Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

I rent DVD of TV Mini Series "Shogun" aired in U.S., 1980. I remember when I first visited the U.S., American host family where I stayed played the video of this show to welcome me. It was a very popular show. So I just wanted to see it again.

The story takes place late 16th century in Japan, when Japan was not unified. An English shipper captain, John Blackthorne was saved by the Samurai Lord, Toranaga after his ship was wrecked by the heavy storm. Blackthorne then learned how to become Samurai. Later Toranaga became the shogun, the general who governs whole of Japan. Toranaga is actually named after Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded Tokugawa dynasty that continued for 2 and half century just by his descendants.

It was almost 10 hour show. I enjoyed only first 2 hours. As for rest of the show, I fast forwarded just to see how Japan was depicted. More than half of the show was spoken in Japanese. I could not understand how American viewers could enjoy it although each Japanese conversation was interpreted by Japanese care taker woman for Blackthorne. Kind of frustrating to see for the English viewers, I wondered. But there are many new and exciting things introduced in the show especially for westerners such as Harakiri, a man and a woman taking bath together. Not common in modern Japan but typical and normal in that era.

 There was a very interesting thing even for Japanese. That proves that sometimes foreigners know better of our country's history. In the scene, Japanese care taker woman named Mariko told Blackthorne that he should choose a woman to sleep with for his health. Blackthorne declined. Then Mariko said "Do you prefer a boy?"

He was so shocked and got angry and then said "I am not God Cursed Sodomite! My intimate customs doesn't include boys." I was surprised, too. But the truth is in that era, Sodomite was considered normal in Japan.

If you want to know more about that, please read this post.  

I rent the DVD of the film. It is one of Clint Eastwood's set of 2 films about Iwojima battles.

The story of surviving soldiers who raised the pole of the flag on the Iwojima Island during WW II.

I've already seen the other one at the theater last December. So I was not very much impressed by this film except one of the heronized soldiers was Native American whom they called "Indian" in those days.

 I could not believe the army, the government and even general public in those days treated him as a war hero. Even it was a time of racism. He was invited to the White House. He toured the whole nation to raise fund for the war.

Maybe because the war can make all races equal. The war can unite all races in America. Kind of a sad thing to know.

The horrible incident happened in the state of Virginia. Shooting on the Virginia Tech University Campus resulted in killing of 33 people. I deeply express my condolence to the victims.

This incident reminds me of Micheal Moore's documentary film "Bowling for Columbine (2002)"

The documentary explores the causes of the shooting incident that took place in Columbine High School in Colorado, 1999.

The main point was guns are not the main cause of the massive occurence of gun crimes in US. Nor violent video games, family crises.

The main cause is the culture of fear which the US traditionally has. It affets not only domestically but also internationally. Why the US attacked Iraq without sufficient evidence of weapons of mass-destruction and link with Al-Quaida terrorism? You are afraid of fear, always! Even though there is nothing to fear.

 Remember what President Franklin Roosevelt said, "The only thing to fear is fear itself."

The story of the film reflects Vietnam War Era.

A deserter from Vietnam named Even Bonner played by Peter Fonda met with a famous fashion model in Marrakech, Morocco. Her name was Deidre Mcluskey played by Lindsay Wagner.

Even decided to turn himself in to end his fugitive life. But he fell in love with the fashion model. She did, too.

Even knew this love would not come true because he would be in jail. He had no future. But they could not give up their love and they had little time to be together.

One of good things about this movie was the scenaries of the location. Marrakech, Casablanca, Paris and New York.

Very exotic, the film makes you feel you are traveling with the characters.

The other good thing was Lindsay Wagner, who later became very famous by the popular TV series "The Bionic Woman." I liked that show. She was very beautiful. She was suited for her role, a top fashion model who could be a cover model for VOGUE.

 I just wonder if Hollywood can remake this movie by using a character of Iraq War deserter. In fact, Marrakech is closer to Iraq than Vietnam.

This movie might be considered anti-war sentiment movie. I borrowed a video from a peace group manager. But to me as ordinarly movie fan, it was just a love romance with traveling. I like traveling, that is the main reason I came to like this movie. I hope some day I can visit the same places shot in the film.

You can see a clip from the movie on this site. The scene a fashion model first met with a deserter on the train from Marrakech to Casablanca. She came up to him to ask if he had grass to smoke. But she upset him because he was crying in the compartment.