October 11, 2005

桜色舞うころ


A couple of days ago, a Japanese friend introduced the music video to the song 桜色舞うころ by Mika Nakashima. Now, I normally do not give two hoots about music videos, especially J-pop ones, as I admittedly stereotype them to be candy pop music with cutesy female singers shaking their tootsies, exaggerating their emotions on the video whilst singing belting their thing. I mean, how many videos have you seen where the singer actually cries? Not many, I can tell. There's this one, 大好きだよ by Otsuka Ai, where she held her on-screen lover's hand whilst he slept, and wept her love to him. Initially, I thought he died or something for her to cry like that in the video. Get real. Geez. Hey, I'm all for the song (it's quite tuneful), but I draw the line at the soppy video.
Anyway, I digress. The Mika Nakashima video was introduced to me during a karaoke session in Shinjuku during the weekend. My friend told me about the video before, and how sad it was, that it made her cry after watching it. I have to say, I was entirely skeptical, amused even, at her confession. Heck, it was just a music video. How bad can it be?

The video featured Nakashima in a long, white, flowing dress, on the piano. Surprisingly, you do not see much of her in this video, as the storyline was based on Playdoh-like characters (very retro, actually). The video started with two children, a boy and a girl, playing around a tall, sakura (cherry blossom) tree. They were best friends, and were always together, playing by the sakura tree. Time passes by, and these two children grew up to be teenagers. They fell in love, and spent most of their time under the sakura tree, talking about their lives, planning a future together. Suddenly, the time came when the girl had to leave home (I'm not sure where to, and what for). They bade their sad farewells to each other, promising that they would meet again, under the sakura tree. The girl's father finally pried her away from the boy, and drove off, leaving the boy under the sakura tree.

The years went by. The boy grew up to be a handsome man. He waited everyday under the sakura
tree, hoping that his love would return to him. He waited everyday, and as time went by, everything around him changed. The old village he grew up in slowly became a city, with old buildings torn down, and replaced with skyscrapers. Everything changed, but his love for his sweetheart remained, and so did the sakura tree. He waited by the tree everyday, until there came a time when construction workers came to chop the tree down. He threw himself in front of the tree in protest. It worked, and the tree remained.

The boy we once knew was now an old man. He walked to the old sakura tree, back bent, with a walking stick. He never gave up waiting for his love to return to him. His sweetheart finally appeared in front of him, but as a teenaged girl. She smiled at him, and he walked towards her, becoming the young man himself. Sakura fell upon them, as the young lovers walked hand-in-hand.

Needless to say, in the midst of the noisy karaoke singers, I had tears in my eyes when the video was over.

Damnit.

桜色舞うころ
私はひとり
押さえきれぬ胸に
立ち尽くしてた

若葉色萌ゆれば
想いあふれて
すべてを見失い
あなたへ流れた

めぐる木々たちだけが
ふたりを見ていたの
ひとところにはとどまれないと
そっとおしえながら

枯葉色染めてく
あなたのとなり
移ろいゆく日々が
愛へと変わるの

どうか木々たちだけは
この想い守って
もう一度だけふたりの上で
そっと葉を揺らして

やがて季節はふたりを
どこへ運んでゆくの
ただひとつだけ確かな今を
そっと抱きしめていた

雪化粧まとえば
想いはぐれて
足跡も消してく
音無きいたずら

どうか木々たちだけは
この想いを守って
「永遠」の中ふたりとどめて
ここに生き続けて

めぐる木々たちだけが
ふたりを見ていたの
ひとところにはとどまれないと
そっとおしえながら

桜色舞うころ
私はひとりあなたへの想いを
かみしめたまま

Click here to listen.

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