This year I’ve had an honour of working closely with a multi-talented artist, Fiona Amundsen.
About two months ago, our short film, which incorporates rakugo, the Aikido concept of “zanshin” (残心), and remembrance of WWII, was released on Asia New Zealand Foundation’s digital platforms.
This work was a part of “IN TOUCH arts commissions” by the foundation, and I feel very privileged to be a part of this project.
You can still view this film/ artwork, but before you watch it, I’d like you to know a few things:
- My family’s experience in Nagasaki is only a personalised way of remembering our mistakes as humanity as a whole. I am deeply ashamed of what my Japanese ancestors did to many Asian nations and others, and this is no way our attempt to victimise Japanese.
- It is our way of finding the universal message of peace in the ordinary, everyday things.
- Part 1 is very dark and many may give up watching the rest, but Part 2 has some humour in it based on my own experience with my grandfather. But Part 2 only makes sense if you watch Part 1…
I decided to write this first because someone who probably hadn’t watched the work nor read the interview commented as below on the foundation’s SNS:
“Great idea! Let’s remember Nanking, Rangoon, Singapore, Jakaraka [sic], Port Moresby, and many many others too shall we?”
This work was created to do exactly that!
Here is the link to our work. You can also find our interviews on the page. Some of the super intellectual comments are by Fiona 😁
You can find other commissioned work here.
May peace prevail upon us all!
Kia tau te rangimārie ki a tatou katoa!
我々と共に平和がありますように。
English Rakugo NZ 