Departures

Watching the movie "Departures" last night reminded The Great Plotnik of his eight or so years of studying the Japanese language, and how he felt, half the time, like he was entering a portal of intimate understanding, where an exotic culture and history awaited him, and the other half of the time like The Great Gaijin Doofus. (Gaijin means gringo.)

Plotnik took courses in kanji alone (written Japanese language which uses Chinese characters) for two years. He could spit back the thirty kanji he'd learned the previous week, but a minute after the test was over the kanjis had jumped out of Plotnik's head and reassembled somewhere above Mount Fuji. Plot couldn't remember them by looking at them, and he couldn't piece them together -- the top part means 'wall' and the middle part means 'money' and the bottom part means 'river,' so the entire character must mean -- river of money at a wall. No. Wall of wealthy river. No.

It means happiness. Why? Because if you have money and water you will be able to scale the wall. Go figure.

(Plot actually made that one up but, trust him, that's what it's like.)

'Departures,' which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2009, is a wonderful movie, about a man who answers a want ad for a job in the field of Departures. He thinks it's a travel agency. It turns out to be as an assistant to the old man who performs the ancient Japanese custom of ritually washing bodies before they are to be cremated. You watch the first part of the film amazed at the weirdness of this culture but by the second half you have come under its sway. Everything makes perfect sense.

And there you have it: Plotnik's experience with Japanese writing, reading and grammar. Only in reverse.

Beauty is unquestionably there, especially in the three-alphabet written language, and you cannot learn the Japanese language without understanding the Japanese people. You don't say what is on your mind, you say what is not on your mind and allow the person to whom you are speaking to interpret your meaning. Yes means no. No means yes. Excellent means terrible.

Terrible means Plotnik trying to learn Japanese. He never had trouble with a language before -- they are all just different forms of music, after all -- but this one? This one?

Plot started out ready for his romantic vision of Japan to take him over. He ended up thinking these people are so damned weird.

For the two hours watching "Departures" Plottie understood a few words, a noun here or there, maybe someone's name. But the grammar of spoken language (like in life and in the movies) is completely different than the grammar they teach you in school. Plotnk knows how to ask the Emperor if he would like to take tea but Plot could never ask the same question in the train station -- or, at least, he would have a lot of trouble understanding the answer.

Thank God for Anglicisms -- like garu-frenndo (girl friend).

Flix this movie. It's not for nothing that it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2009, beating out Waltz for Bashir, the amazing Israeli animated film about the invasion of Lebanon. Flix them both if you haven't already. For Departures, get ready for a beautifully filmed, leisurely glance into that secret portal. Thank God it's subtitled.

P.S.

Plottie just found his post for Tuesday, November 15, 2005. Here's part of it. (Bear in mind that a character (kanji) is made up of many strokes, and many of these individual strokes, when used in combination, have meanings themselves. The portions that have meanings are called 'radicals.')

"Oh, Plotnik was geared up yesterday and ready for 'oyogi,' 'sui-ei' and 'kai sui.'

"These three demon words (swim, swimming and sea water) are made up of the kanji for water, the radical for water, and the kanji for swimming. The kanji for swimming is made up of the kanji for water and the radical for water, which means water-water. The kanji for sea water is made up of the kanji for water, followed by the radical for water and the kanji for water again, which means water water-water. The kanji for swimming is made up of the radical for water, kanji for water and kanji for water again, becoming water-water water. Plotnik had water-water, water water-water, and water-water water DOWN!"

The post goes on. Plot, here in 2010, cannot imagine how he even got that far.