Movie: The Violin Across the Channel

Recently I’ve encountered many events that challenge me to once again ask myself about the dream I’ve been pursuing. Is it the right one? Is it really my destiny? Or is it just a temporary ambition? While some of us was lucky enough in finding the road they want to take in this life soon enough, the same cannot be said about others.

You don’t have to be a teenager to find yourself just drifting along the river; the search of personal legend (borrowing Paulo Coelho’s words) goes on for the rest of your life.

And just when those events happened, I happened to cross upon this movie. I read somewhere that the movie Kaikyou wo wataru Violin gained enough praises, one of them was because of Tsuyoshi Kusanagi ‘s acting in it. But I think the movie get its impact because it showed up during the time when Japanese-Korean theme movies were not on the main stream—unlike today. We all probably heard about the bad relationship between the two countries, even in Tetsuko Kuroyanagi’s Totto-chan: The Little Girl At The Window, there were some part where a Korean boy in Japan get bullied because of his ancestry.

Btw, you will find a familiar face at this movie: Oshin! Hehehe.

Shogen Shin grew up in Korea during the war. Ever since he met a street musician and his violin, her heart has never been the same again. That is why when he met a Japanese teacher who had a beautiful violin, he asked him to teach him to play the instrument. After his separation with the teacher, he then decided to go to Japan to pursue his education—in Japan education was free at that time.

Inspired by his Japanese teacher he dreamt of becoming a teacher, but since the situation was going to the bad for Korean in Japan since the war, Shogen couldn’t get his teaching license. Even worst, he couldn’t even get any job because of the prejudice against Korean. At this difficult time, the violin called to him and reminded him of his true passion. He decided to make a true violin like the Stradivarius. This ambition took his sanity and even turned into an obsession that almost destroyed his family.

My deepest respect was for Shogen’s wife. As a young girl she believed that his dream was hers too. As a wife, she endured rough life to endorse her husband efforts. But then she finally almost left him when Shogen nearly “killed” their daughter when his mind was over-preoccupied by violin.

Made based on a true story, I found myself asking over and over the big question the movie was telling: How far will you go to pursue your dream?

Japanese title: Kaikyou wo Wataru Violin
Casts: Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Kanno Miho, Odagiri Jo, Shofukutei Tsurube, Chong Dongfan, Kara Jurou, Ishizaka Kouji, Sugiura Naoki, Tanaka Kunie, Tanaka Yuko
Language: Japanese, Korean Broadcast: Fuji TV, November 2004