"Hotel Rwanda"
"Hotel Rwanda" was released in Japan last year. It was a big hit, though not so much commercialized.
In the summer last year, one corner of a DVD rental shop in Tokyo where scores of "Hotel Rwanda" DVDs had been placed became empty. A young clerk of the shop was watching the corner with deep emotion.
He is the one who made the most efforts to have the movie released in Japan.
In September 2000, he was a student living in Kyoto with love of movies and music. He wanted to travel overseas in his last summer vacation in the university. Out of nowhere, he conceived a country called Rwanda. He wanted to take pictures of children in Rwanda and visited a memorial hall for victims of the well-known tragedy. He purchased tickets to Rwanda at a somehow perplexed tourist agency, but nobody including his bandmates wanted to accompany him "to Rwanda."
It was his first overseas trip. He stopped by at Holland where he was intimidated by some Europeans on a street. Hence, he became extremely cautious and stayed in a hotel all day during his stay in Holland. Then he flew to Nairobi bearing the lesson on a foreign street in mind.
On a Nairobi's street, while he was surrounded by street children, somebody suddenly shouted at him, "Takahashi! Takahashi!" He cautiously thought that Nairobi people should think that all the Japanese had the surname Takahashi. But, he found later on TV in a hotel that Ms. Naoko Takahashi won the Gold Medal in the Summer Olympic Games.
Then he in high spirits got to Uganda and checked in a cheap hotel, proudly talking to a clerk of the hotel on his smart and economical travel. But, the clerk asked him how much he had paid for air tickets from Japan.
He moved on and met a good natured Congolese. When they departed at the border to Rwanda, he could not help but offer a good wish to the good natured Congolese, for Congo was then at a civil war.
His long journey to Rwanda was truly rewarded when he was enjoying a bus tour in the civil-war torn country, as many children on a field waved back to him with a big welcome smile. Then the Japanese student happened to stay in a very deluxe hotel by chance, a little far from Kampala, since the bus stopped by accident in front of the hotel. In a hotel even a Japanese youth thought to be very gorgeous, he wondered in the midnight silence what country he was actually in.
After coming back to Japan, he made the most efforts to have the movie "Hotel Rwanda" released in Japan through organizing a promotion group.
But, why was he doing a part-time job in a DVD rental shop (except for air conditioning and young nice female colleagues)? It is because he quit a film distribution company that had employed him while he had been personally making great efforts for promoting "Hotel Rwanda." And, he later failed to pass employment examinations of various newspaper companies. He quit the part-time job and got burnt out, though his love for movies and music, in addition to his humble fame as the promoter, seems to be supporting him.
For your reference, he stopped to write a blog on "Hotel Rwanda" on 21, December, 2006 (http://www.hotelrwanda.jp/).
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A notable politician in Japan, who was the representative of the largest opposition party when the 2005 9/11 general election was held in Japan, also saw the movie. He counted "Hotel Rwanda" as the best one among eight movies, which he had seen in 2006, including the one related to the "Iwojima" battle.
The influence of the movie might appear some day in the Japanese political community and media, promoting humanity and making people more compassionate.
Then, such a young man as the humble but great promoter of "Hotel Rwanda" might be paid off in a more practical sense.
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I don't know if you have ever been to Rwanda or seen "Hotel Rwanda."
But, you surely have not heard of a story related to the "gorgeous hotel in Rwanda," which I have presented here with approval of God.
All I can say is that atrocities in Africa are more sinful than in any other continents: God must be angry.
Still considering such anger, how lucky we are (as if living in the Garden of Eden)!
"From the Euphrates River to the End of the East"