The nature of Stories
Watched an Anime called Fuyu no Semi (Winter Cicada) yesterday. It is a yaoi OVA, so not for the untutored, but basically it is Romeo and Juliette set between two Samurai near the end of the Edo period in Japan (i.e. the industrial age, when Japan first began opening its borders to forgieners and allowing international travel to its citizens).
The story is about two men who are members of opposing Clans, but who both want to see Japan take its place in the international community. Whilst they attempt to learn about the world in a society which forbids such knowledge, they find themselves falling in love with each other. As the situation in the more xenophobic of the two Clan's worsens, the gentle one of the pair, Kusaka, is forced to leave for England in order to try and bring the Clan out of its downward spiral of hatred. The other, Akizuki, remains in Japan and begins to fight in the brutal civil wars that marked the end of the Edo period.
5 years later, Kusaka returns to Japan and takes his place as a military leader, as a warrior of his Clan. He fights against the anti shogunate, the people Akizuki is fighting with. After every battle he walks the field, looking for Akizuki, and praying he won't find him... Until the final battle of the civil war is over, and he finds Akizuki, crippled and preparing to commit Seppuku rather than being captured. Killing one of his own soldiers, Kusaka dresses Akizuki in the uniform and delivers him to the field hospital, in disguise as a friendly soldier wounded by cannon fire.
Time passes, and Kusaka looks after Akizuki, keeping him hidden (his entire army was declared War Criminals) in a guest house on the grounds of his mansion. Akisuki is far from saved though, Kusaka has to keep him locked in and make sure there is no way for him to kill himself. Akizuki is in agony over the danger to Kusaka, as well as horrified that his friend could have killed so casually to save him. He blames himself for making Kusaka into a killer, and wants only to die. Kusaka is determined to save him, and even though Akizuki never speaks to him he still visits him every day.
The young soldier Kusaka murdered has not gone unnoticed, and a family member of Kusaka, Aizawa, is dispatched to find out why he died after the battle was over. Aizawa has been suspicious of Kusaka's support for the anti shogunate movement since they were young, and blames Akizuki's Clan for murdering his lover during a raid on a Geisha house. He becomes even more suspicious of Kusaka through a paper trail that leads directly to him, and visits the mansion. Finding Kusaka missing, he wanders through the grounds and comes across the guest house. He sees Kusaka and Akizuki in each others arms, and his suspicions are confirmed. He waits for Kusaka to leave, and then approaches Akizuki...
A few days later Aizawa raids Kusaka's mansion. He only searches the main house, but when Kusaka returns home Aizawa tells him that he has seen Akizuki, and has faith that he will do "the right thing" to protect Kusaka. Kusaka races to the guest house, to find a note and a trail in the snow leading into the woods. By the time he reaches Akizuki, his lover has committed Seppuku with the tanto given him by Aizawa. Devastated, Kusaka uses Akizuki's suicide note as his jisei no ku (death poem wrapped around the blade of the tanto) and dies holding Akizuki in his arms.
A year after this, all Japanese War Criminals from the civil war are pardoned by the Shogun.
I cried like a child at the end of this film, even though I spotted within the first 20 minutes that it was Romeo and Juliette, and would not have a happy ending. And I got to thinking about the nature of stories, and how the same story is retold hundreds of times, with a greater or lesser skill of disguise. I feel an urge to find where they come from, these stories, and to see the original versions of them. I guess I have to look at the earliest myths, the stories of the Gods told from early civilisation, in order to get closer to the roots of the stories. It will be a fascinating journey.
I am not intending to go out today. The ground looks very icy, and I don't cope with ice. Staying in, watching movies and being warm. Yes.