STUDY: Mono No Aware

ACT ONE (1194)

SCENE ONE (323)

Protagonist Hiroto writes out the kanji for umbrella. He is describing the canopy, the solar sail. It catches photons and propels the ship the Hopeful, towards 61 Virginis. There are 1,021 inhabitants.

SCENE TWO (516)

FLASHBACK: Hiroto’s Dad wakes him awake. It’s time to go. He grabs his Go board. Everyone is standing outside. Hiroto looks up and sees the Hammer, an asteroid that has a collision course with Earth. A truck drives around telling people what to do. Dad helps out an old woman. Everyone is going to the bus stop to wait orderly. WORLD BUILD: On the TV everywhere else, they are looting, partying, disorganized, violence, etc. Dad wants Hiroto to remember that this orderliness is strength.

SCENE THREE (355)

8yo Bobby is telling Hiroto that he doesn’t like Go. There are flags in the classroom. America and a fading Japanese flag for Hiroto, the last Japanese in the universe. HIroto talks to he kids about Go. They say it’s boring. They would rather play video games. Or chess with heroes. Hiroto says chess is a skirmish. Go is a bigger perspective.

PURPOSE: Lay out stakes, goal, backstory, scope. Include the key elements:

ACT TWO (1309)

SCENE FOUR (480)

FLASHBACK: No room in Kagoshima where the spaceport is. Everyone sleeps outside. People are looking at the escape ships. Hiroto wants a window seat, but Dad tells him to give it to someone younger. Inspectors distribute goods. They tell people to be patient. Rumors start to spread after four days.Something’s wrong with the ships. There’s only one ship? Dad tells Hiroto to not repeat these things. There are so many people here, it would be selfish to spread rumours. Remember the bigger picture.

SCENE FIVE (538)

BACKSTORY SCENE: Mindy and Hiroto make love. They look at the ceiling monitor. Hiroto has the receding star field. Others have old Earth. Mindy asks him to translate guest and star. He remembers his dad telling him about nuance and supple grace of Japanese and the thousand ways you can phrase it. It’s his 25th birthday. He misses his dad. Mindy says her sister was into Manga. He remembers the video of the Earth blowing up. She remembers the robot in the manga “Japan is so Powerful”.

SCENE SIX (291)

FLASHBACK: Prime Minister apologizes. He has let his people down. The rumours were true. Shipbuilders stole money. Other nations had failed too. Japanese went home orderly. PRESENT TIME: So people just went home? Mindy asks. No, it was orderly he says with pride. Mindy says, I guess they’re resigned. And Hiroto says, no it wasn’t like that.

PURPOSE: Drive home what it means to be Japanese. Orderly. The group, not selfish.

ACT THREE (633)

SCENE SEVEN (633)

FLASHBACK: Dad is speaking english on the phone. He gestures and looks like a foreigner. Dad is trying to do something, but Dr. Hamilton is selfish. He’s calling to offer mom a seat on the ship. Mom says I wouldn’t have said yes. She goes to make lunch. Dad and Hiroto go on a walk. Dad asks if he’s afraid. He asks if they will build more escape ships. Dad recites a Basho haiku. He recites a Tang poet Li Shangyin thing. They talk about fleeting and permanent things.They talk about mono no aware… the transience of all things in life: ephemeral patterns destined to eventually fade, whether in a second or an eon. He’s not afraid now.

PURPOSE: Drive home the THEME/MESSAGE of mono no aware. What it means. The walk.

ACT FOUR (1204)

SCENE EIGHT (233)

Hiroto tells us about his job onboard the Hopeful. He looks at the grid of indicator lights. It’s like a giant Go board. It tells him the different tensions on the various spots of the solar sail. But today, the light feels off, he asks Navigation (Mindy) if we’re off course… they are.

SCENE NINE (604)

Mom takes HIroto to Fukuoka without Dad to get a Christmas present. It’s the last Christmas on Earth. There’s a newspaper, it’s the USA saying they’re skeptical of the doomsday scenario. They would prefer to deny it’s happening. But instead of shopping, mom takes him to the American embassy. It’s Dr. Hamilton. They talk. Mom cries. Mom tells Hiroto that he’ll be staying with Dr. Hamilton. She tells him that the Americans have a secret ship in orbit. He’s the only chance for Hiroto. Eventually mom leaves as Dr. Hamilton holds him kicking and screaming. Dad is standing there. Dad hugs her, a very American gestures. She keeps saying I’m sorry. Dad says it’s OK. Hiroto is let go, and he runs to them for a final hug. Dad asks if he’s afraid. HIroto shakes his head. Then he can go. He recites one more haiku. “remember that you are Japanese”

SCENE TEN (367)

Something has punctured the sail. The command staff is there along with Mindy and Hiroto because they already know. The ship is listing and veering off course. Sail will collapse if the tear grows bigger. The tear is too far away. It will take days to get there. HIroto closes his eyes to see the sail. He knows the complex membrane inside out. He says he can get out there in 72 hours. I know the quickest path. They plan, debate and fight.

PURPOSE: Something has gone wrong on the solar sail. Only Hiroto can save them. It’s about difficult choices and we have a flashback scene of mom doing it as well, and dad doing it too.

ACT FIVE (1499)

SCENE ELEVEN (157)

The climb from habitat model to the solar sail is 12 hours. He uses a Kanji to describe his situation again. Mindy talks to him. He’s getting tired, but she sings.

SCENE TWELVE (1342)

The climb up is easy, It’s the journey across the sail along the network of struts that’s hard. It’s 36 hours. He has hallucinations of his father talking to him due to the lack of sleep. He bangs his backpack against a beam. More flashbacks about dad talking about Mono No Aware. Mindy tells him to wake up! For the last portion of his repair mission, he must float and travel untethered.

Flashback again to playing Go with his dad. He talks about the stones in the southwest corner. THere’s a gap. Dad’s army can break in and surround him. The hole is in the sail he has to mend. He looks through the gap and see the stars. He’s putting a bandage on to seal it. It’s working. He’s thinks of himself as the Japanese robot. The torch sputters out. Flashback to dad pointing out - you sure you want to do that? The bandage is only half mended. Dr. Hamilton says to come back. But Hiroto knows that he can’t. He has fuel in his tank for the return trip. Flashback to the Go game. There’s a northeast army. It’s a small one. You can’t have one stone in two places. You have to choose. Dad does a haiku in flashback. Hiroto tells them he has a solution. He will use the fuel from his other tank. Correct your course. Mindy didn’t catch on that Hiroto is sacrificing himself. He turns off the radio and he pushes off.

PURPOSE: ONE ACTION. Mend the ship, tie it in with Go, being Japanese, his father, haiku, sacrifice, everything you used in Act one.

RESOLUTION

SCENE THIRTEEN (210)

Flashback to him playing the stone that would sacrifice the northeast corner, cast adrift. He reflects on the people who were heroes in his life. “We are defined by the places we hold in the web of others’ lives” “individual stones are not heroes, but all the stones together are heroic”

PURPOSE: Add context and meaning to the entire story.