Rising Sun

national | arts and media | news report Sunday April 30, 2006 19:48 by Rastavidhead

Each day when I wake up I think,
In this world I assume, I’m a failure, no lies.

But knowing that, each night, I can dream,
Imagine being free,
I project my self and observe,
I fly far from your hellish world,
Where there are eyes that penetrate.
They look, they judge, criticising, censoring, punishing.
Mirror, mirror what do you see?
You are deaf, blind and mute,
And what I say, you believe,
Where are my mistakes?
I’ve been looking for years.
I’ve revised my past, my body floats through the present and in the future is my mind,
Resolving problems.
Existence is a dilemma,
In my opinion, he who thinks the most, reaches the answer first.
I see myself moving closer.

How nice life is when there is no hassle,
The landscape is still green and on high the clouds are stretching by.
The air is clean and free flows the wind,
Through the fields. I get up and stretch, I walk and sing, the birds follow me and I smile, hearing melodies in the chirp, chirp, chirp.
Or the tranquillity of the music of a river instead of city trains, cars and screams.

Aiee, its my paradise. There’s no need, and I have no fancy mobile, I have no motorcycle, I step on no accelerator, there is no requirement.
I’m alive and the taste is so exquisite.
For so many awaited and by not many appreciated, let’s not talk about them because they’re finished.
We have to try again, be born again, love and see ourselves flourish,
Mind the earth, because in the end, it’s going to be drained, it’s going to be drained.

Cover Screen shot

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Rising Sun

The tramp is a traditional figure in cinema and theatre history. He is the outsider representing both pathos and freedom, who is both pitied and envied by the audience. The tramp in Rising Sun takes the viewer on a spiritual journey which begins in the grainy black and white of modern existence. There is a sense of alienation, isolation and meaninglessness. A virtual quality is created by the use of camera angles, sound and the detail of the scenes. The viewer walks in the shoes of the tramp.

Symbols punctuate the narrative - the crow is a druidic sign, the wheels of the trolley represent the wheel of suffering, the material world to which we are tied by our mortal bodies. The tramp reflects on his condition, his rejection by and of society, his yearning for enlightenment. He finds some coins by the roadside and wanders through a park where he comes upon a busker drumming beneath a tree.

The audience hears the thoughts of the tramp spoken in Spanish. Both this and the use of camera work showing the influence of European films place this part of Rising Sun in the context of European cinema. The tramp has been eating out of bins, but now he gives the money he found to the busker, because he values sustenance of the spirit more than that of the body. Shortly afterwards he finds a bicycle in the bushes. This is a significant moment in the narrative, which is signalled by a muted change from black and white to colour photography. With the arrival of the bicycle the wheel appears again, but this time it represents the circle of life.

Camera angles and visual effects once again allow the viewer to experience the sense of freedom and joy that the tramp feels as he rides out of the town and into nature. He ponders the absurdity of modern life with its addiction to mobile phones and dependence on the car and expresses a sense of anguish over the effects on the natural world.

Meanwhile the colour has been growing stronger almost imperceptibly. At the same time the music on the soundtrack has also blended piano with drums and jaw’s harp, which weave in and out of each other as the tramp walks the last steps of his journey to the edge of the ocean, where the screen is bathed in intense sunlight. He unwraps the didgeridoo that he has carried with him throughout the film and plays it to the sun. The presence of the didgeridoo, along with the strength of the colour which creates a sense of heat, references Australian cinema. The tramp's quest for spiritual enlightenment has taken him back to the beginning, to the ancient wisdom of the aborigine and the universally sacred sun.