Post-modernism and Lady in the Water

I watched Lady in the Water (2006), which some of my friends in the US have talked about more than one time and which I had never seen even after coming back to Tokyo. To tell the truth, I didn't understand this movie well. Here is the storyline:

Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep (Giamatti) rescues what he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. When he discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the journey back to her home, he works with his tenants to protect his new friend from the creatures that are determined to keep her in our world.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452637/

I am sure that this movie is a fairy tale for adults. And it is also somewhat relevant to post-modernism in that the life of characters in the movie are related to a bedtime story. To tell the truth, it is hard to believe that our life is directly affected by a fiction. Even if yes, it is harder to know how it is relevant to our life. But, post-modernism has been dealing with that kind of matter, in my understanding of philosophy. Anyway, this movie was really difficult for me to understand because of two reasons. I have already mentioned one of them. The other is that Japanese people do not understand "to be modern" before thinking about "post-modernism." It is difficult to explain what "modern" means, but you have to be able to interpret what is going on in this world by yourself if you are modern. But, this type of thinking practice is not familiar with the Japanese. As long as we are human, we have to come across lots of situation we have to decide, right? Then, who make decision? Yes, it is you. But, Japanese people tend to avoid making their own decision by themselves. They often want to know what others would do before making decision. You could say that it is because the Japanese are group minded, but I sometimes feel it is really sad.

『レイディー・インザ・ウォーター』という映画を観た。これは、大人の寓話というやつだが、よくわからなかった。たぶん、ポストモダニズムとかと関係していると思う。登場人物の運命が、あるおとぎ話と関係があるという設定なのだから。ただ、日本人には結局、ポストモダニズムとはわからないものだとも思う。モダニズムがわからないんだから。何をモダニズムとするかは難しいが、基本にあるのは、世界を自分なりに解釈しようという試みのことだと思う。このこと自体にピンとこない人のほうがほとんどじゃないかと思う。「自分の頭でものを考える」と云いかえることもできるが、これだと当たり前じゃないかいつもいろいろ考えてるよ、とみんな云うだろう。でも、「私もそろそろ２０代後半になるから」とか「みんな（あるいは、自分の好きな有名人）が云ってるから」とか「雑誌・新聞に書いているから」で物事を決断している人は結構多い。もちろん、欧米人だって、媒体には影響されるが、アイディア（思考、思想）そのものまで影響されるというのではあまりに悲しい。だが、意外とこの状態から抜け出るのは難しい。