Thanks to everyone who viewed and sent in great feedback for the “Kaninong Anino” video animation. I want to share with you an interesting message from history researcher and translator Ms. Mari Furusawa, a colleague of my father-in-law Dr. Leslie Bauzon’s from back in Japan. Furusawa-san is well-versed in our culture and history and sent in this touching note after viewing the animation:
Dear Bauzon sensei,
Thank you for sending the music video created by Arnold. It was so beautiful and moving. The song was great. The image of the ruined Manila provoked my memories about the violence committed by the Japanese military at the beginning of 1945.
Arnold explained the image differently at his website, but the image will trigger many people’s memory of the Asia-Pacific War, I think. The biggest difficulty in the history of the Philippines burdened on her people was the invasion and violent war by Japan, wasn’t it?
Putting that aside, the message of the video is very clear and inspiring. It says that there is hope in hands of each and every individual in the country. The video is the perfect work for the 150th birth anniversary of Jose Rizal. Congratulations to Arnold on the completion of the beautiful video! I hope the video will enjoy a lot of audience around the world and the sincere and warm message of the video and the song will inspire and encourage peoples beyond national borders.
Send my warm regards to Cynthia and Arnold.
With best wishes,
Mari
It’s a very interesting point of view — again, something I never really thought about when I was making the video and putting in all that destruction because the song’s message, to me, is really all about our own mistakes as a people and a call to action for us to rise against the rubble. Still, I am happy that the message about hope came across despite the language and culture barriers.
On that note, allow me to end this entry by sharing that my wife is currently studying Nihongo so the entire time I was editing it, she was singing along to the video using Japanese lyrics: Watashitachi no teki wa kage desu ka? (Ang kalaban lang ba natin ay anino?) ;)
[caption id="attachment_768" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="Kaninong Anino animation slide"]
[/caption]