Here we have a world being displaced, although probably you had to be young or a parent at the time to appreciate the full effect; feudal modern structures that despair, young people who have to pursue life away from their heart. Western mores are everywhere, yo-yos, music records, milk chocolate, but still very slowly displacing the old customs: it just means that the geisha mother on top of her traditionally lecherous clientele will now also have to entertain foreigners with their fancy movie projector.
Resolute girl preaches in the end that we'll have to be strong to make it through. Alright.
Well, this is pretty much the universal experience of life, life sucks and rarely goes your way, it's the stuff of drama, but we have come up with much more sophisticated ways to remind us. Even then, consider how the world was being discovered by the likes of Epstein.
This reminds me of that old anecdote - attributed to Joshu in The Gateless Gate - about a dunce with a lantern in hand looking for a fire in the middle of the night to cook rice with. Had he known what fire was, he would have cooked his rice much sooner.
So we have a lot of unease here from emotional fires but not much clue what fuels them or what they are. The eye is clear, or is thought to be, but the sight is dull. Not a clear eye at all when you think about it.
