Someone squeeze the water out!
Feb. 15th, 2008 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkermizu mashi (水増し) - Mitsuko kept muttering this as we watched the rakugo story this week. It refers to adding water to stretch something out. Padding, inflation of figures, and so forth? And sometimes stories get a dash of water added to fill the time?
This week the Rakugo story seemed to be stretched thin, like adding water to soup. Started out okay, with the teacher doing his last lesson, showing all the students the story of the sites of hell (apparently a one hour story!). And he finishes, collapses, and admits there is no way he can do the big show, so he asks them to do it for him. Except for Kiyomi of course, who will do improv rakugo. And we get the 4 students practicing in the hospital, then Kiyomi fretting about not knowing what to do. This kicks off a retrospective memory of grandpa introducing her to rakugo. Complete with Soso commenting that she has been on the road to rakugo all her life. So we've got teacher in the hospital, the students preparing for the show, and Kiyomi fretting about how to do sosaku rakugo (improv).
And on Tuesday, we did memories again. And on Wednesday. Thursday was mostly memories, with a final dinner at home and the teacher saying thank you to them all. In the bar, the shrine saleswoman says the doctor said we need to watch him closely.
In other words, we spent the middle of the week re-running earlier shows, and fretting about how to do improv. Oh, some nice insights into the writer, the uncle, and so on, but not much added.
Friday? Ah, a little bit of motion. Pick up with the teacher thanking them at dinner at home, and the shrine saleswoman telling them in the bar that the doctor said we had to watch him, but he insisted on eating dinner at home, sleeping one more time at home, and trying to go to the Tenguzan show tomorrow. And the students leave for Tenguzan, hang the teacher's jacket in the back of the prep room, and . . . back home, mom starts to help the teacher into a wheelchair, and he collapses. Hospital. Back to Kosojyaku (his son) on a cell phone at the show. "The doctor says we'll have to see, probably today or tomorrow." And Kosojyaku starts to run off, but they decide that doing the show is what he wanted, and as everyone cries, the show starts. Sogen (the oldest student) reminds Kiyomi that even though she's thinking about the teacher in the hospital, making the audience laugh - that's the work right now. And Kiyomi takes the stage, tells the audience that teacher is in the hospital, and . . . tells the story of her becoming a rakugo student. Final bit was the teacher telling her to "Yatte Mi" (show me) and how hard that is to understand.
So - Monday did the setup, and Friday picked up the action. But we spent three days just paddling in the watery soup, looking back at memories. I kind of think someone couldn't figure out how to keep the action going, and the tempo slipped. I think it might have helped if we had a new rakugo story introduced, or more details from Jigoku Bakkai, but there wasn't much.
Now what will they do on Saturday? Finish the show, and have the death of the teacher? Stay tuned (but skip the extra water, we're soaked already:-)
This week the Rakugo story seemed to be stretched thin, like adding water to soup. Started out okay, with the teacher doing his last lesson, showing all the students the story of the sites of hell (apparently a one hour story!). And he finishes, collapses, and admits there is no way he can do the big show, so he asks them to do it for him. Except for Kiyomi of course, who will do improv rakugo. And we get the 4 students practicing in the hospital, then Kiyomi fretting about not knowing what to do. This kicks off a retrospective memory of grandpa introducing her to rakugo. Complete with Soso commenting that she has been on the road to rakugo all her life. So we've got teacher in the hospital, the students preparing for the show, and Kiyomi fretting about how to do sosaku rakugo (improv).
And on Tuesday, we did memories again. And on Wednesday. Thursday was mostly memories, with a final dinner at home and the teacher saying thank you to them all. In the bar, the shrine saleswoman says the doctor said we need to watch him closely.
In other words, we spent the middle of the week re-running earlier shows, and fretting about how to do improv. Oh, some nice insights into the writer, the uncle, and so on, but not much added.
Friday? Ah, a little bit of motion. Pick up with the teacher thanking them at dinner at home, and the shrine saleswoman telling them in the bar that the doctor said we had to watch him, but he insisted on eating dinner at home, sleeping one more time at home, and trying to go to the Tenguzan show tomorrow. And the students leave for Tenguzan, hang the teacher's jacket in the back of the prep room, and . . . back home, mom starts to help the teacher into a wheelchair, and he collapses. Hospital. Back to Kosojyaku (his son) on a cell phone at the show. "The doctor says we'll have to see, probably today or tomorrow." And Kosojyaku starts to run off, but they decide that doing the show is what he wanted, and as everyone cries, the show starts. Sogen (the oldest student) reminds Kiyomi that even though she's thinking about the teacher in the hospital, making the audience laugh - that's the work right now. And Kiyomi takes the stage, tells the audience that teacher is in the hospital, and . . . tells the story of her becoming a rakugo student. Final bit was the teacher telling her to "Yatte Mi" (show me) and how hard that is to understand.
So - Monday did the setup, and Friday picked up the action. But we spent three days just paddling in the watery soup, looking back at memories. I kind of think someone couldn't figure out how to keep the action going, and the tempo slipped. I think it might have helped if we had a new rakugo story introduced, or more details from Jigoku Bakkai, but there wasn't much.
Now what will they do on Saturday? Finish the show, and have the death of the teacher? Stay tuned (but skip the extra water, we're soaked already:-)
