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Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Appreciate the Rain

I'm reading this book called "Zen mind, Beginners' mind" by Shunryu Suzuki. He says "Some people will be annoyed if they hear the rain when they are lying in their beds in the morning...because they do not know that later they will see the beautiful sun rising from the east...we will think "Now it is raining," but we don't know what will happen in the next moment. By the time we go out it may be a beautiful day or a stormy day. Since we don't know, let's appreciate the sound of the rain now."

Daneeta Responds

Could you tell me more about the story?

As for the story, because it is documentary, you sort of find the story in editing, which we are just, just starting. BUT, it is about how the western male reinvents himself in this post-modern urban frontier. When we started shooting Ken, for example, he was working as a freelance headhunter. He called it his "starving waiters job" because he really wanted to be a "tarento" on Japanese TV. Throughout the 18 months of filming, he got married, had a baby and worked his way up from cheesy TV shows (ones that made fun of gaijin) to commercials, to comedy talk shows to the tops: a Taiga drama on NHK (similar to a BBC drama). Half way, he quit his headhunting "starving waiters job" and took on a new one--performing Christian weddings. All of his friends said he was crazy, stupid, etc. for chasing this seemingly impossible dream. But, he just didn't care.

The film is about re-invention...constructing your own reality...and taking responsibility for that reality.
I hope that helps.