[Movie Diary] "461 Days of Bento" What does it mean to relax...?

I often get recommendations for interesting movies and books
in the comments on my homepage.

I really want to cherish those kinds of things,
so I try to watch or read them as much as I can.

This movie is one of those,
so I watched it because it was recommended to me.

"461 Days of Bento"

It's a story about a father who, after getting divorced and living alone with his son,
makes bento lunches for his high school son for three years.

When he started high school,
the father asked his son if he would prefer bento lunches or convenience store food,
and the son said he would prefer his father's bento.

I think it didn't really matter to the son either way,
but he said that because he thought it would make his father happy.

Just as expected,
the father was overjoyed!!
He promised to make bento every day for three years,
and in return, the son promised to go to school every day.
And with that, a man's promise was made!!

From the next day on,
the father was super enthusiastic and put a huge amount of effort into making the bento.

He bought all sorts of bento boxes,
and made a huge variety of side dishes.

As for the son,
he thought his dad would get tired of it eventually,
and that he would surely stop if he got sick of it,
so he looked at the bento with a slightly detached eye.

But in reality,
the bento looked incredibly delicious,
and it actually tasted amazing.

Thanks to those bento lunches,
he even made good friends; it was all positive.

Since it's a story about three years of high school,
there are all sorts of little things that happen.

There's the mother who divorced and lives apart,
the story of the father's new girlfriend,
the story of the son's budding romance,
and various other small stories that emerge,
but no matter what happens,
the father keeps making bento.

Watching each of those delicious-looking bento,
thinking "Wow, that looks so good~♪"
I think that is one of the ways to enjoy this movie.

But after I finished watching it,
the question of what it means to "relax"...
remained in my heart.

The father is a musician,
performing live and making albums.
One day, at the studio where he is producing an album,
he has this conversation with a female staff member (who later becomes his girlfriend).

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"I think this album is your masterpiece!!"
"Are we fired up?"
"Quite the opposite, it feels like you know how to relax."

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I thought this line was really good.
Knowing how to relax...
Yes, exactly, that's it...

Just because you try hard, and try hard, and try incredibly hard,
doesn't mean you'll create something good.
That's not how it works.

You try and try and try,
but in the end, if you don't learn how to relax properly,
you can't break through the wall, so to speak.
I really understand that feeling.

I'm the type who always tries too hard
and ends up leaning too far forward,
so I'm very envious of people
who know how to relax.

But you know, even I
know how to relax when it comes to cooking.

I think what you need to relax
isn't about trying not to try too hard,
but rather finding things interesting and enjoying them.

If you get desperate, thinking, "I'm going to make an incredibly delicious meal!!"
or if you try hard and put a lot of effort into it,
you might make something delicious,
but something important might be missing.

Sometimes, things you just whip up on a whim
turn out to be incredibly delicious for some reason.

A long time ago, I used to visit farmers' homes in the countryside for work
to observe their farming practices,
and the meals those mothers would whip up for us
were truly delicious.

Why were they so delicious?
Now I understand.
The farmers' mothers
seemed to find it incredibly fun
to cook meals and feed them to someone.

Returning to the topic of making bento,
honestly, making bento is incredibly tough.
There are times when it's exhausting and I don't want to make it,
and there are definitely times when I haven't woken up in the morning
and just want to sleep more instead of making a bento.
(I made them for my daughter for a long time, so I understand.)

But,
even at times like that, this father
finds joy in things like experimenting with the rolled omelet, thinking about the colors,
and figuring out how to season the side dishes.
He's finding it interesting.

When you try to do your best,
you become desperate to reach a result,
thinking you have to create something amazing within yourself.

But when you are relaxed,
instead of focusing on the result,
you are enjoying the act of cooking itself,
trying this and that,
and going through trial and error.

In other words, you are enjoying the very thing you are doing.

However,
while it is wonderful to enjoy the present
and live the present to the fullest,
if finding things interesting becomes everything,
you might overlook the feelings of the people around you
or even the person most important to you.

People who relax and live happily are wonderful, but
the people around them
can sometimes feel lonely; I thought about that too.

In fact,
the father seems truly happy, but
the mother, the girlfriend, and the son
all seem a little lonely somewhere,
and I really understand those feelings too...

Relaxing
is actually something you can't do all by yourself.
Someone else is properly compensating for the part you relaxed,
or someone is silently accepting the parts where you let your guard down.
Because such people exist,
you could say it's okay to relax.

I want to be able to notice that.

The bento too—
the father who kept making them while enjoying it,
the son who kept eating them,
and the friends who looked forward to eating that bento with the son.

When you relax well,
the effort is dispersed into invisible places, and people connect with people.

I feel that people who know how to relax
are not those who try hard all by themselves,
but rather those who can distribute the effort and have others share the load little by little,
while also being able to properly express their gratitude.

By the way,
a lot of rolled omelets appear in this movie.

Like rolled omelets with kelp simmered in soy sauce,
or ones with simmered young sardines.

Among them, the rolled omelet with pickled red ginger
is a familiar taste to me as a Kansai native,
so I was actually quite happy to see it.

Rolled omelet with pickled red ginger
is a staple in my home as well.

And, a rolled omelet
is essential for a bento.

When I used to make bento for my daughter,
I included a rolled omelet almost every day.

It was a movie that made me fondly remember those times.

The movie was worth watching just to see the delicious-looking bento.

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A taste of Kansai!! Give it a try♪

Rolled omelet with pickled red ginger ←Click