MovieChat Forums > Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo (1932) Discussion > Film a revelation to me! *spoilers*

Film a revelation to me! spoilers

posted 13 years ago by SusanJL
7 replies | jump to latest

After watching this film I realized I was completely ignorant about life in Japan in 1932.
I was astounded by the amount of westernization - the western business suits, the children's western clothes, modern cars, etc.
If the faces had not been Japanese, I would've thought I was watching a "Little Rascals" movie set in the U.S.!!

I was also surprised by a couple of things:

1. The mother and father's tenderness and gentleness with the boys after their misbehavior. I thought Asian societies were FAR more harsh in disciplining their children.
And when the dad spanked his son, personally I thought the kid had it coming in spades!! I would never have dreamed of yelling insults at my parents like that.

2. I was surprised the boys were so horrified by their father's so-called "apple-polishing" - I had thought that sort of thing was de rigueur behavior in Asian business circles!

I didn't get the game the boys' played with having kids lie down, then making a sign (sort of like Catholics do), then the kid rising when they raised their hand - I'd like to know what that was all about!

I thought it was very clever the way the 2 sons get their bully tormentor to stop harrassing them.

And as others have commented, perhaps many of these actors fought in WWII nine years later. The Japanese presented here seem so much like us in this film; it makes me wonder how so many Japanese soldiers could commit so much barbaric cruelty during WWII.

[–] Grethiwha 12 years ago

I figure the game was they were pretend-shooting the kids with their fingers so they'd lay down as if dead - and then gave a prayer for the deceased before letting them get back up. Not sure - maybe some American westerns had made their way over there they were stylizing themselves after or something...

Cute film!

--- grethiwha -------- My Favourite Films:
http://www.imdb.com/list/Bw65XZIpkH8/

[–] nrangerseven 11 years ago

Wow - you don't think the Americans completely destroying most of Japan with fire bombs then dropping not one, but two, atomic bombs on innocent civilians wasn't cruel? Have you forgotten what was going on in Europe during WWII or is the Holocaust not considered barbaric and cruel to you??? Yes, I agree that you are completely ignorant - but about life in general and not just Japan in 1932. I fail to understand why you think you can single the Japanese out when children all over the world have grown up to become monsters with and without the excuse of war.

The people you idolize wouldn't like you.

[–] SusanJL 11 years ago

The Japanese government & military started the war at Pearl Harbor without warning, treacherously slaughtering thousands of innocent Americans.
Yes, war is hell for those who are caught in the crossfire, such as little children.
The A-bombings were the only way to end the war. The Japanese would never surrender otherwise.
The guilt of the blood of ALL those innocents killed in that war is squarely on the heads of those Japanese who started and rabidly pursued that war.

[–] ricatheater 11 years ago

I so agree with you Susan - but there are those who are always in the "Blame America First" crowd - and there's little we can do to instruct them.

[–] NewOriginals 11 years ago

You can't call out Japan for barbarically slaughtering civilians and then let America off the hook for doing so. The idea that there was no alternative but to kill millions of people by fire bombing civilian areas and then finally dropping not one but two nukes on cities killing about more than ten times more people than the Japanese did is ridiculous. It's a myth as the site I link to here demonstrates:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/10/the-real-reason-america-used-nuclear-weapons-against-japan-to-contain-russian-ambitions.html

[–] gribfritz2 8 years ago

Yes. Two nukes. Because after the first one was dropped, three days passed and they STILL didn't surrender, entirely proving the point. So if they were completely and utterly defeated and ready to surrender at the drop of a hat, why not surrender within three days after the first bomb was dropped? I've heard the story that the big muckety muck was on his way to survey the damage in order to "decide" if surrender was the correct option, but come on now. You hear stories of a horrific weapon and you're going to take days investigating it with the threat of another one constantly looming? Sorry, don't buy it.

At any rate, all of the military experts in your article are American and not Japanese. Just because the "experts" think Japan was in a poor position that any Western-thinking government would obviously surrender, the rules are different when dealing with a different culture. Just look at this film. Kids go insane and on a hunger strike because their father did what?! Seriously?! Yet this was the Japanese culture of the time. With the surrender terms being UNCONDITIONAL, the Japanese would not surrender under what Westerners would call "normal" circumstances (as evidences by the fact that they did not surrender and then STILL didn't after the first bomb dropped).

In a poll, the one country which overwhelmingly doesn't want America to apologize for this act of war is, in fact, Japan, because it would require a counter-apology for their own horrible actions.

[–] oldmotem 11 years ago

Not to be drawn into any discussion of US vs THEM. However, I would point you to KUROSAWA's film "HIGH and LOW (1963)" if you think 1932 Japan looked very US-like. In HIGH and LOW it was actually postwar suburbanites that looked exactly like the US society. Very amazing. The police did look a tad more competent in that movie than their counterparts elsewhere. But maybe not all Japanese police were that savvy. But another great foreign film from Japan. Actually, there are many great films from that country. Not the least of which contained one large monster....