阿 信的故事
This is a story of a young girl in Eastern Japan during the years of WWII. Her family were poverished farmers who could not farm enough to feed their children. Both sister were ‘sold’ to others in order to send money back. She was eventually sold for one year as an indenture servant for a bag of white rice.
It’s a story of how a strong willed 7 year old ‘Ah Xing’: how she struggled through indenture servitude, against all odds survived, struggled through a life of hardship and eventually lived a life of no regrets and a women of strong principles. I watched this tear jerker twice before and tonight asked my parents to pull out the old tapes again. I need something to inspire me and to make me realized what a blessed life I live. I have cried 3 times already watching the first 3 episodes.
The casting of the show is flawless with a very delightful little girl playing the young child. Reminds of Kate a lot.
Episode 1: It starts with her family sitting around eating carrots mixed with rice and drinking plain rice soup. The grandmother is saying she is not hungry but in reality she doesn’t want to be a burden on the family because she is not contributing to the family and would rather starve. ‘Ah Xing’ has been sold to another family for a year for a bag of rice. They have 6 children already and ‘Ah Xing”s mom is again pregnant. A’s mom is trying to abort the baby by soaking in ice code water in order to keep ‘Ah Xing’ home.
Episode 2: ‘Ah Xing’ is sent to work in a wood mill looking after a baby boy, washing clothes, scrubbing bathtubs and only gets 2 meals a day. She gets up every morning at 5am and doens’t sleep until 11. She is mistreated by the housekeeper. She eventually runs away because the housekeeper mistakenly accuses of stealing 50 cents. She gets caught in a storm but is rescued by a soldier.
Episode 3: The people who bought ‘Ah Xing’ comes to her family and takes back the bag of rice. ‘Ah Xing’ meets a formal soldier who ran away and is living in the mountains. She sort of falls in love with this man or just admires him. She spends a few months living with him and he teachers her the cruelties of war. She grows fond of living with the soldier and she she learns that happiness is not not just about material things. She has never been as happy before in her life. He teaches her to never have hate in her heart, always forgive people who hate, try to understand why these people have hatre in their hearts and pity them. Her family thinks she has frozen in the snow… to be continue while I watch this Japanese tear jerker and cry into my sleeves 🙂
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