Wen 丨 Liu Qi
"Do you think that as long as you work hard, you will be rewarded?"
In the 5th episode of "The Short Drama Begins", the frustrated but unwilling male protagonist Chundou asked. "As long as you work hard towards the goal, you have sacrificed a lot along the way, and one day there will be a reward." I have always felt that this kind of statement is a lie, but deep down, I firmly believe that our efforts will be rewarded. But unfortunately, it didn't pay off."
The spring Japanese drama "Short Drama Begins" in 2021, from the beginning of the Douban score of 8.4, soared all the way to 9.2, the results are very eye-catching. This group portrait drama about a group of young people who have suffered failures in life can be described as a strong lineup, written by Shigeki Kaneko of "Marriage Proposal Battle" and "My Story Is Long", and the actors include Shoko Sugata, Jun Arimura, Taiga Nakano, and Ryunosuke Kamiki.
"The Short Drama Begins" tells the story of a three-person funny group Makubes, who is still unknown after a full decade of hard work, and finally decides to abide by the agreement with his family to disband the group, but he is not willing to give up his dream. They meet a pair of sisters who have also suffered failures, and in the process illuminate and warm each other's lives.
In "The Skit Begins", Shigeki Kaneko's skills are perfected. The story of frustrated low-level marginal people warming each other up and repairing each other's broken hearts is somewhat like Yuji Sakamoto, the light and jumpy sense of humor and nonsense is close to Miyato Kankuro, the cruel relationship between dreams and reality and the theme of funny artists are a bit Yoshi Naoki. In this drama, Shigeki Kaneko seems to be hanging, not only gathering the strengths of each family, but also seemingly deftly bypassing the details of Sakamoto's drowning and Miyaku's self-release.
Japanese dramas have always favored the theme of "failed life", and "The Short Drama Begins" begins with a seemingly irreparable failure, but the focus is not on reviewing the blood flow in the process of failure, nor is it the chicken soup of the soul that can achieve results by persevering through defeat. There is neither pessimism nor self-confidence optimism. "The Skit Begins" is simply about how we are going to live in peace with our "failure"—accept it, look at it, and get it straight until it becomes a part of life.
In "Spark", Tokunaga said, "The only thing I have overturned is the beautiful words that "hard work must be rewarded." In contrast, Shigeki Kaneko's life is not so depressed and low, and he believes more in the warmth and strength brought by the connection between people.
"The Short Drama Begins" adopts the form of a drama within a play, the beginning and end of each episode is an absurd short drama by the Makubes group, and the main part reveals their past through the narration of several main characters, allowing us to see their failures and despair, as well as the beauty and hope in life.
Initially, there is a strong contrast between the nonsense, humor, and madness of comedy shorts and the seriousness, frustration, and blandness of the daily reality of several young people, but gradually, the audience sees sadness and helplessness in comedy, and experiences joy and joy in daily reality.
Measured by mainstream values, these young people are all losers without exception. Makubes has been creating and performing skits for ten years but has been obscure and struggling to make ends meet. After graduating from a famous school in Zhongbin and entering a large company, he could not adapt to the working environment full of hypocrisy and deception, and decided to resign and work in a small restaurant. My sister did not have the courage to face life, do what she wanted to do, and always hesitated. In addition, there are Chundou brothers who were once excellent but fell into the trap of pyramid schemes, high school teachers who gave up their life dreams, and homeless female colleagues.
But their encounters and the bondage between them invisibly gave each other hope and courage to live. At the bottom of her life' lowest depression, Nakahama met the Makubes group at a small restaurant where she worked, found them living in the apartment building next door to her, and saw them rehearsing skits in a small park that rained late at night, in a narrow apartment room, and she gradually could not suppress her curiosity and spent a week looking up their names online.
Then, "I don't know if I was too happy to finally find them, or because I was sad for wasting my time", she couldn't help but cry, and it was the first time she shed tears after resigning from the company for a year. It was a heartbroken and desperate man, the joy of seeing a glimmer of light. The original work life that I could not get used to, because of them, I can also face it positively. She derives the strength of life from paying attention to their actions to support them.
So, when Harudou felt that he was dragging down two friends and asking them to do a hopeless combination together, Nakahama said, "The time you three spent together did not feel a trace of regret at all, but it was so dazzling that I felt jealous and looked very happy."
In her fifth year, she joined Makubes, although she told two friends that she planned to give up her career as a professional esports player because she could not win over young people. In fact, he just won with a huge point difference and updated his record. But he still felt, "My heart is so empty." Compared to the game world where even if they win or are lonely, the stage where the two of them have been losing consecutively, and the stage that can't see the dawn and sigh looks more dazzling." So he lied a little and joined Makubes.
Nakahama's sister is very gentle and kind to others, but she does not have the courage to start her own life, "even if you want to start something, you will blindly imagine the situation after trying to achieve no results, and then you will not be able to take a step." 」 When she saw Makubes couldn't help but sigh, "I feel incredible, wouldn't they be afraid of no results?" Why can I gamble so much for my own possibilities?"
Although the Makubes group has never been successful in the mainstream sense, when they are doing their best for their dreams, the persistence and dedication, bravery and selflessness have brought joy and confidence to some people in this world who are in trouble and feel hopeless. The light they emitted, though faint, illuminated the gray and bleak reality.
The warmth of Shigeki Kaneko lies in the fact that although he writes about the failures and abandonments that life has to face, he believes that giving up is not necessarily negative. What's even warmer is that the people around the protagonist are also silently supporting them and encouraging them.
For example, when chundou's failed brother finally cheered up, he invited Makubes to perform at his next wedding. The owner of the barbecue shop said that he could come to work at any time, but also so that he had no worries. Runping's sister and brother-in-law plan to inherit the store, also so that his brother can do what he wants. Runping's girlfriend still tolerates and encourages his dreams when the gap between him and him is getting bigger and bigger.
"The Short Drama Begins" does not shy away from the relationship between dreams and reality. ChunDou asked, will hard work be rewarded? Nakahama answered him through his own experience. In high school, she was the president of the Hanamichi Society, and she wanted to win the national competition with her friends before graduation, but she won the third place. For her goal at the time, it was a failure. She didn't touch the flower road for the next ten years.
But while working at a small restaurant, two elderly people asked her the names of the flowers she decorated, and she said the names of the eight flowers. She felt that this was the reward for her efforts ten years ago. Shigeki Kaneko tells us that there is a reward for hard work, although this harvest is not necessarily success in the secular sense. This is not the so-called chicken soup for the soul, but an attitude towards life.
Psychologist Fromm believes that possession and existence are two different basic modes of survival, two different choices of self and world. Possessiveness is a more universal way of life, meaning that a person positions himself according to what he has and what he can have, in order to determine the meaning of life and how to live it. The object of possession can be a variety of specific substances — houses, money, stocks, works of art, and so on. Thinking that the goal of effort is to succeed is actually another kind of possession.
Instead, people who tend to exist revolve their lives around their own mental strength, and at the heart of this mental force is the ability to love, reason, and production. These require continuous practice to grow to a certain depth. It cannot be consumed, bought and sold, or owned like an object, but can only be practiced, practiced, or risked.
"Existence" is an attitude to life, a worldview, a means of pursuing happiness; it is to experience, to create, to give; to accept fresh thoughts and changes without having to dwell on yesterday or worry about tomorrow, and to live well in the present. In this sense, all the efforts of life do not necessarily need to be successful in the worldly sense, and do not need to be transformed into concrete and visible fame or benefits.
At the same time, in "The Short Drama Begins", Shigeki Kaneko also shows a superb skill of lifting weights. Different characters tell the same story, thus piecing together the complex and multifaceted truths of life. The drama and reality are constantly intertwined and echoed, and this echo is extremely precise but natural and smooth.
Every comedy in the Makubes group is tragic in nature. These stories are the absurd comedies they have turned the sadness and failures in their lives into absurd comedies that make people laugh. Cantaloupe soda is helpless against an out-of-control life, balcony is a dark mood that wants to commit suicide, water of miracles is an accident that deviates from the track of life and goes to destruction, stray cats are the isolation of children from their parents and the desire for intimacy, and KTV boxes are the abandonment that life has to face. These sad and comical skits are like condensed fables of their lives.
On the other hand, Shigeki Kaneko seems to be more engaged in depicting joy, and in his view, real life, even if it fails, is not necessarily gray. Those joys in life will always emit a light that cannot be hidden. For example, Harumi says, "All my decisions are after eating ramen." For example, Runtai always stretches Achilles tendons before important actions. For example, "My choice is indeed not wrong, Mapo Tofu".
For example, when everyone calls out Nakahama's name, or the foot-washing cloth that wipes his face after crying. Being able to write such details is a screenwriter's luck, and it is also the happiness of the audience. There are many places that can only be experienced after watching the episodes.
These young people, fragile because of their kindness and sensitivity, sparkling with bravery and persistence, their joys and sorrows have an incomparably moving power in this tragic comedy of life. The beginning of the story is that late at night after Nakahama resigned, she and Chundou met for the first time in a small street park. Nakahama said, "We didn't think that would be our starting point." Yes, as long as life goes on, even an irreparable failure can be a fresh start. So, just go ahead.