I'd like to talk about a short movie, Mermaid.
At first, there was a boy who likes to dream. He met a fish on the beach. Surprisingly, it changed to a Mermaid. (in his daydream) He fell in love with the Mermaid. They spent happy time swimming or playing in the sea. One day, he hit on an idea to bring it to his home. Then the Mermaid was unwilling to be taken to his home, but he brought it and showed to his parents. He insisted that it was a Mermaid but his parents didn’t think it as a Mermaid. After that, he was caught by a police and his daydream was forbidden by two ways. First, he was installed a machine in his head and changed his daydream forcibly. Next, he was compelled to read a lot of books and to change his idea. He couldn’t endure them, so run away to his home to meet the Mermaid. However, now, he couldn’t see a fish as a Mermaid. He was depressed and took it into the sea.
In the end, he will choose the dead in the sea to live with the Mermaid happily.
I think that he wanted to escape from the world where a daydream is prohibited.
This is too short movie, but I think there are two messages from Osamu Tezuka. First, I think he tried to tell us the freedom of imagination. We have a right of thinking freely. We shouldn’t be oppressed by anyone. Another thing is the difficulty of keeping thoughts even if they are denied or prohibited by someone. When we are denied by someone, almost all of us tend to change own ideas or thoughts, and run away from keeping to insist them. In the story, at last the boy run away from the situation where his imagination was not permitted. We need to have the courage to hold our thoughts or imaginations.
