The Fragility of the Un-permanent

Interpreting the meaning of death in Humanity and Paper Balloons

"[the final shot] incurs associations with the Buddhist notion of material life as a fragile, ephemeral, and unstable floating world" -Freda Freiburg

The film Humanity and Paper Balloons (Yamanaka, 1937 ) is not a samurai film in the traditional sense. There are not vast fight sequences where the main hero is shown defeating countless enemies in battle, or even shown overcoming a larger and more sadistic villain. As Freiberg goes onto suggest, this film takes on the role more of a critique of the samurai and traditional Japanese culture as a whole rather then typical other samurai films do. The main samurai in the film (or Ronan in this case as he has no master) is portrayed as out of work and somewhat weak. He is beat up by the Yakuza and in the end out shown by a barber named Shinza who stands up to the mob after kidnaping a pawn shop owners daughter. The main article in which Freiberg analyzes this film focuses primarily on the meaning of the film and more specifically aspects of the ending. Does the ending go on to make some statement about the brevity of life in the film? or does it perhaps say something far more tragic, such as creating a parallel to real life and what happened to the films director. The interpretations vary, but the clear message of fragility in things un-permanent remains the same across the board as we will go on to see.

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The final shot of the film

The Ending

The very last shot of the film shows a small paper balloon floating down a narrow water reserve. This scene immediately coming after the audience is informed [spoilers] that the Ronan and his wife have committed a double suicide. As suggested in the quote above, Freiberg posits that the balloon is a metaphor for the fragility of life viewed by some Buddhists. Other sources argue however that it is a melancholy send off by the director himself as shortly after the film came out he was drafted and killed in action. While it is a true example of dramatic irony that this ending matches up with such a notion, I do not feel it was the actual intention behind this final lingering shot as some might think.

The meaning of the End

Throughout the course of the film, the Ronan's wife is shown making these small paper balloons as some means to bring in an income. While the argument that the balloon is a knowing send off by the director may line up in some aspects, I feel like it was more intended to be viewed as a commentary on the trivial and sometimes fragile nature of life in this era. Freda Freiberg herself says several times that this film is more a critique of the Samurai than a film supporting their culture. Its with this in mind that the ending image takes on a new light and possibly shows just how fragile and brief life was and how weak the main Ronan character actually was in the end. He was killed by his wife in an effort to save his honor. Any real world connection to the director I feel is more coincidental than anything. It is the fragility of life and how hard we try to carve a meaning out of it (such as the characters in the film) that are the true focus of the story. The barber trying to stand up against the mob, or the Ronan trying glean some long faded sense of honor. Any interpretation otherwise dealing with real world events I feel might just be a so called side-affect of history. In the end however, most things in life are not directly spelled out for us as the viewer. Its with these concepts in mind that will make the next viewing all the more impactful. Will we find another layer hidden deep within the subtext, or will we find the same message made all the ore clear. In the end, only the viewer themselves is to say.

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Questions to the Reader:

1] Could the paper balloon represent something other than being a metaphor for the fragility of life?

2] Is the so-called main hero of the film [Shinza the barber] being a gambler involved in illegal activity change the overall message of the film?

3] Is the portrayal of honor in the film a good thing or bad?