Brisbane Japanese Film Festival (Fruits of Faith - Kiseki no Ringo)

Since I moved out, I haven't really had a chance to hang out with my family properly. My older sister is part of the organising committee for the 2013 Brisbane Japanese Film Festival and bought the whole family tickets to see the closing film: "Fruits of Faith" (Kiseki no Ringo).

Since my dad really likes farming and growing things, I guess it's rubbed off on me a bit too. Growing up, we helped him in his gardens a lot, so it was interesting to empathise with how the movie portrayed all the different hardships - simple and complex - that come with leading an agrarian lifestyle.

I suppose leading an agrarian lifestyle can be considered another type of culture too. There are set values and attitudes such as: being resourceful, frugal, working as a team, thinking logistically, etc, involved with having to tend to plants, especially lots of them.

2009: In a pecan tree. Not actually as glamorous as it looks, I get really itchy if I don't wear long sleaves. Definitely fun and fulfiling though!

On the note of "frugality", I remember this conversation that I had with my dad once about an ice cream ad we saw. It was an ad for a pre-packaged ice cream cone. The graphics showed the sauces sprayed out in a really nice composition. I expressed this opinion to my dad and asked him what he thought. He said (I'm paraphrasing and translating from Mandarin of course):

"It could be just me, but I think it seems like a waste. When we were little, the only sweets we had were sugar cane or these little candies made of left over sugar from the sugar factory. For them to be splaying the ingredients everywhere makes my inner child weep."

The offending ice cream ad :P

Simple but profound. It makes so much sense, but I had never thought to think about it that way before. Not only is there a cultural factor here, there is also a generational consideration. Of all the birthdays and festivals my family never celebrated, it seems petty to be complaining about it. My folks worked hard for us to go through education and give me opportunities to make me more enriched. Considering that they had limited English when they arrived, I think they did pretty damn well. Thanks so much Mum and Dad! :)

Truth is, their English is still not that great but all of my siblings have been working on it - it's time to give back.