Scarlett - awaiting your call - JW
JISHOU, HUNAN — If you’ve ever seen the movie “Lost in Translation,” you’ll recall the scene in which Bill Murray’s character has to shoot a liquor commercial for his Japanese employers.
Those images played in my head today as I assisted a communications student with her homework assignment, by being her model for a mock juice commercial.
The student, Denise, was one of the two finalists in the university’s English-speaking contest a couple of weeks ago, which I helped judge. (The other finalist, by the way, won the local contest, went on to provincial contest and took first place.) Denise asked me to be her model because my appearance suited the concept she had for her commercial.
Her concept: A philosopher type is lost in thought, frustrated because he cannot overcome some mental block. While anguishing over his task, he suddenly spies a bottle of Baige juice drink. He takes a swig, loves the taste and lo! his mental block is gone.
Denise said my white hair and beard reminded her of philosophers like Marx and Hegel, so she asked me if I would help her shoot the video. (Well, it trumps being called Jerry Garcia …)
We used a vacant lecture hall. I was to sit in the front row, anguishing over some composition or another. We agreed that I would struggle with some idea until I drank the juice, then proclaim, “In course of human history, it is better to be carried away by the flow of water of the running river than to be the sand at the bottom.”
