Mise-en-scene for "I was Born, but..."

This image is a master shot of the group of kids with a large Japanese grade schooler named Kamekichi who is leading the front to emphasize that he is the muscle. Following directly behind him is a smaller, but nicely dressed Japanese grade schooler named Taro close and the followers are even further behind. Kamekichi is in a pose that would attempt to emphasize strength and fear while Taro has a sort of cocky look to him while having importance since he's in the front of the shot with Kamekichi, but since he is dressed nicely it should suggest that this is Taro's gang and Kamekichi is his muscle. All of the people in the shot have their eyes fixated on the two boys who are out of the shot. All of the kids except Taro are poorly dressed as they all wear plain sweaters, worn boots, one of them no shoes at all, some with flimsy hats, and one of them has a school uniform on. Taro on the other hand is wearing clothes like a firm black hat, plaid shirt, and clean looking shorts with nice looking boots. The main two characters are off centered, but they take of a good chunk of the shot while the rest of the shot is mainly background of the wasteland-like setting that resides in an industrial suburban town which emphasizes Taro and Kamekichi's importance over the rest of the group that fade with the background. The far background seems semi out of focus while the most crisp image comes with Taro and Kamekichi at the front of the shot. Kamekichi's hat casts a small shadow on his face, which can infuse some caution to anyone approaching him as his sharp stare is almost coming out of the shadow and Taro's hat doesn't leave that impression. Kamekichi's facial expression shows he's ready to fight, and Taro has a bit of a cocky look as he sends his guard dog after the boys. The background could suggest that Taro may not live in this dump, whereas the others do and so it could also lead to his probable power influence being transmitted to the poor suburban children living in the middle of the industrious town. Since it is a cold season, the land and area around should be desolate as the season would dictate the lack of growth because of the cold and how plants preferably need sun and warmth to grow.

This scene from the screen cap I would say is one of the top 5 most important scenes of the film. This scene led to the kids finally having some sort of insight about the father's current situation at work and with his boss as they would realize later in the film. This scene established someone who could rule over Keiji and Ryoichi just like how Mr. Iwasaki rules over Mr. Yoshii. The fact this connection could be made between the three set up for the long run the dramatic scene with the boys throwing a tantrum at the father for not being 'important' like Taro's father and everything in between. The scene led to the boys understanding harshly how life can be towards others, and also how to effectively counter such a situation. These boys attempted to avoid this group to prevent being humiliated, but it was inevitable that they would meet with the group again. Since these kids are such a problem for them, they subtly sought help from the father and eventually got it from the delivery boy who was persuaded with sales from Mrs. Yoshii. The delivery boy didn't go after Taro since his family paid more than the Yoshii's, and this turned into a life lesson sort of deal for the two boys and poured fuel on the fire during the tantrum when I believe Ryoichi asked why his father couldn't pay for Mr. Iwasaki to work for him and how it turned out to just not be possible because such is life. This scene proposed a problem which ignited the need to find a solution as well as give life lessons to these lackadaisical kids. The solution for the problem then interfered with Mr. Yoshii's unavoidable life dilemma after these boys gained some skin in the game by pandering with Taro that led to the silly home movie moment and that in turn created drama about 'importance'. They constantly questioned why is life the way it is, why Mr. Yoshii couldn't be someone who is 'important', and lastly gave them motivation to try to become something that they can be proud of which is a person more 'important' than their father. This scene led to so much to occur afterwards to the point that if this scene wasn't included then this film probably could not have happened with grand success.