

Ariel

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Regarding New Documentary Movie

When I talk about documentary film, I don’t mean a movie which simply describes or tries to analyze something. The movie I make is not objective, but extremely, and honestly subjective. I have no intention of making another NHK documentary, trying to analyze and break things apart. Instead I just want to tell truth.

In Japan, society has many invisible rules, and people don’t normally talk about their emotions. These rules of society are taught to the children since their birth. For example that it’s unacceptable to cry or laugh in public. If you ask children if they like their parents, most of them won’t say they do. People think it’s natural. Why?

Children are supposed to go to kindergarden, and all kinds of schools after that, as long as they are not home. To say “I want to walk through my life, my child by my side”, for example, would sound strange. Why?

Your child is like a god. You can learn many things from him. He is you. Of course, you want to spend as much time as possible with him. Who wouldn’t want to spend time with god?

I believe that the present day loneliness is a situation produced by the society.  This theme was well described in Naomi Kawase’s Moe no Suzaku.  This movie is a story of me and my son, and a kind of separation. Not only separation that takes place every day when I take him to the kindergarden, but also separation that I feel as a human. So in fact, this is a personal matter.