A few housekeeping things…

One, The open thread is here: Silent: Open Thread

Two, I’m sure @Growing_Beautifully led a great discussion on this Japanese drama. It’s not too late to join her there.

Three, I’m not sure however that I can keep writing on this one because as you know I still have “Hidden Love” on my plate, and @agdr03 is threatening to cry like a baby if I drop it. (And we can’t have her crying like a big baby on this blog….)

If I need to take a break from “Hidden Love” once in a while, I’ll continue with this one.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

I did an experiment with this first episode. I pretended to be deaf like the male lead, Sakura.

First, I watched Episode 1 in its entirety, then I rewatched the first four minutes with the sound turned off on my laptop. You see, by stepping temporarily into the shoes of Sakura, I had to rely on my eyes to form not my first but my second impressions of the drama.

These are the things I discovered in the first four minutes of the show.

1. The snow drifts from the sky silently, but the girl moves noisily.

Even without the sounds, it’s easy to tell by her movement that she emits a lot of noise.

Why?

Because she looks lively and boisterous.

She skips down the stairs, pauses, and rushes to the window. She laughs, grabs a handful of snowflakes, pauses, and rushes down the the stairs again.

Then she stomps up some more steps, and trots over to Sakura. Her ponytail swings jauntily, back and forth. I swear, even from the back, she looks cheerful and noisy.

In contrast, Sakura is motionless.

Standing against the wall, he only stirs when she stops in front of him. He’s wearing earphones so he misses her noisy entrance. But he removes them as soon as she greets him, and greets her back.

Excitedly, she tells him it’s snowing. And he repeats the same words with wry amusement. Even without sounds, it’s easy to tell by the way he smiles at her that he’s taken by her.

2. She brightens up his world.

I told you cinematography doesn’t always have to signify breathtaking landscapes and glitzy colors, right? Cinematography can be minimalist and understated.

In this scene, the director (or his director of photography) seems to have used a soft blue wash or cool lighting to make this covered bridge looks drabby. There are only two bright things in the picture. One is the trail of lights on the ceiling, and the other is the yellow rumble strip on the ground. Though the rumble strip looks faded because of the blue wash, it draws our attention to the placement of the two characters in the scene.

To me, that yellow rumble strip is symbolic. It’s the solid line representing the separation between his world and hers. Interestingly enough, the rumble strip divides their worlds in unequal halves. He only gets a third of the passageway while she gets two-thirds.

Then, as she walks off, he crosses over the yellow divide and follows her into her world. Notice that he walks right under the trail of lights?

To me, this kind of cinematography conveys a visual metaphor. His small world is drab and gloomy. But when he crosses over to her world and walks with her, he’s in a bright and happy place.

3. Subtitles are awesome.

Though I turned off the sounds, I could still follow the conversation because of the subtitles.

Just like subtitles have opened the world of doramas to non-Japanese viewers like me, close captioning and subtitles for the deaf/hard-of-hearing (SDH) have opened the world of media to deaf viewers.

With the advances in technology, it’s been increasingly easier to access media entertainment, despite our handicaps, be they a language barrier or deafness.

Hence, I couldn’t really empathize with Sakura when he ranted that he could no longer enjoy listening to music with Aoba. I thought that was a lame and cowardly excuse for ghosting her.

4. Their dialogue is deep and profound. (Not!!!)

Aoba: Good morning.
Sakura: Morning.
Aoba: It’s snowing.
Sakura: It’s snowing.
Aoba: Will it all pile up?
Sakura: Well…I don’t think so.
Aoba: Yes, it will. It’ll definitely pile up. When you play soccer in the snow, you know…the ball gets bigger and bigger.
Sakura: (confused) Hmm?
Aoba: Huh? I mean, when making a snowman, you roll the ball, make it bigger, then make two of these, and put one more on top.
Sakura: You mean when snow gets attached to a ball, it’ll become bigger?
Aoba: It sure will! Like a snowman.
Sakura: (chuckling) No, it won’t.
Aoba: It will! Definitely will! The snow will, like, keep clinging all over the ball.
Sakura: No, it won’t.
Aoba: Yes, it will. Shall we have club activities outside today? We can make lots of snowmen.

My comments:

a. She seems hyper. She’s always walking ahead of him, talking briskly, and gesturing animatedly. Though his legs are longer than hers, he trails behind her because she walks faster than him.

b. She gesticulates a lot. Before she learns sign language, she’s already using her hands to communicate and to emphasize her ideas. Even with the volume off, I can see that she’s a voluble speaker.

In comparison, he keeps both his hands in his coat pockets.

c. Because she walks in front of Sakura, she occasionally has to turn back to talk to him. Once he’s deaf, however, she’ll have to modify her ways and learn to walk alongside him, at the same pace, in order to communicate with sign language.

d. While she walks in front of Sakura, his eyes are fixed on her.

e. Their dialogue is small talk. They aren’t discussing heavy, complicated topics; they’re talking about nonsense.  However, this kind of chatter is still necessary in establishing a rapport and an easy vibe between the two. Sakura knows Aoba’s idea about turning soccer balls into snowmen is silly, but he’s entertained.

f. They enjoy each other’s company. They don’t need to exchange intellectual or soulful conversation. They just like to be together.

5. Silent has many meanings, and we see a host of them in this brief exchange. 

I’ll mention a few.

Aoba: Ssh. It’s so silent. It’s silent when it snows.
Sakura: (smiling at her)
Aoba: (aloud) Right? It’s silent, right? (grinning up at him)
Sakura: Too loud.
Aoba: Huh?
Sakura: Your voice…is too loud.
Aoba: (swaying) Sakura…it’s so quiet, riiiiight? (yelling)
Sakura: You’re too loud! (laughing) Shhhh!

a. when Aoba shushes Sakura, we see one meaning of silence. It means not to make a sound. She doesn’t want Sakura to say a word.

b. when Aoba says that snow is silent, I think she’s pointing out that snow has an eerie way of absorbing sound. Have you ever stood in the middle of an open field when it’s snowing? The sounds around you are muffled or muted, like when you press your hands hard on your ears to block off noise.

c. when Aoba sways and grins at him, we know that SHE is definitely NOT silent. To be silent means to be still and calm. She’s anything BUT still and calm at that moment.

d. when Sakura tells her that she’s “too loud,” he displays another meaning of silent. Sakura can be described as a silent person; he’s reserved and taciturn. He speaks little and uses words sparingly.

e. then when Sakura repeats “You’re too loud!” and laughs, we get to see another meaning of silent. It means unspoken. He’s telling her that she’s too loud, but the silent, UNSPOKEN words are that he finds her lovable in that moment. He doesn’t have to tell her that because it obvious from the way he looks at her.

These are just some of different meaning of “silent” as seen in this conversation. I’m sure you can see more.

6. Cinematography does its job.

After this brief banter in the snow, the camera slows down on Sakura and Aoba grinning at each other and looking up at the sky. There’s a quick shot of the city skyline as snow continues to fall.

This is a romantic shot. It gives the illusion that all’s well with world and our couple.

But then comes the blackout.

The blackout is an abrupt way to transition into the next scene but it’s very appropriate. It screams that there’s sudden and jarring change (or reversal) in the lives of the two sweethearts. One second, snow is romantically blanketing the whole city. Then in the next second, everything goes pitch-black.

When the camera turns on again, it’s to show a curtained window with hanging decorations on one side. The ornaments look curiously like snow to me.

Instead of real snow drifting from the skies, representational snow is now suspended by the window. Instead of Aoba cheerfully going down the stairs, she sluggishly sits up from the bed, draws the window curtain, and looks outside.

We’re supposed to see the contrast between back then, and the current time.

Just like in the opening scene, Aoba looks outside the window. But unlike the opening scene, she no longer faces the audience.

This time, it’s her back which faces the audience. She’s silhouetted against the daylight.

Then, in the shadow, a man sits up behind her. Whoops! It’s NOT Sakura. (Not to be a prude here, but I’m admittedly a wee bit disappointment that she’s in bed with someone else other than Sakura….)

This man who is NOT Sakura speaks first. He observes the weather like Aoba did in the opening scene.

Not Sakura: What a downpour.
Aoba: Mmm.
Not Sakura: What time is it?
Aoba: 5 am.
Not Sakura: Let’s go back to sleep.
Aoba: Okay.

And they lie down again. Still gazing outside, Aoba frowns at the rain. She says, “So noisy,” then pulls the curtain close.

My comments:

a. The contrasts are everywhere! In the opening scene, the contrasts were between Sakura and Aoba. Following the blackout, the contrasts are now between the past and present. This new Aoba has changed from the old one. She has calmed down considerably. She isn’t going to run outside and dance in the rain.

b. It’s also quite telling that she’s the one complaining about the noise the rain makes. She wants silence now. By silence, she means tranquility. A bit more peace and quiet will allow her to sleep in some more. How her priorities have changed now that she’s no longer a kid in high school.

c. She’s no longer a chatterbox.

And there you have it. As a result of my mini-experiment on being deaf for the first four minutes of the drama, I’ve come up with these six observations. Lol. Why don’t you try it? Turn off the sound and watch this in silent mode like Sakura.