The anti-war propaganda film

I am with a Japanese film maker.

A war is going on between America and Japan, and she is making an anti war propaganda film. She is using the power of romantic love to stop soldiers fighting.

I am at one of the sets where they are doing a filming rehearsal. It is set in a beautiful bit of countryside; rolling hills, woods and valleys, green and lush, surround us. It is spring time and the women are working in the fields, digging the ground to prepare for the crops.

The women working in the fields all have this pole that they hold on to while working, and while they work, their young fresh bodies sway in the breeze and move syncronistically to the natural rhythm of their work. Their clothes are loose traditional clothes which flow around them in spirals, making their bodies seem as if something out of an apparition or dream, or some mystical event.

The soldiers are arriving now. They move through the fields, and the women working stop their work to look at them. The soldiers are meant to move on through, but a number of them get charmed by these beautiful women who sway in the breeze. They join arms and begin to dance around the fields, holding hands, and smiling at one another. The sun is shining and the spirit of spring and love making fills the air.

Now it is time for the soldiers to move on. Soon it will be their duty to take over these lands and make the women move on. Perhaps the women will die. Two of the soldiers however have fallen completely in love. The scene finishes with these two soldiers and their girls, wrapped around one another, kissing, lip pressed firm against their new found lovers. They can't break away, their hearts have been bound together. Yet they have to. The war demands it so.

The dress rehearsal scene comes to an end. The Japanese film maker thanks the actors for their work, and gets down to business right away to make the scene even better.

I am amazed by what I have seen, it moved me to tears. She however is neutral, as she has worked in film most of her life, and after time you become used to the emotions and passions that flow through, and can keep a cool head.