Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

After watching that bucket of feces called Eragon, I needed something profound for my system to restore some faith in humanity. I had the opportunity to see Babel, which I found to be mesmorizing. Obviously, I felt strongly towards it because of the scene with Chieko, the deaf/mute girl. While the general theme of the movie involves miscommunication, I wanted to focus on her story, which I felt a great deal of emotion and similarity with my own life here. Chieko, having lost her mom, being deaf/mute teenager, growing up in the fast paced society of Tokyo, and having a cold father, she's got quite the deck proverbially stacked against her. While she has her circle of friends, the subject of feeling connected to something, namely a male counterpart is what frustrates her most. Without the subtitles, it's quite possible that the audience can relate to her the most, since they too would be in a world that they could not understand. Although she is deaf, she's capable of reading lips and communicates through writing when others cannot perform sign language. Being a foreigner here, I feel the same way. I can understand people just enough, but the world seems alien and I am alienated in turn. Without language, one has no connection here. People take it for granted, but it's a serious issue when one wants to fully experience life here. I might see a cute girl but at most my verbage comes out awkward. It feels as though like Chieko, I am looked at like a monster because I don't quite fit the mold of what a Japanese guy should appear as and behave. The end part where she tries to have a sexual encounter with the detective but gets rejected and starts crying is something I've felt myself at times. In her case, she's desperate for that sense of connection, yet she realizes at that moment her games are hopeless. Japan is a place where an incredible amount of advertisement, marketing and sense of identity revolves around sexual exploitation in many forms. One can't help but feel some frustration being in a country who is quite liberal in that sense. Things get worse with a city like Tokyo as the density of people cause one to feel isolated. There might be some person one could see that looks interesting. However, without proper introduction, how can we break these barriers? These are the problems posed as Chieko's character explores in this movie. I hope when it arrives in Japan that many people here watch it because there are many good messages to ponder and are self reflexive.