Mitsuya Majime is a shy and modest man who works for a publisher. One day, he's invited to join a team dedicated to the creation of a Japanese Dictionary. This is the simple premise that consecrated Fune wo Amu at the Mainichi Film Award 2013, taking home the Great Prize, the Best Director Award (Ishii Yuya), the Best Actor Award (Matsuda Ryuhei) and the Best Art Direction (Harada Mitsuo).
But how do you turn a story about the creation of a Dictionary into a real work of Art? This is not the kind of story I would recommend for people who are only looking for some funny commercial movie.
Fune wo Amu (in english, The Great Passage and literally Creating a Boat) is a journey through the meaning of words like "Love" but also through the meaning of life itself (the passage of time that characters will suffer while making this Dictionary).
In one of the scenes someone explains that the Dictionary's name comes from the idea that a Dictionary should help people travel the Ocean of Life in the search of the best word to describe their feelings (which the main character as some difficulty expressing).
In other hand, this Dictionary has the particularity of being the first to possess the new Language Verification, adding new words (used by young people) and deleting others. Fune wo Amu becomes a metaphor for the passage not only of time itself but of behaviors, traditions and values. Death itself is in general seen here as part of a non-stopping cycle, renovating people and culture for centuries.
The passage of time also decides the main character's life. Matsuya Majime (Matsuda Ryuhei) is a young man that can't express his feelings and thoughts even after spending his entire life studying Linguistics. The only person capable of interacting with him is his landlady, whom he knows for almost ten years.
Known by his coworkers as the "Serious", due to the meaning of his name Majime, he's invited to take part of a team dedicated to the creation of The Great Passage. This task then becomes his life purpose in a way that sometimes we find him as the only person really dedicated to the project, specially when his group starts believing that The Great Passage, a paper-dictionary, will never be successful due to the Digital Era.
Fifteen years after the beginning of this movie, The Great Passage is complete and society doesn't seem that changed after all - the dictionary is a success and might change its user's life as much as it changed its creators', specially Majime's. Author of the word "Love", Majime ends up falling in love for Kaguya Hayashi (Aoi Miyazaki, who many of you might know as Nana from the 2005 movie by the same name), a woman trying to become a Chef at a Sushi restaurant.
As for the areas contemplated by awards at the Mainichi Film Awards, we can easily understand why they won. Matsuda Ryuhei manages an amazing interpretation, showing us a low-spirited character (always with low shoulders and looking down) becoming a confident man who looks to his interlocutors in the eyes, choosing his words wisely.
In the final scene, when we expect him to ask Kaguya in marriage, the character returns to a state of shyness and retraction, delivering a last comic moment, showing us that despite all the years that passed, Majime continues the same when talking about love.
The Art Direction couldn't be better and the work and dedication behind it's amazing. For example, in Majime's house we can see a real library made of piles and piles of books, each with its singularity.
The Great Passage is absolutely a movie whose real content is not necessarily in front of our eyes but in the ocult lines of contemplation and reflection within ourselves, delivering at the same time soft moments of comedy.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário