The sad face of Kashiwagi-san

“The sad face of Kashiwagi-san”

This weekend I will be celebrating a little “AKB History”. I am planning a special Krazy Kashiwagi Kaptions post in honor of her birthday in two weeks. Until then, please enjoy AKB48’s Yuki Kashiwagi in her solo music video “Chinmoku” (“Silent”).  (Sorry only 360p available.)

It is heartbreaking whenever something like this occurs?  A beautiful and sweet-natured girl falls in love with a complete jerk.   What do you do when a lovely young woman falls for the wrong guy?  How tragic is it when the mean dude leaves the nice girl, breaking her heart?  … or breaks it over and over?   These themes and more are explored in the “Chinmoku” music video by Yuki Kashiwagi of AKB48.  Lyrics are by Yasushi Akimoto.  Many thanks to user 11Chocolate7 for providing the fan subs/lyrics in English, Romanji and Japanese on her YouTube post.  I think that this is a beautiful music video.   Critics have pointed out technical “flaws” but I believe that the lighting methods and photography are intentional.  There is no sloppiness in the filming, I see it as intuitive.  I believe that the over-exposures (overly bright scenes) represent Yuki’s memories and daydreams.  There are many beautiful moments in which to live mindfully in here.

Some people cried during “Bridges of Madison County”. Well, I like this.

The video tells the story of a girl (Yuki Kashiwagi) deeply in love with a man.  He leaves her.  He returns surprisingly, and much to her delight.  This is short-lived, as he leaves her again.  Much of the video is the Yuki character pining for this guy to come back to her.

An interesting and telling aspect is how she is treated by her lover.  He is obviously in total control of their relationship.  He does not hold her hand when they walk.  He grabs and jerks her arm, then leads her by the arm.   (See time 1:40 and 3:20.)   He grabs her, and holds her in a manner without affection …  yet she gladly accepts her fate, and still loves him.

Even though the lyrics have been directly translated from Japanese, they still hold their meaning even when translated as English that may not be correct grammatically.  (Future blog topic: The problem with translating Japanese lyrical order to English!)

For example, at time 0.49  “the distance that my hand doesn’t reach you makes a pain to me”  sounds stilted when translated directly into English.

The brain may read that as grammatically incorrect, but believe me, the heart fully understands.  The lyrics are heartbreaking, but also endearing.

There is great moment when we see what it is like to sit across the table from Yuki on a date.  She has a heartwarming expression in those brightly shot memories.  This is the innocent Yuki.  She recalls what life was like when she was together with her man.  She is happy and pretty in these moments .   She is also unaware that she is about to have her heart broken.

All the young lady thinks about is the ex-lover:   “ … the reality that you are not here, my puzzled figure is reflected in the glass.”  She cannot make sense of the world without him.

She always dreams of the happy day he might return to her.  She even looks around for him in crowds.  Have you ever been in public, but looked for someone, even if you know it does not make any sense?  This is what the heartbroken do.   Every time a door opens —  she looks up in hopes that it will be her ex that walks in.

Yuki still is functional in her everyday life.  Near the end of the video, she completes her studies, and sits alone in her apartment.  “I wonder what does time teach me”    Very soon however, she slumps down in her loneliness,  as she misses him and begins to cry.

“I who found the length of eternity unmanageable …order coffee …Silent”

The video ends with Yuki in a reverie about how happy she would be if only the man would return to her …

Then the reality rthat she is sitting all alone.

She is such a beauty.  The Yuki character radiates warmth.  What type of terrible man would treat such a loving woman in this manner?

Why is the story tragic? Yes  it has an unhappy ending.  However the tragedy is NOT that the guy left the girl,

the real tragedy is that she loved him.

————————————————————————————————————

Starlight: It took this starlight eighteen months to reach my world. It reflected off of Earth and came back fourteen months later.

Advertisement