Lessons from "Mr. Baseball," Part II

(Picking up my previous entry from where I left off, let's continue.)

Jack now has to turn to others for advice and assistance. He has to admit that he has hit bottom, and that he has (as one teammate remarks) "run out of excuses." In fact, what he has really "run out of" are places to "run to," in terms of running away from his problems. If he had stayed in the US, perhaps he would never have reached this level of self-awareness, albeit a painful and, at times - for viewers like me, who may recognize themselves in Jack to some extent - uncomfortable process to watch. However, the point is that he does come to realize that he must change, and that he cannot do this alone. This leads us to the fourth lesson.

Not wanting to spoil the ending for anyone, I will warn those of you who have yet to watch the film to skip this last "lesson" until perhaps after you've seen the movie.

The fourth point that I would like to focus upon is the importance of apologies in Japan. In the film, Jack hits bottom, asks for help, and then doesn't really "turn the corner," so to speak, until he makes a heartfelt apology to his teammates and to the people who care about him. When I first saw the film, I thought it all happened too quickly, and the speech in halting Japanese seemed too far-fetched. But upon repeated viewing, I must say that this important scene is now the one that rings most true in my estimation. Jack has to come around, by himself, to the realization that he alone has let everyone down and has, therefore, made a royal mess of things. He winds up with no one left to blame, and with no more excuses, so he gets down to work. Yet, it is not until he humbles himself and shows the others around him that he has taken it all to heart that he is finally ready for his comeback.

In Japan, apology is of the utmost importance. It should be sincere - though I sometimes lose faith in this whenever I watch the television news and see scandal after scandal, always accompanied by apologies from top-level bureaucrats and managers, who often seem to be going through an empty motion, just for appearances - and it should be made regardless of the small details of the case. In this way, regardless of exactly who is at fault and who did what to whom, we see someone stepping up and accepting responsibility for a mistake, and then saying sorry to all those who were affected by that mistake. In the US, oftentimes we see no one apologizing in such a scenario, but on the positive side, we do see a rigorous search for the details of the case and for those responsible. In Japan, by contrast, apologies are made rather quickly, although on the negative side, we can say that in many cases little more is done to punish the wrongdoer or pin the blame.

In any case, in "Mr. Baseball," Jack has to humble himself, admit that he is wrong, ask for assistance, and then apologize to those he hurt. It is not until the moment of the apology that he really learns his lesson, so to speak, and grows up as a character and as a man. I would go so far as to say that it is not until this very moment, in fact, that he becomes a "likeable" character. Prior to this pivotal scene, he is exactly the kind of narrow-minded, selfish, boorish person that one hopes to avoid overseas - as the one other foreign player on the team laments ("I came to Japan to get away from hotshots like you!") - and it is hard to find any redeeming quality about him; until, that is, he bows and apologizes to everyone. And the way that he is embraced by the team after this apology, or perhaps even more so, the way that he was selected by the Dragons in the first place, leads me to another lesson that we might be able to learn from "Mr. Baseball" - although I am not sure if this is really more telling about Japanese or American society (after all, the film was written and directed by an American, though it was set in Japan).

As "Mr. Baseball" Jack Elliot winds up teaching Coach Uchiyama and his teammates (albeit a little unconvincingly, and downright preachy, for my taste) about some "American" values ("Baseball is a game, and games are supposed to be fun!" and so on), I would like to end by stressing what I see as perhaps the most important lesson to be culled from the film - the possibility of a "second chance." This is what both the Dragons and "life in Japan" give Jack - and yet, in reality, for many Japanese people it seems to be something that is very hard to come by these days. There are many who do not quite fit the mold, or who do not walk lockstep with the people around them, and these people are often isolated or marginalized in this society. However, with an aging population and a declining birthrate, perhaps it is time that everyone be given a chance to contribute something to society, regardless of whether or not they were born here, or if they are "late bloomers" or in some other way "unconventional." Perhaps in this way, an underrated Hollywood film about "Japan" - one curiously unavailable on DVD in this country, though it can easily be found on VHS - might offer something valuable not only to people living abroad who are contemplating a move to Japan, but to Japanese people as well.

At any rate, I hope that those of you who have read this reflection on "Mr. Baseball" will go out and watch it, and then judge for yourselves.