>>> Item number 7735 from WRITERS LOG9301D --- (92 records) ------ <<< Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 13:34:49 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: Re: Star-Crossed Lovers in Japan (Part 4) [Watch out, he's got blood in his eye. Keep your head down, tink] At 8 p.m., Jan. 27, the plot seemed to be over, with a whimper. Until the 11 p.m. news shows started, everything seemed reasonable, if pitiful. The media then presented us with what at first seemed to be two more interviews, one with Takahanada-san and one with Rie-chan. Takahanada-san's was short, with him saying his love wasn't big enough for her. He added that he had wondered if he could concentrate on sumo or not if he loved her or got married, and that he lacked confidence in his ability to concentrate on sumo. The media focused on one interviewer's question about why he didn't think maybe two people could get together and both concentrate on sumo. He answered that he had thought that at first, but he lacked the drive or vision to carry that idea into the future. He concluded that the breakup was his fault. His interview tapes showed the time as 10:55 p.m. All the stations I saw next presented pieces from an interview with Rie-chan. One focused on a media question about who changed their mind. She answered that she can't say now who was wrong. She added that she had decided a month ago to retire from her career and just get married. Another had a portion where she explained that since Christmas, they have both been busy, but she was lonely and waiting for his phone call, and he never called. She added her idea that if there is a big problem between husband and wife or lovers, that during that difficult time they should help each other and work it out together. She said that since they couldn't work it out together this time, she lost confidence that they could in the future. There was also a little bit in the clips where she said she doesn't like a miserable hero, with the implication that we should not make the mistake of thinking she is miserable. We did not notice the times in all of her interview tapes. One that did clearly showed 6 something p.m. As of a little after midnight last night, the media seemed to be busily explaining to each other and the public that this was a terrible mistake, and the two were just badly matched, and so on. The hard questions about tradition seem to be disappearing into a pretty slick emotional torrent about young lovers and the bumpy road they often have. But to this observer, there's a very nasty "instant rewrite" of history implicit here. While I can understand the early news on several stations restricting coverage to an approved early part of the interview with Rie-chan (if that's what happened - it was never stated that way), the early commentary indicated that this was all the information available - at the same time that crews were apparently continuing the interview. The later shows did not explain why earlier shows had led us to think the show was over. Instead, they simple presented a new scenario, with a short late afternoon press conference with Rie-chan, then a response from Takahanada-san, and Rie-chan's return conference. But the implied order of the later interviews, and the evident sketchiness of what we're getting from Rie-chan's interview, certainly seem misleading. My wife at first thought there was the late-afternoon interview, then one with Takahanada-san, then another with Rie-chan. Then we started watching the times in the corner of the tapes. I'm also disappointed in the vanishing emphasis on the large issue of women's careers vs. Japanese traditional concepts of the wife's role and the sudden swing to the relatively light issue of young broken hearts. Not especially surprised at the change, but disappointed. I refused to watch this morning, but my wife is going to see if anyone puts the entire interviews on T.V. If they actually manage to straighten out last night's media farce, or even switch to another scenario, I'll be surprised. I think they're just going to drown the whole mess in a froth. I get the impression that the media either didn't read the stage directions last night, or chucked the script and adlibbed the whole thing, which may have produced the distinctly poor performance I saw. Anyway, that's where we seem to be on Jan. 28. [BTW - the copy I got of my earlier post has a missing number. The approximate income for Takahanada-san's stable for a year and for Rie-chan for one month should be two million, four hundred thousand dollars. Just in case you got a mangled number before.] (cultural reporter smells something, and it's not your socks this time, sah!) mike