The Peach Orchard

Right off the bat, the first thing I oddly started paying attention to is the film and cinema aspect of everything. The director, Akira Kurosawa, used a lot of extended, one take clips which really helped take off a lot of stress on the eyes and stress in the mind of the viewer. It really seemed to almost connect the audience with the scene rather than keeping us on our toes at the modern seemingly frantic pace of movies today. It was rather refreshing to be honest.
In class we learned that not all of nature is "kami" or a spirit, however the powerful aspects of nature have spirits. In the case of The Peach Orchard, the peach trees all had their own spirit. Thus signifying to me, oddly enough, that peach trees are of great influence or power in Japanese society. In addition to that, we also learned about the idea that when a human dishonors or does something that offends a spirit then that spirit will leave them, or no longer bless them. In The Peach Orchard the family where the boy lived had cut down the entire peach orchard, and therefore the spirits told the boy that they would leave. The boy then cried because he had tried to stop them, he loved the peach orchard. The spirits then argued among themselves and realized they should'nt have blamed the boy. It was not his fault, and allowed him to see the peach orchard as it was one last time.
To analyze the video further I decided to skim the YouTube comments, which provided a little more insight into things I wouldn't have thought about. It was a rather interesting argument between a few commentators where every time I read one I almost agreed completely until I read the next! One commentator stated that he felt "the boy was caught between his respect for the trees (nature) and the desire to be with the girl who attracts him. But as soon as he saw the girl, his respect for the trees falls to the wayside. His appreciation for beauty can't stop at just the visual sense. His desire is driven by what the illusion of the girl represents. And so the beauty that is there (was there) disappears and is lost." however, another commentator argued "I don't think it's relating to his respect or not at all. They promised him just one more time would they blossom, and only for a moment." Reading further I noticed a comment that explained the girls existence in the video that I hadn't picked up on, which was that she was the personified spirit of the last peach tree that hadn't been cut down. The size of the tree also mattered because the tree was small, therefore the girl was young!
Anyways, a lot of random information that was actually slightly unrelated to the main topic we were required to touch upon. But this is a blog, and I felt like sharing! Happy Easter folks!