By Jolene Tien
While South Korean dramas and movies are booming all over Asia, Japanese pop culture still dominates in Taiwan. In Japan, one formula for success has not changed since the days of silent movies – big tears equal big yen. Thus there is a convention that love stories will have unhappy endings, with one or both of the lovers often expiring in the last reel. In the 1990s, however, this formula began to look creaky, until Isao Yukisada’s Sekai no Chushin De Ai o Sakebu (Crying Out for Love at the Center of the World) brought the formula up to date. Sekai no Chushin De Ai o Sakebu was a best-selling book in Japan, selling more than three millions copies, beating even the all time best-selling Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. The film can not only compete effectively on the big screen but play well on the small one. Both film and TV adaptations were a great hit in Japan, and the movie and the novel were a huge success in Taiwan, too. The TV version is due to be broadcast beginning in January. The story is a pure romance between a boy and a girl in high school. It shifts smoothly between the present and 1986, when the main events unfold. In the beginning the lead character Sakutaro, tells us that his lover is dead, thus revealing from the beginning that the story will have a sad ending. A series of flashbacks illustrate the joyful beginning and tragic end of their relationship. He begins to reminisce about his youth – and his love for a girl named Aki. Tall, athletic and vivacious, Aki is the very picture of a healthy beauty – and hopelessly out of reach for the all-too-average Saku. But Aki takes an interest in him (his clunker of a motor scooter is a draw), and Saku is soon in her thrall, though he would rather die than show it. They begin hanging out together, sending requests to an all-night radio show. Then they start exchanging audio diaries on cassette tapes and become something more than pals. The culmination is a romantic (if chaste) night on an uninhabited island – and the revelation that Aki is desperately ill. Soon afterward, Aki goes into hospital and her condition continues to worsen. Meanwhile, Saku is informed that Aki has leukemia. After her death, the absent-minded boy asks his grandfather, who also lost his beloved, “Do you think another world exists, where we can see our beloved again?” His grandfather replies: “Sorrow and deep mourning are only one side of love. If you think that the only things that exist are things you can see, our lives would be quite dull.” Every episode is heartwarming, even if the story is somewhat cliché. Yet the director has created intimate moments that have a feeling of immediacy and discovery. In the novel, the conversations between the two teenage lovers are also moving. People today seem hungry for “pure love.” At any rate, this genre is back in full force. Check out the novel, the movie, or the TV drama, and see how you like them. Crying for Love at the Heart of the World by Kyoichi Katayama, China Times Publishing Co., 2004. For information about the film: http://www.e-power.com.tw/movie_love/ on TV: beginning January 3, 2005 on Videoland Japanese Channel a
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Authors
The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
|