The lines I wrote quoting my father's will.

This is a line from my script “The Holy Spirit in Ultramarine”.

It is a line that Kensho Kanemoto, an elderly Korean living in Japan who collects old iron and other metals, paper, and antiques and sells them to scrap dealers and antique dealers, says to Ryoko Hosono. This is where “The Third Man” is changed to “Way Down East” and my father's will is adopted.

Let me explain the situation.

Ryoko Hosono and her cousin Hiroko Kageyama run “Japanese style dining bar SUZUKAZE” in Kasugano-michi, Kobe, and Kensho Kanemoto is a regular customer.

Ryoko is diagnosed with terminal cancer and has only three months to live, so she starts “Death Cleaning”. She asks Kanemoto to dispose of her unwanted items. As it turns out, her cancer is miraculously cured, but she still continues with "Death Cleaning". Among the disused items was a large number of oil paintings that she had studied while at the Tokyo University of the Arts, and he realized that Ryoko had a dormant talent for oil paintings. So, Kanemoto lectures Ryoko in a drunken state. Incidentally, Ryoko's daughter Mari is a chalk artist, but she lives in fear of people because she suffered a gang rape by her classmates when she was a student at a private art college in Tokyo. Kanemoto does not know about the rape, but he is concerned that Mari lives her life avoiding people, and the following is the content of his line. I did not want to challenge Sugako Hashida, a Japanese screenwriter famous for her very long lines, but they are very, very, very long. But please read on.

(Kensho Kanemoto grabs Ryoko Hosono by both shoulders.)

Ryoko, my father said to me one time.

I can see that the film “Way Down East” is made in the spirit of “一所懸命 / Try as hard as one can”.

What you do in the spirit of “Try as hard as one can” will surely be conveyed to others.

I believe so.

So, try as hard as you can.

The next day, early in the New Year on January 4, to my great annoyance, when I woke up in the morning, my father was dead sitting on a chair. There was an autopsy by the police, and they questioned me and my mother a lot, as if we were murderers. However, we did not kill him, so there was no problem. However, my father had a lot of debts, and now that he was dead, I alone had to pay back the debts he left behind. I had no choice. He did not die because he wanted to. Without holding a grudge against him, I worked in the spirit of “Try as hard as one can” as per my father's will and paid off the debt. I certainly did countless stupid things, but I always worked with the spirit of “Try as hard as one can” when it came to living. I kept my father's last will and testament. I was able to pay my debts, properly, without making the mistake of relying on the Yakuza with tattoos on their backs in this port city. I have lived my life with a great deal of gratitude for others. Everyone treated me with good heart and attitude. I think it is because my spirit of “Try as hard as one can” was certainly conveyed to them. That is why they treated me with kindness....

But these days, I have a thought. Even if we try to do things in the spirit of “Try as hard as one can,” there are many things in life that we are forced to do that we don't want to do. There are times in life when all we can do is feel miserable, grit our teeth, and do it. Such things make me wonder if my life was ever really good. That said, I am not a “Blooded Horse,” so I can't help it. But you are not. Neither is your daughter. You have thrown away many, many of your study oil paintings, but I know their value. As you know, it is my job to sell paintings, teacups, vases, kimonos, and whatever else I am asked to dispose of when I clean other people's houses to antique dealers. Sometimes I sell them at art auctions. I have seen the best skills regarding art. Your skills are first class. So the real you is different from what you are now, when you are not painting. Your daughter is really a more energetic being.

In the film “Way Down East”, an actress named Lillian Gish goes to a frozen river in a daze. There, she faints and collapses. The ice gradually cracks and breaks. In her unconscious state, she starts to go down the big river on a big piece of ice. The ice carrying her goes down and down and down the river. Then she dips one hand into the frozen river. Sometimes her face was half submerged in the frozen river, too. But with her one hand still dipped in the frozen river, she drifted away.

To best utilize her talents, she got frostbite on one of her hands. It would have tingled. It would have been tingling. If she performed with that much “Try as hard as one can” spirit, then I think that Lillian Gish's “Try as hard as one can” spirit can be conveyed to anyone, can't it? I used to watch a lot of movies. There was nothing I enjoyed more than movies. Other than that, I often bought horse betting tickets. I watched a lot of movies, but “Way Down East” was the best in terms of risking their life to make it.

Ryoko, live your life with the spirit of "Try as hard as one can". Otherwise, there is no meaning for you to have been born. Does not the meaning of living with the spirit of “Try as hard as one can” mean “burn up your life”? If so, you need to make full use of your talents. You need to make full use of the talents you were born with. Your talents are there to be used, used, and used up. You and your daughter should.

(Kensho Kanemoto gripped Ryoko Hosono's shoulders with even more force.)

You have endured so extremely well that you have lost so much weight. You had a serious, mortal illness, yet you did not die, doesn't that mean that you are still capable of taking on challenges? In the spirit of “Try as hard as one can,” use your unique and different talents. Then the world will know about the richness of your talent. I am sure it will! My father, in fact, conveyed his will to me with such an intention. Do not simply do something. Only work on the things related to your talents that you have received as evidence that God said to you, “Please do this,” and that the request is His gift to you, in the spirit of "Try as hard as one can".

Do you understand?