queries: Love Letter; Itami; databases

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

Marie Suzuki wrote:

>I believe what Hiroko said was "Ogenki desuka?  Watashi wa genki desu!"
>I don't quite know how it should be translated.  Literally, it goes like
>"How are you?  I'm doing fine." but then it sounds very dumb.
>
>When I saw the film in a theater, I thought the yelling was Hiroko's way of
>announcing that she intends to start living her life again, go for a new
>love, although she still cherishes the memory of her former boy friend.
>
>Anyway, I was rather annoyed by the way the feeling was expressed.  Hiroko
>yelled the same words over and over.  I could hear many people wiping their
>tears, but I could not tune in to it.

Just to add my two bits: I and my wife couldn't get into it either.  
Frankly, I found it vapid and a reflection of just how bad some 
scriptwriting has become today.  

But there does seem to be a trend with certain recent Japanese popular 
cultural objects of valorizing the mundane, everyday, even the vapid: 
Puffy's "ii kanji" is one example.  I wonder if it's less an effort to 
make meaningful what is essentially meaningless ("Ogenki desuka? Watashi 
wa genki desu!" in everyday life is merely a social nicety which bears no 
significant meaning), than to valorize the status quo and the consumerist 
reduction of everything to the image.  Nothing can be said anymore, so we 
can only celebrate the reified statements (catch phrases, slogans, etc.) 
we already have.  Others also say that today's young can't express 
themselves in words anymore, and this might be one manifestation.

Just a few rambling rants from your resident Iwai non-buff.

Aaron Gerow
YNU

Aaron Gerow
YNU