Human Nature in Departures and the DunesSeveral themes have emerged from reading and responding to The Woman in the Dunes: some of you have noted that Niki's plight resembles an existential struggle; others have discussed the theme of freedom versus responsibility through Niki's first rejecting, and then ultimately accepting his predicament; several have also remarked that the novel evokes a strong idea about the meaning of work.
Here's the prompt: What theme (or themes) are evident in Yojiro Takita's film, Departures. Compare the plights of Daigo Kobayashi and Niki Jumpei. How are they similar? How are they different? What does this suggest about human nature?
The theme in the movie Departures by Yojiro Takita's film is acceptance of death and the past. He really hasn't accepted the past of his father leaving him as a boy. Nikki hasn't accepted that he has chose his destiny of living as the dunes. They both have jobs they love that lead them to their destiny. Nikki was out in the dunes searching for bugs (a job he loves) and he ends up living in this village...destiny? Daigo lost the job he thought he loved. I believe that the only reason why he loved the orchestra was because it was the one out of two part of his father he remembered. He looses that job which leads him to the job of preparing the departed. This leads him to finally being able to put a face to his father. Through out the movie we see that he struggles with his father leaving him. Putting the a face to his father he sort of forgives his father. By finding his father it also leads to people who judged him to accept this job he loves to do. They are similar in which both their jobs leads them to an unexpected destiny maybe for the best? They are different because Daigo first job he thought he loved lead him to the actual job that he loves. Nikki has always loved being an entromologist, but in the end both lead them to a better destiny. This suggest that maybe if you accept what comes at you in life you will go father in life. It's human nature to accept this.
ReplyDeleteNiki and Daigo both are stuck in situations. Niki's is obvious, but for Daigo he is stuck without a father, or even a memory of his face. Daigo plays and plays his cello in what seems to be an effort to remember who his father is, but his efforts amount to squat. Niki is trapped in the dunes and spends his time trying to escape.
ReplyDeleteUntil Daigo gives up his cello and moves back home. Which even still seems an effort to reconnect with his father, at the bath house and through music. Niki gets out, but still is sent back and has to rethink his way of escape, with birds and messages instead of direct escape.
When both accept their situations, they become at peace with themselves and their situations. They are no longer struggling with this existential problem.
I suppose they are sort of different in that Daigo's struggle doesn't consume him as much as Niki, or at least we cannot see it...thinking back it's almost as if the dead bodies were a way for him to set to rest other people in a respectful way, as he would want done to his father.
What it suggests about human nature...It's like the five stages of loss-depression, bargaining, anger, acceptance, I'm not sure of the fifth...oh, denial. But they each go through these stages. Diago, when his father leaves, is first probably in denial, then he's depressed, which is displayed through his crying in the bath house as a young boy. For the most part we see him in anger. He yells at his co-worker for leaving her son, and avidly avoids the topic of his fathers leaving him.
Niki, on the other hand, is first, and for most of the book, is in denial. He bargains with the villagers-"I'll make this a tourist attraction!" He says. He is angry, and takes his anger out on the woman. But in the end there is acceptance.
Sorry that this is so long.
They both go through the same existential struggle and through stages of grief.
Daigo and Niki both share a common struggle between freedom and responsibility. In Daigo's case, freedom is represented by quitting the job, even though he enjoys it, so he and his wife can be happy, and the responsibility he has to his boss and the people he prepares for their journey into the next life. He eventually learns the importance of the job but he has to struggle with other peoples opinions of him. In Niki's story, freedom is the literal freedom of escape and returning back to his home, and at the seem time, he feels responsible for the woman in the dunes. Throughout the last portion of the book, he constantly keeps making excuses to make him feel less guilty about leaving her, saying things like “No, she shouldn't be under any misapprehension. From the beginning there had been no contract between him and her, and since there had been no contract there could be no breach of contract” (Abe 191). He feels responsibility for her in the same way Daigo feels responsibility for his career.
ReplyDeleteThis shows that human nature always highlights a struggle between what we want and what is best for us. Freedom is what we all crave, but sometimes, like in the case of Niki Jumpei, may mean going against what we feel is more responsible. This struggle is presented all the time in every day life. Eventually everyone faces it. These two examples are interesting because both of Niki's options are opposite of each other and for Daigo, freedom means going against his responsibilities and being freed from chaos with his wife and friends.
All the three themes are present in the fie Departures. There is an existential struggle in the film. The struggle is that all the choices that Daigo made (going back to his hometown, going to NK Agents, and giving up on cello) all led him to the job he gets. He struggles with the job at first, and especially on whether he wants it or not. He had never seen a dead body, but he learns fast and eventually excepts that all his decisions brought him to there. So he keeps the job, even though his wife did not want him to.
ReplyDeleteThey both make decisions in their lives to lead them to their predicaments. Niki decides to go on a vacation and not tell anybody where he is going, "saying nothing to any of his colleagues about his intended destination," (Abe 97), while Daigo decides to go home and not continue to try to be a professional idea. Daigo eventually accepts that his career is with the 'departed,' while Niki hasn't accepted, as of yet, that his destiny is in the pit with the women fighting the sand. They are different in the way that Daigo isn't secretive to everyone and he has friends unlike Niki, who is a teacher without any friends.
It is Human Nature for one to want to pick their career and what they do for work. Dealing with departures found Daigo in the movie, but digging sand away in a pit is forced upon Niki. Daigo isn't forced to his job, because his boss said that he could quit at anytime. Niki does not have that luxury, so he is more reluctant to accept his career. Thus Human Nature is not wanting anything forced on you.
In the book, Woman in the Dunes, the theme, I believe is responsibility. Niki struggles with accepting responsibility for his actions, therefore, be continues to make more decisions that are at first instinct. He continues to have to deal with the consequences of his actions, but struggles to accept that he is to blame. But in the end, Niki is able to ACCEPT that he is responsible for the situation he is in by staying, with the woman, in the dune.
ReplyDeleteIn Departures, my idea of the theme in the film is acceptance. People in Daigo Kobayashi's life struggle to accept what he does for a living. His wife ends up leaving for a short time because she does not agree with what he is doing, but Daigo does not let these opinions stop him. He finds a beauty in what he does and understands that these people do NOT understand. By the ending of the movie, these people that once judged him and pushed him to quit, have finally seen what he does, and sees the grace and beauty as well. They are finally able to accept Daigo because he is simply happy with who he is and what he does.
These two themes are similar in the sense that in Woman in the Dunes, Niki cannot ACCEPT responsibility for his decisions and deal with his consequences. In Departures, Daigo struggles with the people in his life that are not willing to ACCEPT HIS decisions. Both characters struggle with the theme of acceptance. Daigo's RESPONSIBILITY is to do his job, in fact it is one that makes him happy, and like I said before, he sees a great deal of beauty in what he does. Niki struggles to ACCEPT and take RESPONSIBILITY for his actions. The themes of acceptence and responsibility connect these two stories.
Im sure there are a few prompts in a movie like that. One, i believe, is that things are not always as they seem and what may seem degrating or maybe unworthy of your time at first, may in fact be a really important and even a beautiful thing.
ReplyDeleteAt first it was obvious that Daigo didn't want to be involved with preparing dead bodies, because that's all they were to him, dead bodies. But then he started to look at what he did as sending a human being's soul on their way to the afterlife, instead of just putting make-up on a dead guy. I think that he also started to realize how important what he did was for the families of the departed, and that really moved and made him feel like what he was doing was worth-while. I believe that his wife, Mika also experienced that same revelation.
I think what links Niki and Daigo is that they were both thrown out of the life they were accustomed to and put into an unfamiliar enviroment that made them feel an unfamiliar feeling. For Daigo, the unfamiliar feeling was that he was creating beautiful art. When he played in the orchestra, he never thought he had enough talent and that he would never be an amazing celloist. But when he prepared bodies, he knew he was good at what he did. Niki felt unintelligent. While he was living in the city he tought others, but when he was in the dunes what he thought he knew was proven false time and time again.
I believe they were different because Niki never fully accepted his fate. He was always ultimatly trying to escape the dunes. On the other hand, Daigo embraced his new life and began to not only respect it, but refuse to give it up. I think this suggest that we as human beings will always have something to learn, even about ourselves.
~erika
In the book, The Woman in the Dunes, a main theme that was evoked was the whole idea of control. Looking in each chapter with detail, one can see that the woman's control over Niki is very strong. She controls his mind, and his physical state of being, while he thinks he actually has control over her. Throughout the whole book, this concept of control is challenged. It begins to get confusing of who is controlling, but it seems to be the woman. While Niki has escaped and thinks he is free, he cannot get the woman off his mind: "He wondered whether the woman was awake yet. He also wondered what kind of reaction she would have when she did awake and realize that he was not there. No, she probably wouldn't realize it right away. She would doubtless suppose he was relieving himself behind the house. Tonight she would be tired" (Abe, 186). This quote is a great example of how much the woman has consumed his mind. He is finally free and he is still thinking of her. This is a strong sense of control and is expressed like this, throughout the whole book.
ReplyDeleteIn the movie, Departures, one can also see the theme of control as well. Diago's father seems to have control over Diago's life, even though he is not living it with him. Diago can never get over the fact that his father left him, and it becomes a daily struggle for him. This is a strong sense of control. Diago's father has control over Diago, even by not being there. In the end of the movie, there is a switch of control. By seeing his father holding the rock that Diago gave him when he was a child, the viewer can see that Diago has had control over his father all of his life as well. The whole sense of control changes, and leaves the viewer to ponder whether or not one had more control than the other.
Thinking about this, one could question the book as well. Was there an even status of control between the woman and Niki? Though it does seem like the woman has more control over the Niki, like the Departures, looking at the characters one could decipher whether or not there was even control, or one had more than the other.
One major theme in Departures is understanding. The wife does not understand his job and what it means to him. Daigo does not understand why his father may have left. In the end, Daigo understands his father better.
ReplyDeleteThere is one big similarity between Daigo Kobayashi and Niki Jumpei: accepting and understanding the situation and what has happened. Niki, in the beginning, did not fully accept the situation and what happened to him. Instead, he blamed the situation on the woman. For a long time, he was angry because of what had happened and did not fully understand what was truly going on. Daigo, on the other hand, did not accept his father leaving his mother behind with a child. Daigo refused to forgive his father until the very end when he went to prepare his dead father, he found a smooth rock in his father's hand. This shows that his father had not forgotten his son. Daigo seems like he is finally able to forgive his father for what happened many years ago.
Both Niki and Daigo, in the end have a better understanding of their own situations. It seems as though, both Niki and Daigo were on journeys in which they discovered who they truly were. In Departures, Daigo forgets what it means to him to play the cello. In Tokyo, it was a job, mainly for the purpose of money. When he moves back to his hometown he remembers why he loved playing the cello and what it meant to him. Niki, also, discovers more about who he is. In the beginning, he thought getting back to his old life was the most important thing and that people would be worried about where he is. In the end he explains, "There was no particular need to hurry about escaping. On the two-way ticket he held in his hand now, the destination and time of departure were filled in as he wished. In addition, he realized that he was bursting with a desire to talk to someone about the water trap. And if he wanted to talk about it, there wouldn't be better listeners than the villagers". Niki completely changes his view about the villagers. As well, he is not worried about escaping so quickly anymore. It seems like he has found a family just like Daigo did with his job in his hometown.
In both "Departures" and The Woman in the Dunes an existential struggle is present in the lives of the main characters. Niki Jumpei takes nearly the entire book to come to terms with the predicament that he is in. For hundreds of pages he blamed others for getting him trapped in the dunes; he would not take responsibility for any wrong doings or mistakes that he made. After he tied down the woman, no work was done in their pit. The amount of water supplied by the villagers directly correlated with the amount of work done in each pit. Once the water stopped appearing, his immediate response was to blame the woman because he could not believe that anything could be his fault. “‘This is a matter of life and death! You bitch! Do something! And make it quick!’” (Abe 144). Because of his inability to accept the consequences of his actions, or really his inability to take any amount of responsibility, he remained unhappy in the dunes. I have 20 pages of the book to go, and I am hoping that he will be fully to terms with the plight he is in and completely accepts that he was in charge of all that he did to get himself to where he is now.
ReplyDeleteDaigo Kobayashi has a different issue in the movie, "Departed". He takes the blow of losing the orchestra in the chin and handles it the best way that he can. He moves out and finds a new job in a new place and makes the best of all that he can. Unfortunately his wife does not acclimate as well as he does. His new job is that of a coffiner, and she views that as unclean. She does not accept his actions and leaves him. I think that she is the one suffering from an existential struggle because she was unable to come to terms with her husbands choices. She allowed both of them to move to a new town and because of that Daigo got a new job. She even has a break down at one point in the movie, just before she leaves, saying that she has put up with so much for so long even though the outcomes were not exactly what she wanted.
When she returned I felt that she had a completely different point of view. She had come to terms with the idea that he was not going to switch his job or change how he was living just because she found him unclean. Mika finally was able to admit to her self and to Daigo that the outcome of their moving was not perfect but it was a consequence of the move. Consequences must be accepted and once they are, the existential struggle no longer exists.
I think the theme in the movie is acceptance. Daigo has to learn to except his job. In the end his wife learns to except him. Same with the book. Niki accepts that he is stuck in a hole whether he likes it or not. It takes him a while but in the end he takes it. I think acceptance is definitely an act of human nature. acceptance is one of the harder things to show in human nature sometimes. If you get in a fight with someone eventually you have to learn to except them again . In the book the woman and the man both accept that they do a ton of work (like removing the sand everyday) but they dont get paid a cent.
ReplyDelete"'The sand?' The man clamped his teeth together, rolling his head. 'What good is sand? Outside of giving you a hard time it doesn't bring in a penny.'" (222) This is something that for me at least would take time to accept. Doing all that work and living on basically nothing and than not getting paid at all...that would be aweful! Acceptance is a very tough thing to do. But when people can learn to do it it shows what kind of person you really are.
The theme I most found prominent in Departures out of three presented above was the theme concerning "the meaning of work". At first in the film, Daigo, as most would expect, was disgusted and even traumatized by his newfound job. But it grew to be the most important part of his life, so important that he defied his wife's wishes and kept his job. The seriousness that he took his job with by the end of the film was very developed, and he seemed to care more about the putting the dead to rest than he ever did about the cello.
ReplyDeleteNiki and Daigo take their work seriously in different ways, but they both do at times. For instance, When Niki begins thinking about insects, he thinks about nothing else. He immerses himself in his knowledge and discovery, letting no other details of his surroundings distract him from his work. At times he even becomes so immersed in his work that he hallucinates what he studies; "While he mused on the effect of the flowing sands, he was seized from time to time by hallucinations in which he himself began to move with the flow" (Abe 15). In this way, Daigo is similar, both when he plays the cello and when he works as an NK Agent. Towards the end of the film, when his wife is his observing his new work for the first time, she is smiling, crying and staring at him. Despite his happiness of her coming home, and whatever emotions he feels about the fact that she still wishes for him to quit his job, he refuses to show any emotions other than sympathetic solemness during his preparation of the body. He doesn’t even glance at her until she is kneeling over the bath woman’s body and preparing to was her face. Only then does he look at her, which he also does with the other individuals attending the service. It is for this reason that I believe he also immerses himself in his work and the responsibility he shows to the dead (which is another theme evoked in the film). It is this responsibility that is the biggest difference between Niki and Daigo. Niki shows very little responsibility towards his work, especially his shoveling of sand. Daigo, however, lets it become the center of his life during the time that his wife leaves him.
It’s human nature to believe that one can choose the job that one would be happiest in. But for some, like Daigo, work that you might never expect to enjoy and take seriously could be what you were destined to do.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDepartures and the Dunes...
ReplyDeleteSimilarities? Check. Differences? Check.
Daigo Kobayashi and Niki Jumpei, begin their journeys with a similar attitude. In the beginning they are both very self absorbed. Daigo has his cello and Niki has his dream of finding a new species of insect. Yet both of these are soon interrupted and knocked aside. I think these two characters exemplify existential struggle.
In Departures, Daigo loses his dream job of being a cellist. This is not a struggle, the struggle is figuring out what to do next. Daigo suggests going back to his hometown, where he has an inherited house. By doing this they have only solved the physical problem of where to GO next. For Daigo his heart is still confused. He secretly accepts the job as a encoffiner, and when he sees a beautifully done ceremony for the first time he suddenly respects the man and in his heart feels the pull of this job. This job seems to sort out his struggle and put his life back together for him. One step at a time Daigo relearns who he is and what meaning lies in his life.
When his wife finds out she doesn't understand why he wants to do this job. When she begs him to stop, Daigo has his moment of clarity. In this moment he follows his heart instead of wife. I think this is when he grows up and understands what direction his life is supposed to go in.
Niki's situation and location is different but many of the feelings and dilemmas are very similar. Niki ends up in the sand prison. Unlike Daigo he cannot move to his mothers house. Instead he starts planning and struggling with how to escape. Niki does not resolve his struggle until the end of the book. Until then he is never at peace. Like Daigo, Niki needs to follow his heart instead of his instincts.
I think both stories suggest that existential struggle is not knowing who you are at that point of your life,and that not following your heart leads to that struggle. Solving your struggle means also realizing what and who is important to you.
"Thus Human Nature is not wanting anything forced on you." I thought that Max's response for how these two stories connect to each other through human nature is very interesting and I agree with it. I believe that with many of us, we are certainly more willing to accept something that we put ourselves in and decided rather than being put in a situation that you do not believe you chose for yourself. This has to do with the existential struggle. I don't know if that's what Max meant, I think he did. Maybe. But I see the connection with being able to accept responsibility for your actions, which is an example of an existential struggle. The fact that Niki cannot accept responsibility for his actions makes him unwilling to accept the situation he is in and more prompt to escape from it. While Daigo is willing to accept that he put himself in his situation so he is more willing to be in the situation itself.
ReplyDeleteOne theme that is really evident to me is acceptance. Both Niki and Daigo are faced with a reality, that at first glance, they are both resistant to accept and learn to enjoy. At the beginning, Niki only focuses on strategies for escaping the sand dune. “Fortunately he was completely occupied with the final arrangements of his plan and there was no time for sentimentality” (167). Daigo does everything possible to avoid telling his wife the truth about his job. However, throughout the story they both learn to enjoy where they are in the present. Their minds finally stop wandering as to what they could do to escape or avoid their reality. Niki ends up enjoying and embracing living in the sand dunes and Daigo takes pride in his job even though his wife does not support him.
ReplyDeleteHowever, their plights are quite different in the sense that Daigo has control over his situation. He can quite his job of cleaning the deceased, but he does not give up so quickly. He sticks with it and gives it a chance and once he does he learns to enjoy it. For Niki, it took him much longer to accept his situation because he had no control. Once he realizes that he is powerless to escape the dune, he does everything he can think of to gain control and free himself. But he fails. It is not until he has that control and choice of whether or not he wants to leave the sand dune, that he begins to enjoy living there.
This suggests how much humans are willing the accept their circumstance once they are not forced to. Humans are much more inclined to give things a chance when it is by choice. We do not like to be controlled.
However, this comparison also implies that you can find good in anything. You determine this by your attitude. Both Niki and Daigo found the good aspects in their circumstance which allowed them to be content and accepting, once they changed their attitudes. Yet their attitude changed only when they had control over their situations because that is just human nature.
O i really like your response about control. It really makes sense. How instead of the man having control over the woman...the woman has control of the man. And in the movie how the father that we don't get to see until the end has complete control over everything Daigo does. Even his thoughts sometimes. It's just really cool how you looked at both the movie and the book like that. I hadn't really noticed it.
ReplyDeleteDaigo probably feels responsibility to support his wife/pay off his debt and not have the freedom of finding a job that he is good at. yet later on when his wife forces him to make a decision of her or his job he feels a sort of responsibility to "the boss" and his job. Niki however does not have a responsibility to a wife but may feel like he needs to help the woman and the village by shoveling the sand even though he does not need to. To Daigo the meaning of work seems to be supporting others and taking responsibility. we see this by him taking on a job that he has never done before and does not seem to like. To Niki work seems to be things that he needs to do but does not like. "rarely will you ever meet anyone so jealous as a teacher. Year after year students tumble a long likie the waters of a river. They flow away, and only the teacher is left behind, like some deeply buried rock at the bottom of the current" (Abe 80). the students keep tumbling by like he thinks his job is boring and it looks like he does not like it very much. In terms of Human nature it seems that we don't always like what we do for work yet we feel obligated to.
ReplyDeleteI thought what Kia said about both stories having to do with responsibility and freedom made sense and didn't at the same time. I thought it really made sense and also was a really good way of looking at things how you said that, though Niki wanted to escape (and gain freedom) but at the same time felt responsibility for the woman and that is why he kept making excuses for why he should leave. like he was convincing himself of something.
ReplyDeleteWhat I didn't get is how that applied as much to Daigo. Though I see a little bit what you meant about him selling the cello in the pursuit or at least relating to freedom, i also feel like that is what marked the lose of his freedom in giving up the instrument he loved. I also feel like how he left Tokyo, while showing financial responsibility, didn't show responsibility for his wife. In fact, i kinda think the opposite. By leaving Tokyo, he was showing desreguard for his wife's feelings though he left for the greater good.
~erika
"I think this suggest(s) that we as human beings will always have something to learn, even about ourselves"-Erika
ReplyDeleteIn response to Erika's post: I agree. I think that learning who we are and accepting that is ending existential struggle. For if we make peace with our situation where is the struggle?
Daigo made peace with himself and past troubles. He forgave and understood his fathers absence. By staying true to himself he also guaranteed that his wife loved him for the choices that he had to make. He understood where his life's path was taking him and didn't fight against it.
Niki is still on his path. He still needs to come to peace with himself, and learn to see around him before he will be happy. Though there are many similarities that are also apparent. The differences show the stages of the process that each are going through.
Asa-
ReplyDeleteI disagree with one of the points in your blog entry specifically. You say that he does not seem to like his job, and although this is without a doubt true in the beginning of his time working there, he grows into taking the job incredibly seriously and knowing that what he does is very important. It's hard to tell if he necessarily "likes" his job as an NK Agent, but he definitely thinks it is important enough to consume his life after he makes the decision to keep his career instead of his wife (even though she does end up coming back). And so although I think he may not necessarily like his job, by the end of the film he does not dislike it.
In response to Erika, I really like your concept of how both Diago and Niki were thrown into unfamiliar situations, and basically a whole new life. This is a great point and it is interesting to think about how similar they became once they are thrown into these different situations. How are they different? I didn't even think of this point until you brought it up and I am really interested in it.
ReplyDeleteThis can also connect with my point of control. Once they are in these new situations, how much is their control altered? Because they are no longer in control of what they know, do they stop being in control all together? Asking these questions completely broadens my understanding of control within the book and the movie.
There are many different levels of how one deciphers control in the book and the movie. There is first the outer layer, then the deep meaning, and then the deepest meaning. By reading Erika's response, it helped lead me to the deepest meaning of control in the book and movie.
Because they are in such new circumstances and situations, it is obvious that their control will be altered. But finding out who has more control, still remains.
I feel that in the movie, there is an even amount of control between the father and Diago. In the book, the control is not as easy to figure out.
In both Departures and in woman in the dunes, they both seem to go through existential struggles. They both come to better understand "what fate has led them to do". Daigo discovers the beauty in his job in the funeral parlor. Niki discovers that his life as a teacher was meaningless. In the sand pit he learns a lot about who he is, just as Daigo did when he realized the meaning of playing the cello. Altogether, the journey's both these characters embark on provide a self-realization.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Oriana's idea about control in the novel and the film. It is interesting to think that Daigo has to deal with his father everyday, and that though controls him. In the movie it seemed that he wanted to distance himself from his father in every single way, but cello. I guess by trying to distance yourself from a person can help shape what you become.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the fact that the woman has a lot of control over Niki. It is defiantly prominent in the story. The one thing that is also interesting is how Niki has control over the woman, and it is mostly physical control. He is stronger than the woman and demonstrates this when he ties her up, "then he bound her hands tightly behind her back," (101 Abe). She symbolizes emotional control and he symbolizes physical control.
I liked the point Oriana made in her first response. It made me realize something I did not realize in the movie. How not only had Daigo been mentally controlled by his father all his life, but that his father was also controlled by his son. Which is resembled in the rock that falls out of his hand in the end. It's interesting how long two human beings can control each other without intention. The power one person has over another without even realizing it. How humans can create something so significant in their mind, that may not even exist in reality. And how simply this issue over being mentally controlled could have been settled if they had only talked to each other and settled their differences. If only people would communicate better, they would not have to suffer alone. Their minds could be free from being controlled because in reality, it is useless because everything is okay in the end.
ReplyDeleteThe theme of honor is one that’s evident in “Departures”. As some of us learned in english 8’s unit on “The Samurai’s Tale” that honor is a highly valued quality in Japan. Daigo, in “Departures” and the people around him come to have very different ideas of what the quality means.
ReplyDeleteDaigo was a cellist in an orchestra, which is considered an honorable job. He has followed his dream, and finally landed a job as a professional musician. Or so it appears to the outside, Daigo thinks at one point. But once the orchestra is dissolved and he has to sell his cello, he says he feels freed of ties that have made him honor-bound to be a musician.
He becomes a funeral worker, after he moves back to his home town. This is considered the opposite of an honorable job in Japan, where death is a taboo topic, and his wife is disgusted. When she finds out, and he tries to console her and tell her it’s something he has to do, she shrieks “don’t touch me! You’re unclean!”, which are some very harsh words for people who love each other. Honor is just so valued, even above love, and so she leaves the house they moved into.
Interestingly enough, Daigo himself finds it unclean himself, and goes to the public baths to clean himself. The woman who owns the bath is aging, but she refuses to shut it down and sell it for condominiums like her son wants her to. She doesn’t care about the money, she says she keeps it up for honor’s sake because “what would my customers do without it?’
We get to witness the terrible relationship this woman and her son have. They are always yelling at each other over their disagreements, which is hardly honorable. Yet the son is offended at Daigo stopping and greeting him politely on the street in front of his family. He pulls Daigo aside and says “people are talking. Get yourself a real job.”
An old man who Daigo meets in the baths is one of the long-time (for 50 years) customers, and later, he reappears as the crematorium operator. He has a long monologue about how he has come to see his job. He has come to see its honor, and calls himself “the gatekeeper” between this life and the next, and says he’s had the honor of sending so many on their way. Yet presumably he too found the job as filthy as Daigo did at first and began going to the baths.
Daigo, though initially disgusted, found eventually that the job is one that must be done. His mentor, the boss, says “we are giving them their first bath in the next world”. Because his wife was threatening to leave him for having the job, it’s clear he sees it as honorable. He also values honor above love, it seems. Why else would he choose his job over his wife? He could go about finding another job, but he does not, because he sees the value of being good and honorable in this job he has.
This is stressed when people from a different funerary company come to put the corpse of his father in a plywood coffin. They want to just lift him up and unceremoniously drop him in the coffin, a completely undignified version of what he has learned to perform. He performs a complicated ceremony with different layers of sheets and gowns so that the body’s clothes can be changed because “the family will be dishonored if they see the deceased’s bare flesh”.
This shows his commitment to honor, because he feels his father is a terribly dishonorable man because he left his wife and six year old son. His only memory of his father is of the concept of “message stones”. His father’s body had a message stone on it symbolizing that he was happy for Daigo. This communication is perhaps what renews his trust in his father’s honor.
Thank you Krystyna for responding to my post..because that is exactly what I was trying to convey. The fact that Diago and his father control each other is not only extremely interesting, but shows a lesson like you were beginning to explore in your response towards me.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thank you Michael for your input on my response. I loved your last line of your response: "She symbolizes emotional control and he symbolizes physical control." I think this is a very interesting idea. In this way, Niki and the woman express equal control like I mentioned was shown in the movie. This brings both the movie and the book even closer together. Thank you for drawing these connections, because it has really helped me see the entire picture of control that is challenging to see in the book.
In response to Erika's quote "I think this suggest(s) that we as human beings will always have something to learn, even about ourselves"-Erika. I agree with this. It's similar in both Departures and Woman in the Dunes. Daigo probably never thought he would like his new job but it grows on him just like the forgiveness for his father. There are times when we surprise ourselves. Niki was probably surprised by his unworried attitude about leaving the sand pit. In the beginning, all that occupied his mind was ideas of how to leave. In the end, he was not as hurried. Sometimes in situation, things grow on us and we learn something new about who we are.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the point Oriana and Krystyna are making about how his father controlled him and he more or less controlled his father. It's the result of the fathers action towards his son, which he forever regrets. The son is forever resentful towards his father for leaving himself and his mother. Neither realize how they affect each other. Oh, no the father probably does know what he's done, and it's for this reason that he is full of guilt and living lonely by the sea with a rock from his past life.
ReplyDeleteSo it is in Woman in the Dunes. Niki is controlled by the villagers, but he has the power to control them as well. Especially now that he's got his water bucket. Alas, it makes you wonder if control is a two way thing. Whenever someone or something controls some other person or thing, the other person or thing can change. EH that's a real challenging idea to convey. Well, hopefully you get my point.
I think that in many of these posts the idea of "understanding" has come up. Not necessarily understanding something, or someone, just the general idea of understanding. I'm not sure if that really makes sense. Understanding that something happens for a reason. Understanding that there will always be consequences no matter what the action is. Understanding other people's struggles and understand what specific aspects of life mean to individuals. I don't think that Niki understood much of what the woman's life meant to her until he finally realized that he could live happily in the dunes himself. Also, I don't think that Mika understood what Daigo's pride meant to him. He wanted to provide for her, and be there for her, and she was only concerned about what other's were thinking. There are different levels of understanding and thousands of aspects to understand about each person. I think that by being together for so long, both Niki and Mika finally were able to understand more about the person that they were with.
ReplyDeleteThis didn't really directly respond to anyone in particular, but by reading through everyone's responses this is what came to mind.
My last comment turned out so long and took up so much time that i was unable to compare Daigo's situation to Niki's.
ReplyDeleteThe two men have opposite reactions to the work they've been put to. Niki refuses to do the work, and considers himself honorable for not giving in to the villagers requiring him to work at something he does not want to do. Daigo, on the other hands, at first feels filthy from his job, and despite the unpleasantness, holds on and stays with it, because his conception of honor is to devote himself to the work.
Maybe it's human nature to have different ideas of what honor is. it's also of course human nature to want to have honor, dignity, and self respect if not the respect of others. something both Niki and Daigo share is that they value their self-respect more than the respect of the people around them. Niki feels that he must not give in, regardless of the villagers disrespecting him. Daigo feels that the dead need what he has to offer them, and he must fulfill the obligation to use his skills regardless of what the other people, including his wife, think.
In response to what asa said though i agree with you on most of what you said, but i disagree about Daigo feeling responsible to his boss. I think it's a lot more deeply rooted than that. I think, first of all he feels a reponsibility to do the job for his mother. he saw the apprieciation from the families of the departed he worked for and he got fulfillment out of giving that to them especially because he never got to be there for his own mother's ceramony. I think he also felt a reponsibility to do the job for his father. he resented him and knew that what he was doing for these families was more noble than anything his father ever did for his family. And finally he felt a responsibility to himself. He knew that this job was one that meant more than a paycheck. It was something that directly affected people's lives and that he was able to bring to a near art form. through this job he was able to make sure people got to say goodbye to the one's they loved in ways he never got to for either his mother or father
ReplyDelete~erika
This response is to Erika's response in response to Asa's
ReplyDeleteI agree with you i don't think he thought he had any responsibilty to his boss. I agree he felt the responsibility towards his mom. He never got to be there for her funeral. In the begining of the movie when he goes to the interview.He talks to the secretary about how he had never seen a dead person or even the box's they go in. He had never been to a funeral. I feel he felt the responsibility of doing this job to make it up to his mom with missing her funeral. I hadn't thought of the father having any part why he did this job, but i agree with your point of view. Never saw it that way but it's a very interesting point you bring up. In the begining of the movie when he's at the interview he talks about how the job is "fate" which i believed that the fate of this job leads him to his father at the end of the movie. I really like your thought on how he felt responsible to the job because it was something noble for theses famililes unlike anything that his father did. I agree that this job meant a lot to him. I believe the only reason why this job became so important to him was because of his past. I really like the way you work his job description "It was something that directly affect people's lives aned that he was able to bring to a near art form." I really like the wording and agree with it. He did he made the person a piece of art so everybody could see them this way before they moved onto their next life. Also i remember his boss saying in the movie how they would be beautiful in the heaven. I agree with all the points you made present in your response.
FMS
I really liked Holly's response about understanding. The connection between the movie and the book really made sense to me. Both of the stories have a strong point of understanding and the fact that the people that surround Daigo in the movie do not understand what he does, and do not understand why he is doing it until they see it themselves. In The Woman in the Dunes, Niki never fully understands why the woman continues to stay in the dune and work with the sand for the villagers until the very end of the book, when he is finally able to accept that he brought himself into the situation and after being in the sand dune for as long as he had, he was finally beginning to UNDERSTAND why she does what she does. Both stories explore the same concept of not being able to understand ones actions or beliefs until they truly live or explore them themselves.
ReplyDeleteBoth Niki and Daigo show struggle between freedom and responsibility. Niki struggles because he wants to be free from the hole. He try’s to escape but every time it doesn’t work. But when he finally does get a chance to escape he decides to stay for the woman. That’s responsibility. At the end of the book he notices that the water trap is broken. “There was no particular need to hurry about escaping…He realized that he was bursting with a desire to talk to someone about the water trap.” (239) He realizes at the end that he really isn’t that bad off. He also got the woman pregnant so he should stay and help her raise it. That’s freedom at the same time. He realizes that he had a responsibility and he accepts it…that could be seen as freedom.
ReplyDeleteDaigo shows struggle between freedom and responsibility because his wife wants him to quit his job because she is embarrassed that he takes care of the dead. But he has a responsibility to his boss. He also likes his job. He wishes his wife would just accept it instead of being embarrassed by it. Freedom to him I think would be when his wife came back. She learned to accept that he really was happy with his job. When she came back he got everything he wanted. Isn’t that freedom? He had his wife back, he could keep his job, and everything was good.
Both of these guys show freedom and responsibility. Niki shows responsibility because he has the chance to get away but he decides to stay. And because he learns to be happy right where he is. He is now happy which makes him free (in a sense). Daigo shows responsibility to his job. He shows freedom by getting his life back. Both of these men learn from their mistakes and in turn they both get what they want.
The film departures can be compared with the story of Niki Jumpei. In the movie, the main character at first is skeptical of his new job, which involves embalming people, but when he gets used to it, he actually starts to like it. In Jumpei's case, he hates his life of endless sand and he will do anything to get out of it, but when he is offered the opportunity to get out of this life, he chooses to stay in the house in the hole. The main character in the movie. In both instances both men found something that they could relate to, and like. In The Woman in the Dunes, Niki finds a way to use his scientific knowledge to make a water trap, and he realizes that he actually enjoys living in the hole. Well maybe not enjoys it, but bears it. When the man in the movie sells his cello and takes the job as an undertaker, he doubts that he will like his job, but he finds that he actually enjoys his job. Both men find responsibility, when in the story of Niki Jumpei, he feels responsible to stay in the hole and possibly wait for the woman to return. When the character in the movie is asked by his wife to quit his job, he does because he knows that it is his responsibility to do so, and that his wife will not likely stay with him if he didn't.
ReplyDeleteI really like what Reece said about his comparison of the two stories. I believe that work was an important part of both stories, and even though the many people may not realize, the work was featured in both as a sort of underlying theme. In both stories, the work plays an important role. In Niki’s case, he works to constantly shovels sand and it is only through this work that he achieves freedom from his existential struggle. In Daigo’s case, his work is obviously the topic of much debate, and is a factor that changes the story. Without his job title there would likely be little friction.
ReplyDeleteReece,
ReplyDeleteI understand where you are coming from. Yes, at the end of the movie he does not dislike his job, but in the start to me he seems to dislike it, but thats just my opinion.
In the book, The Woman in the Dunes, we see the main character Niki encounter a life altering experience. When introduced in the book, Niki is shown as an irresponsible person who always puts the blame on others. Diago had a life altering experience when the orchestra was discontinued, forcing him to chose a new job. This job taught him much about himself. He did not think he would be happy with his new job, cleansing dead bodies, when in the end he realizes this is his passion. Niki shows this as well, when given the opportunity to escape the dune, he decides to stay. He realizes the dunes is where he belongs, and can not bring himself to leave in the end.
ReplyDeleteI thought krystyna's post saying that daigo and niki differ in that daigo isn't forced to do his work and accepts it much easier while Niki has the opposite situation and finds it very difficult to accept his situation. in fact he does not accept his situation until he gets the power to leave it from the water trap. it's a good conclusion that people accept things easier when they aren't forced. I think that people need to feel a sense of control over their lives to accept the lives they live. when people lose that, they become desperate, and they seek to resist everything around them in hopes of regaining that sense of control. It's human nature to need to feel in control of oneself. some people seem to be able to live accepting that they have no control, but they are unusual, and considered eccentric because of the philosophy they have, even if their habits are fairly normal.
ReplyDelete