No-No Boy

Desperate for whiskey, Ichiro’s father hurries to the liquor store and in the process, falls and badly bruises his shoulder. Back at home, Ichiro’s father notices that his wife still hasnot eaten. This marks her second day without food. He pleads with her, but she ignores him. Instead, she begins stuffing suitcases with whatever she can get her hands on. Ichiro’s father attempts to talk with his wife, but she retreats into the bathroom. He hears the sound of the door locking and the water trickling. As he gets progressively more intoxicated, he thinks back to happier days, when he called his wife, not Mama, but Kin-chan. He remembers the youthful passion between them, the desire that they consummated before marriage. It was that mistake, he thinks, that has led to their present unhappiness. Though he knows Taro and Ichiro are not there, he calls their names aloud just to hear them spoken.

Ichiro drives up to his family’s home but, on a whim, decides instead to go and see Kenji’s father instead. At first Ichiro tries to pretend that Kenji might recover, but he quickly realizes that Kenji’s father is more forthcoming than that and has accepted the reality of Kenji’s condition. Ken’s father asks Ichiro if his son was lucid when they last spoke; Ichiro says that he was. Kenji’s father then reveals that he receiveda call sayingthe Kenji died at three o’clock that same afternoon.

Ichiro goes home and finds the pools of water on the floor. He tracks the flow to the bathroom door but finds the door locked. He slams the door open and finds his mother, dead in the tub. He feels oddly at peace, knowing that now she can go back to the Japan of her past that she left behind. He carries her out of the bath and finds his father passed out on the floor. Ichiro tries to rouse him, telling him that Ma is dead, but Ichiro’s father passes out again, after asking Ichiro to tell his brother to come home.

Ichiro’s mother’s funeral is well attended and many mourners give speeches about her. Ichiro listens to his mother’s biography being read, feeling as if he is hearing about her for the first time. After the ceremony, his father arranges to take all the funeral attendees to a Japanese restaurant for dinner, but Ichiro skips out after running into Freddie. He and Freddie go to a drive-in burger shop, and Ichiro listens as Freddie updates him on his latest partying and womanizing. Freddie still hasnot gotten a job and says of Ichiro’s mother that it is best that the old ones pass away because they have shackled their children with impossible ideas of staying truly Japanese. Freddie gives Ichiro a lead on a job, telling him to try the local Christian Center where they will be glad to help him.

Ichiro goes back home, hoping that his father is enjoying his post-funeral meal. In the stillness of the space, Ichiro thinks back to the record player and records that his mother destroyed when he was younger. Ichiro thinks that if she had just let him and Taro have music or comics they might have been happier, that it was unreasonable to expect them to get an education in America without absorbing American interests.

There is a sudden knock on the door, and Ichiro is surprised to find Emi standing on the doorstep. She says she heard about his mother and wanted to say how sorry she was. Emi also tells Ichiro that she is getting divorced. Ichiro suddenly proposes that they go dancing. After they finish dancing, a stranger approaches them, saying he would like to buy them a drink. They donot know what to make of his generosity, and Ichiro says that maybe it is because the man had Japanese friends or was just glad not to be Japanese himself. Ichiro says he wants to think the stranger just bought them a drink because they were an attractive young couple. Emi tells him to keep thinking that positive thought.

When he goes home, Ichiro is surprised to find his father looking so well, not like a man who just lost his wife. Ichiro’s father tells him that it will take time but that Ichiro will resolve the problem he is facing and that he has his father’s support. Ichiro tells him he is going to see about a job tomorrow, and his father is glad to hear it.