3 Quotes by Chaplin That Support My Life vol.2 Tomorrow the birds will sing ♪

Tomorrow the birds will sing.
(If you are alive) Tomorrow, the beautiful chirping of birds will resonate once again ♪
(translated by Light-Lytle)

In the 1931 film "City Lights," the tramp Chaplin saves a wealthy drunkard who is on the verge of drowning, and then continues with
"Be brave! Face Life!" This is typical of Chaplin's social satire and psychological depiction, where he encourages a wealthy man on the brink of life while being penniless himself, completely ignoring the gap in their social status. These emotional subtitles, which inspire the audience, injected a powerful movement into the monotone silent film and invited both laughter and tears.

"Tomorrow is another day."
Doesn't it sound much more lively and suddenly more beautiful than that?
These are Chaplin's words—or perhaps a poem—that encouraged the masses and the audience, who were at the mercy of the times and society, by casually and poetically conveying the beauty and love that can only be felt because one is alive.

By the way, the noise of crows scavenging for trash from the morning is not expressed as "singing," so I want to simultaneously anticipate a grand chorus of beautiful birds (a hundred flowers blooming) and even the fluttering of wings like those of colorful birds of paradise.

On May 15, 1932, the day of the May 15 Incident, Charlie Chaplin, who was visiting Japan, was scheduled to have a dinner party with Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai. Chaplin changed his plans at the last minute to watch a sumo match and escaped harm, while Inukai fell to assassin's bullets. The young naval officers who buried the incumbent Prime Minister had also plotted the assassination of Chaplin.

In the end, instead of the chorus of birds on the morning of May 16, Inukai was met with bullets and prayers. In such a turbulent Orient, Chaplin welcomed the noisy surprise and the sunrise, and perhaps he might have at least heard a "cock-a-doodle-doo." The contrast of their black and white fates even divided shadows and spotlights between the ways of life and death of a politician and a comedian, becoming an incident that seemed to mock both heroes. It could be said that it was a dramatic event that grazed and symbolized the life of Chaplin, the King of Comedy, in those turbulent times.

"City Lights" is likely the masterpiece of masterpieces in which Chaplin dedicated his philanthropy to the world from the very heart of American society during that terrifyingly hectic Great Depression era. He falls in love at first sight with a beautiful blind flower girl, and just when he thinks he has brilliantly saved her by unexpectedly pretending to be rich, he is forced into an innocent imprisonment. After being exhausted and released back into the world, a heart-wrenching ending awaits.

This all-out tragicomedy, which wraps pity around both self and others and leads to laughter and tears, leaves an impression that it also had a great influence on the character creation of the third-rate "Onji-san" (old man) played by Misuko Chikushi, who had Far Eastern Russian blood, in "Saga Niwaka," and perhaps it provided hints and turning points that swept even rural Japanese theaters into a vortex of laughter and tears.

Chaplin and Misuko Chikushi were the superheroes and heroines who, for the first time in my life, stimulated the pressure points of laughter without any sophistry that made me laugh from the bottom of my belly, while simultaneously bringing me love, courage, and imagination. Eventually, by the time I was fully aware of things, I was obsessed with Ken Shimura and The Drifters in "Hachiji Dayo! Zen'in Shugo," but they might have been the mentors who unknowingly shaped the mold of my laughter, as I plotted day and night to make my classmates laugh with impromptu ad-libs.

For me, who was born with poor eyesight and was teased from kindergarten as wearing so-called "Kent Derricott glasses" like the bottom of a milk bottle, and who was also short, "City Lights," where the lanky tramp played by Chaplin loves a beautiful woman with a visual impairment, was a heartwarming work that stirred special emotions.

Koji Nakamoto of The Drifters and Light-Lytle of the Hiroshima Carp were very active on the front stage while wearing glasses, and when I was a high school student, I also admired the free and unconventional way of life of Woody Allen, who was full of dirty jokes. Even though I intended to laugh off such a life and enjoy a half-life of comedy, many enemies and rivals who tried to trample and crush me also appeared. As a natural sportsman and optimist, I resisted and fought against them every time, crying and laughing. Those people were also essential co-stars who sometimes interestingly adapted my life drama with black humor.

"Come on ! Tomorrow the birds will sing♪"
There were times like this and times like that, but no matter what, Chaplin's cheers always resonated in my heart.