forgot to say out loud how beautiful you really are
the perfect song for this entry.
i caught okuribito which clinched the oscar for best foreign language film earlier this year some time back and it is easy to see why.
while it may seem strange at first, the film is about death, and in particular, the profession of embalming, and there are comparisons aplenty drawing parallels between the finesse and grace of the elaborate rituals involved in embalming and music but beyond that, the film explores the themes of life and loss, reconciliation and social stereotypes and prejudice.
indeed, in order to truly appreciate life and recognise its value and sanctity, one has to come to terms with death, the end of life. if there was no death, then life, would be to us like what it is to the cyclons in battlestar galactica where the cyclons have the technology of resurrection, and hence, view life with disdain, and inexorably and relentlessly pursue the humans seeking to exterminate them, even at the cost of their own 'life' since they can always resurrect in a new body. but they were not content, they were dissatisfied with their "gelatin eyes", the frailties of their flesh as compared to steel. but it all changed the moment the cylons lost resurrection, and an alliance was even made with man in order to preserve life. it is only when the cyclons realise that they could be lost, that they found the value of life.
in a like manner, many a times, we do not give those we love the respect due them and value them until we realise that we can very well lose them.
from angry and embarrassed parents of a transvestite finally coming to terms and accepting their son-turned-daughter as their child, their love, to a detached and unaffectionate husband finally breaking down bitterly and realising just how much he loved his wife at the very last. love and grief, two differing emotions, yet so tightly intertwined, for with love, there will come grief inevitably, and without grief, love loses its sanctity.
some will say that its too little, too late then, to express one's love only after the one loved has passed on, and i believe that i would have been one of them, but i think, now, that it is not for us to judge, for who are we to say, in our limited perception and wisdom, that this act or that, no mater how tiny or late it may appear, is insignificant in the shaping of the things to come.
in the film, the final scene shows diago (the protangonist) embalming his father, whom he hated, and acknowledging him as his father. without this reconciliation, i do not believe that diago would have been able to build a normal relationship with the child his wife is carrying. no, his estranged relationship with his father would have been too big a weight tying him down for him to love his child because all he's ever experienced in his relationship with his father is abandonment and detest.
so can we really say that such an act is too late? when its consequence could very well alter a life to be?