The Movie 'When I Become a Beaver' and the 'Connection' Taught by Compost 🌱
It's Yamane 😊
The other day, I watched the movie 'When I Become a Beaver' and posted an analysis article about it on my blog!
In this article, based on the grandmother's words in the movie about feeling 'connection' and the 'rules of the pond,' I wrote about how the root of the various problems that trouble us might actually be a single issue.
Today, there are a few things I couldn't fit into that article but still wanted to write down, so I'd like to write about those here ✍️
The movie's message of 'connection'
In the movie, there is an important message that the grandmother teaches the protagonist, who is struggling with anger because they cannot gain understanding from those around them.
That is, 'If you feel a connection, your anger will subside.'
Recently, I had an experience that made me think, 'This is truly the case' regarding this message.
I recently set up a compost bin
Actually, I recently set up a 'compost' bin in my garden.
'Compost' is something where you mix food scraps with special soil to make fertilizer, and while it's just a box, it had an unexpected effect beyond just making fertilizer.
To begin with, the reason I set it up was that I was thinking of making a vegetable garden in the yard and thought it would be nice to be self-sufficient in fertilizer as well.
And the reason I thought about making a vegetable garden is that I've been feeling that the political situation is unstable lately, and I often feel anxious about world affairs, so I wanted to see if there was anything I could do, even a little.
To be honest, while I thought it was just a way to ease my mind, I started it feeling that it was better than doing nothing at all.
The mysterious effect of compost
However, once I started, there was a mysterious effect.
It lies in the mechanism by which 'composting' utilizes the cycle of nature, and the sense of security that arises when one's own food is incorporated into that part of the cycle.
When I feel that the excess from my own food—the food scraps—returns to the soil and will eventually be reborn as new life, I somehow feel energized.
It gives me a sense of peace of mind, and at that moment, I felt like it clicked, thinking, 'So this is what the grandmother in the movie was talking about.'
Eastern philosophical messages and the Japanese-American setting
Escaping from the cage of the self and feeling a connection to the whole.
The message that this calms the waves of the heart, such as anger and anxiety, is something I thought was also connected to the Eastern philosophy I wrote about on Note before.
And the protagonist of this movie is a Japanese-American girl named Meilin Lee. The grandmother is also set as a Japanese-American.
Director Domee Shi chose this setting because the production designer was Japanese-American, and the director herself grew up in a community with many Japanese-Americans.
Also, the director answered in an interview like this:
'I realized I had never seen an Asian grandmother on screen who didn't have an accent. I thought it would be very interesting to depict that in a movie.' (Director Shi)
For me, I thought that having a Japanese-American or Asian person as the protagonist is also a major factor in the idea that it is important now more than ever to combine Eastern ways of thinking with modern Western values.
For those of us for whom Eastern philosophy is a part of our thinking even without being conscious of it, the message of this movie enters our hearts smoothly and is familiar and easy to understand, isn't it?
As I realized through composting, it is something that can be felt in daily life, and it may become a very important way of thinking when considering how we should live from now on.
Conclusion
Spring break is almost in its second half, isn't it?
This movie is perfect to watch with children, and it's ideal for going to see with them during spring break (though there are some suspenseful scenes, so if that's okay. My child in the lower grades of elementary school said it was scary, but said it was even more fun than that) ✨
Also, it's a film that adults can learn important things from while laughing out loud, so I highly recommend it 😄
Please, do watch it 🦫🦫🪵🪵
(Also, composting is recommended too!)
📚 Introduction to related articles
If you'd like, I've written a detailed article about this film on my blog, so please take a look!
👉 Analysis of the film 'When I Become a Beaver' | Anger, environmental issues, and the things that cause social division are all connected!