Ozu reference to jealousy & pickles

[David Phillips]

This is just a guess, but perhaps the metaphor has 
something to do with clinging to the man one's with 
and not trusting him out of one's sight.  By not 
cutting the slices all the way through, the end effect 
is that they stay together, kind of like keeping a dog 
on a short leash.




David Phillips, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Wake Forest University
 


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Frako Loden
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 7:29 PM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Ozu reference to jealousy & pickles



Even my Japanese mother can't answer this one! In Ozu's 1949 
"Banshun" (Late Spring), the Hara Setsuko character says that she's 
the jealous type--after all, when she slices pickles (takuan), they 
stay strung together, i.e. she doesn't slice them all the way 
through. She flirts with a man in the film twice with this 
information. Can anybody explain to me how semisliced pickles would 
relate to jealousy?

Frako Loden