“What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was the same, and nothing that you did mattered?”
Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray
“I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl.
We ate lobster, drank pina coladas.
At sunset we made love like sea otters. That
was a pretty good day. Why couldn’t I
get that day over and over and
over...”
Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray
Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray
I noticed a couple of days ago that it was
February 2nd: Groundhog Day. For
those who haven’t heard of it, it is a day associated with a superstition
about the change from winter to spring.
In a small town in America called Punxsutawney, there is a ceremony held
every year on this date. They pull out a
small hibernating animal called a groundhog. According to the legend, if the animal sees
its shadow then that means that there will be six more weeks of winter. If it doesn’t see a shadow, then there will
be an early spring.
There are a lot of daft
superstitions in the world. What makes
this one special is that it inspired one of the greatest films ever
made... Well, one of the greatest films
I have ever seen, anyway. I must have
watched the 1993 film, “Groundhog Day”, at least 50 times.
I am occasionally asked what my favourite
film is and, when I mention Groundhog Day, no Japanese person has ever seen
it. That is a terrible shame. Because the film offers advice to anyone who
feels stuck in life, unable to influence things around them. As Japan drifts into a future of an ever
increasing ratio of pensioners and ever declining opportunities for the young,
a lot of people are going to need to get over a similar feeling of
powerlessness. Don’t worry, it is not a
philosophical lecture. The film is
extremely funny.
The story is about an arrogant
weatherman, who travels to Punxsutawney to cover the Groundhog Day festival. He annoys everyone around him and tries to
get out of the town as fast as he can.
But he is unable to leave because of a blizzard and has to stay
the night in a local hotel.
He then becomes trapped in a time loop. He can travel around the town, talk to the
limited number of residents, watch the festival, and so on. But whenever the time passes 6 am the
following morning, he wakes up in the same hotel bed and it is February 2nd
again. Only his memory remains of what
he has done before. Many years pass in
this way. According to one estimate made
by fans of the film, he lives the same day for what he experiences as about 33
years.
Like a Buddhist living through a cycle of
thousands and thousands of lives and seeking a way to escape, the weatherman ,
Phil Connors, goes through stages of ignorance, selfishness, self-indulgence,
desperation and finally moves towards enlightenment.
This week in the real Groundhog Day, a
sleepy little animal predicted an early spring.
For hayfever sufferers like myself, that’s worse than a long
winter. I’m still in my phase of
desperation at my powerlessness in the face of unstoppable pollen. Perhaps if I had a 33 year break from spring,
I would reach enlightenment too.
Vocabulary:
a sea otter – a type of mammal that lives
in the sea and which was once hunted for its fur
a superstition – an un-scientific belief
involving luck, magic, the supernatural etc.
a hibernating animal – an animal which
sleeps for a long period during winter
daft – silly; stupidarrogant – having an excessive belief in one’s own importance
a blizzard – a snow storm
a time loop – especially in science-fiction
or fantasy, a situation where time does not move forwards in a straight line,
but repeats itself
ignorance – lack of knowledge or
understanding
self-indulgence – being overly kind to oneself;
following one’s own desires too much
enlightenment – in Buddhism, the state of
proper understanding of the world which the Buddha achieved
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