Swing Girls

1." Gambaru is a frequently used word in Japan, with the meaning of doing one's best and hanging on" (83). Japanese people gambaru  by studying hard, practicing hard, and working hard (83). "According to the Sanshodo Japanese Dictionary (kenbo, 1989, p. 218), gambaru is defined in the folowing ways: (1) to work hard and patiently, (2) to insist on having one's way and (3) to occupy one place and never leave (84). Here is a quick summary of the text. Overall Japanese culture is full of people practicing gambari. In japan the harsh climates and readily occurring natural disasters keeps the Japanese on their toes to work hard. In contrast, while Japanese spur on the gambari spirit Americans often tell each other to "take it easy" or "don't work to hard."
        “This achievement-based society and the equal opportunities provided by the educational system created a competitive world and reinforced the gambari spirit of the Japanese people” (p.88). What scene in the movie demonstrated this concept well?
          In the movie Swing Girls Tomoko's class was lazy and "taking it easy" if you will, like American culture promotes. But, later the hidden gambari was revealed. It started first with Kaori. After the girls began attending band practice Kaori began demonstrating gambari and surpassed the others in musical abilities. In response the rest of the class gambaru to try to match Kaori in musical talent. Gambari was progressively growing in Tomoko's class throughout the movie as they began competing with each other in music and later on in competitions against other schools bands.

2.    2.Considering gamabari, do you consider Naomi as a Gambari in terms of losing weight using the muscle stimulator? Why? Why not? Explain the reasons through explaining Gambari. 
Naomi was a little chubby girl. In her case it's hard to evaluate if she Gambari in terms of losing weight. I guess in essence, Gambari has developed in her a bit, but in Japan one definition is, " to work hard and patiently" (84). Naomi talked a few times about things she could do to loose wait but from looking at her food eating actions and the choices of using drugs to loose weights says differently. It seems that her words deceivingly indicate that she is working hard but "patience" is also key according to the Gambari definition. Using drugs to quickly shed pounds is not a form of patiences as i hope others agree. Also her words which are a reflection of her thoughts always seem to be about loosing weight which may give the impression that she is knowledgable and practicing what she says but clearly her actions in the movie did not reflect her words. Once, she said that she's on a diet and then took a full loaded pair of chop sticks and crammed a bunch of food in her mouth. Not the best demonstration of Gambari if you ask me. In fact quite the opposite.

3. Considering kenkyo, who do you think is the most and least kenkyo? Explain the reasons. 

       Kenkyo is a Japanese word for people who are modesty and humble and also have virtue. The text gave this quote as an example, "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down" (143). This quote sums up the meaning of Kenkyo, that is to stay out of the spot light. In the movie the talented musician Takuo had a stunning display of Kenkyo. While he was in the first set of band members his talent was unknown or overlooked. He was given the role of percussion which was a simple role in the band. Once the band members left, do to sickness, Takuo stepped up as head of the band. As in Kenkyo societies, the most sr. employees receive the most respect so did Takuo. He was soon after found to be a talented musician.  In contrast Tomoko was a very outspoken girl with little control. She often made actions that said, look at me. Throughout the movie she was always talking. "The pheasant that keeps its mouth shut is least likely to get shot" (147). This quote is the opposite of  what Tomoko's character did. She was outspoken which made her seem vain rather then humble.       

4.Considering Honne to Tatemae, after brass band got food poison, the girls decided to have jazz band. Although the girls practiced hard and were able to play a little, the brass band came back and took their places back. What was Honne and Tatemae of Tomoko? Explain why she acted like that. What kinds of influences contribute to group of jazz band.   

       "Honne is one's deep motive or intention, while tatamae refers to motives or intentions that are socially-tune..." (115). Actual intentions, honne. Superficial words, tatemae.  For Tomoko when the jazz band came back her superficial words (tatemae) implied that she didn't care and that they just wanted to get out of their other class anyways. But internally her honne was different. She did care about the band and was beginning to enjoy it. She gambaru and was learning well. The band was changing her character for the good but her tatemae said the opposite of her honne. 

5. What kinds of feelings/motives are changed from skipping make-up classes to gambaru.

       From skipping make-up classes to gambaru major changes occur. From apathetic to caring, is all for the better. When this change happens feelings turn from a sort of emptiness to joy in one's own accomplishments. As motivation grows through gambaru feelings for hard working grow and anxious and impatience slow.       

6. In the end, jazz band ended up playing great music. How would you end this movie, if it was not based on ganbari spirit? Explain the reasons. If this movie were not full of ganbari spirit from the Japanese then it could have been totally different. Those girls could have stayed apathetic and non caring and ultimately stayed the same. In correlation the movie could have ended with them attempting to play jazz but without unison.     

7. Among three concepts, which one is the most difficult to understand. Analyze why you think so comparing with your own experiences and American standard.  Gambaru, Kenyo, and Honne and tatemae all seem like easy concepts to understand but all have one difficult thing to remember in common. That is that they are all Japanese words which makes them hard to spell and retain which word goes with which concept. The concepts are basic and easily understood, but deriving a concept from a Japanese word seems a bit challenging because a word that is spelled differently form Americans' and sounds different may not be able to send the mental cues to the brain in order to retrieve a stored concept. 

8. Overall Swing Girls was a loving, enjoyable and positively a cultural shock of goodness. It was blastingly funny with Japanese humor. This was a surprisingly new experience since as Americans our movies different. It's safe to say that our humors are worlds apart. The only down fall, I would have to say is the ending of this movie. It was too happy. A bit of dramatic things towards the end would have helped out a lot. After all isn't the goal of most movie to get it stuck in your head? If there was a dramatic event towards the end it would more then likely enhance the possibility that the movie would had stayed with the viewer for longer. Well, nevermind, that was just a tangent. No drama needed. Movie is good.