Documentary programs may resemble a journey.
This is because it is a real pleasure to meet unexpected new things.
The new things may be facts that you didn’t know before, fresh impressions, or values that are different from your own.
I grew up watching many documentary programs on TV: “Subarashii Sekairyoko (The Amazing Round-the-World Trip)”, “Yasei no Okoku (The Wild Kingdom)”, “Shin-Nihon Kiko (New Japan Travelogue)”, and so on.
I remember the feeling of excitement I would get just from listening to the opening music. I would often daydream about unknown lands and think, “The world is so huge!”
As a child, it was through documentary films that I learned that various cultures and values exist in this world.
As an adult, I realized something through my work in Japanese localization.
It is the fact that we humans are rather newbies in this long history of Earth inhabitants, and we actually have no idea about the big questions.
For example, are we really the rulers of the Earth?
Uh, no. About 70-something thousand years ago (which is quite recent in terms of the Earth’s history), we were one of many vulnerable species of primates whose population plunged to a few thousand to tens of thousands, and even faced extinction.
And now, the industrial world we have created is predicted to collapse in the next 200 years due to environmental destruction, water shortage, overpopulation, and other causes.
I mean, how much do we actually know about the universe?
It is said that humans have only discovered a mere 5% of the entire universe.
The remaining 95%, a.k.a. most of it, is composed of materials unknown to us.
[“Pillars of Creation”: (It is said that new stars emerge from clouds of gas called EGGs.)]
I mean, how much do we actually know about the universe?
It is said that humans have only discovered a mere 5% of the entire universe.
The remaining 95%, a.k.a. most of it, is composed of materials unknown to us.
Working with documentary films daily gives me a refreshing insight into the delicate yet grandeur qualities of mother nature, the fragility and hardiness of its inhabitants, and the profound brilliance of life itself.
For example, it is known that living things have a ‘circle of life.’
If you look at the example of salmon, they hatch from eggs and follow the river to the ocean, and after travelling a distance over 10,000 kilometers, they return to where they were hatched to reproduce. The number of salmon which can successfully make it back to their birthplace is only about one in a thousand. However, this doesn’t mean that the 999 deaths were in vain.
The bodies of salmon that died on their journey upstream provide valuable nutrients to the surrounding trees and soil.
The unlucky few that are caught by bears are carried deep into the forest and broken down into food scraps, providing excellent nutrition for not only the bears but all forest creatures.
The forest provides nutrients for the ocean’s marine life, and in return, the salmon carry the ocean’s nutrients to the forest on their journey upstream.
The “circle of life” also exists in the forest. All living things are connected and circulating in exquisite balance, skillfully taking advantage of the contradictory positions of co-existence and opposition.
For the animals and plants in the forest, everything serves a purpose.
For example, the large trees bear plenty of fruit, which are eaten by the many mammals that live in the forest.
Butterflies and ants swarm the leftovers.
Some of the fruits will be eaten by birds and bats, which will disperse its seeds in faraway places.
Squirrels and other rodents bury the seeds under the ground in preparation for winter.
Of those buried seeds, the ones that are left uneaten will wait until spring to sprout.
At some point, the forest’s big trees fall.
The fallen ancient trees suddenly give way to space for the sunlight to enter the obscure forest.
This gives young trees which have just sprouted a chance to grow.
Documentaries are not just educational programs, or informational programs which convey knowledge.
I think the films’ creators drew inspiration from something they saw, and it made them want something to happen. So they put their heart and soul into creating a documentary, hoping that it makes the viewers feel something.
by Kazuhiko Kato