Kabei: Our Mother Page #7

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And then one day...

A jeep!

Yama?

Mrs Kayo Nogami?

Yes.

My name is Komiyama.

I served with Yamazaki.

How do you do.

Our regiment was at a place

called Mudanjiang, in Manchuria.

We became good friends.

We were moved north to

Dongning, on the Soviet border.

Then last fall we were

suddenly sent south.

We got summer uniforms...

and boarded a troopship

at a port in Korea.

On the southern front it

was one loss after another.

No one said so, but it was about then

we started feeling Japan would lose.

Yes...

The Americans had total

command of the sea.

The moment our ships

reached the East China Sea...

they'd be torpedoed and sunk.

We sat in that sweltering ship...

trembling in fear, wondering

if now it was our turn.

Komiyama...

You're a good swimmer...

Yeah. My dad's a fisherman.

I can't. I swim like a hammer.

If this ship goes down, I'm dead.

But you've got to stay alive

and make it back to land.

And then...

go to this house...

and tell them how I died.

There's a beautiful

missus there named Kayo.

Tell her this:

'I'm no longer in this world...

'but my spirit is always with you...

'watching over you. '

The next day we got

hit by an enemy torpedo.

We were on a freighter, lightly armored.

It sank in a flash.

I grabbed onto Yamazaki...

as hard as I could...

but he pushed my hand away.

'Its OK.

'Don't bother'...

he said.

Can I see that?

Now, look.

The ear and the nose aren't

level. Bring this down.

Very imaginative!

Yes!

Excuse me...

Everybody, listen!

I have to go, so watch

carefully while you draw.

A well-rounded person needs more

than just literature and math.

Hi, it's me. Grandma's taken a turn?

Yeah...

Yeah...

OK.

I'll be over this afternoon.

Tell your dad to get over there.

You go, too.

'Bye.

Your mom's ill?

She's old.

Where is she?

Mitaka. My sister's a

doctor there, so that helps.

Hatsu-bei...

Hi.

How is she?

She recognizes the grand-kids.

She's talked to each of them.

Kabei... Teru-bei's here.

Kabei, it's me. Can you hear me?

What?

What did you say?

Thank you...

for everything.

What are you talking

about? That's for us to say!

Goodbye.

Are you going?

Yes... soon you'll see Tobei again.

Yama, and Aunt Hisako...

they'll all be there.

Say that again?

What?!

No!

What did she say?

She wants Tobei in this

world, not the next.

She wants him alive, not dead.

Hatsu-bei!

5:
30 a. m.

That's when you wake.

You turn on the gas.

You start boiling the rice.

Then...

you wake up the girls for school.

You make their lunches.

You are a poorly paid supply teacher.

Thin and worn as you are...

you must summon...

all the energy of a child.

You must sing your songs loud.

How many hours a day must you work?

All feel injustice...

but all fear being fired.

Lose that job...

and you can never go back.

For me, and for the children...

you grit your teeth...

and struggle on.

Your aching body doesn't weigh 40 kilos.

You are like a piece of cracked china.

Who is it...

that hurts you so?

Who is it...

forcing this grief on us?

You are no longer beautiful.

No longer young.

But now a thought strikes me...

and I must look at you anew.

You glow with the force inside you!

In my weakness, that gives me...

the strength to live on...

and reminds me...

that I am human.

Directed by Yoji Yamada

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