This story got me confused. If you could try searching this stroy in the internet, you might just get confused the same way...
Title: Swaddling Clothes
AUTHOR OF THE Book where the film has been adapted: Yukio Mishima
Literary genre: Drama, History, Crime
Cast of characters: (include only those with important role in the film)
- Toshiko
- Toshiko’s husband
- Toshiko baby’s nurse
- Homeless young man
Historical background of the story:
This strange story was written by a Japanese writer, Mishima Yukio, who committed suicide in 1970. The readers interpreted the husband as the American influence, the nurse's baby as new
CONTENT
1. SETTING:
· WHERE: Japan where Mishima was born
· WHEN: Around 1936 when a violent resistance movement happened in
2. The plot: This is a story about the death of a Japanese woman, Toshiko. Her baby's nurse bore a bastard baby at her home. The newborn infant, lying on the floor, was wrapped in bloodstained newspapers. Toshiko swathed the infant in flannel and laid him down in an armchair. Her husband, later on, talked about the boy's birth as an amusing incident in a party. Toshiko was shocked and dumbfounded when she heard this. She sensed the bastard baby would grow up in utter misery. She worried later in life the bastard baby would kill her own son. She considered whether she should sacrifice herself for her son. Wandering in a park, she saw a young homeless person lying on a beach. The sleeping young man, covered with newspapers, reminded Toshiko of the future of the bastard baby. Her approaching the homeless person woke him up. The homeless person abruptly got up from the bench and killed Toshiko. Toshiko died without any struggle. To her, she was dying for her son.
3. Characters: write down the names of the main characters, the role of each one in the story, and two or three adjectives top describe them.
· Toshiko – She is very sensitive. Her eyes are open to what is happening and what might happen around her. But I think she becomes oversensitive. She worries a lot.
· Toshiko’s husband – He is an actor husband of Toshiko. He is a very self-centered person. He doesn’t think about what others may feel. He is a much modernized person. He doesn’t live his life in an old-fashion way. He is open-minded to changes.
· Toshiko baby’s nurse – Her duty is to take care of Toshikos’ child as a nurse. She is a very irresponsible mother and an inconsiderate person. She didn’t think about her child’s welfare.
4. Message: has the film got a message? If so what do you think it is? Yes, the film got a lot of messages about love of country’s culture and traditions. In Yukio Mishima's "Swaddling Clothes" we see a great deal of symbolism portraying the corruption of the Japanese culture. And the characters involved reacted in different ways about these changes. The story is told through Toshiko, a lonely and seemingly oppressed wife and mother. She shows how this corruption is leading to decay. The story depicts the corruption of Japanese culture by western modernization.
5. What significant life experience have you seen from the film? Discuss it.
The times are changing and with that change, culture is adapting to it. Like each and one of us, Koreans have their own culture in which some has changed because of modernization or influence of other countries. In my own experience, I am Korean studying in
6. What is the prevailing theme in the story? Support your answer. As I searched to further understand this story, I discovered that the prevailing theme of this story is about “culture clash”. It is about the past, the present and the future social life of a country. It is about the changes that may occur as the result of influences.
LANGUAGE
Make a list of words, phrases or expressions you have learned from this film.
· “Cry at the top of his lung” – cry out very loud
· “it gave me the shock of my life” – most horrible/surprising experience I will never forget
List of words/phrases:
Swaddle - bind
Gastric dilation – describes a very high-appetite, craving for so much food to eat
Somber – very sad/grave
OPINION
1. WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THE MOVIE FOR OTHER TO WATCH? WHY OR WHY NOT?
Yes, I would recommend this to others because it is very interesting and has a lot of lessons about love of the country and being open-minded to changes as well. It shows how people react in different ways regarding changes. Some people accept it with open arms but some are not open to any changes. I believe this story may stir some people into deeply think about the conflicts between tradition and the new coming trend.
2. DOES THIS FILM REMIND YOU OF OTHER MOVIES THAT YOU HAVE SEEN? IF SO, WHAT AND WHY?
This story reminds me of the movie “Father of the Bride”. This is movie is not about history or culture but it is about changes and growing up. In this movie, the father is an ordinary, middle-class man whose daughter has decided to marry a man from an upper-class family, but the father can’t think of what life would be like without his daughter. He becomes slightly insane, but his wife tries to make him happy for their daughters, but when the wedding takes place at their home and a foreign wedding planner takes over the ceremony, the father must try to handle the fact that people grow up. Just like the “Swaddling Clothes”, Toshiko is like the father who couldn’t just take changes and got very nervous in facing the fact that things change just like his daughter who is becoming a woman. And her husband is like the wife in “Father of the Bride” who openly accepted the changes that might happen.
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