Go to contents

Blue ribbon

Posted March. 01, 2017 07:05,   

Updated March. 01, 2017 07:12

한국어

Japanese blockbuster animated movie “Your Name” set a record at the local box office in Korea as the movie attracted more than 3.6 million viewers in Korea. Among them include animation lovers who watched the movie four or five times. “Your Name” is about a body-swap story between Taki and Mitsuha. In the movie, they are connected by Mitsuha’s hair ribbon. After an instant encounter with Taki on subway, Mitsuha pulls off her hair ribbon and tosses it to Taki, shouting, “My name is Mitsuha.” Taki ties Mitsuha’s orange-colored ribbon around his wrist but could not remember her name.

Ribbon has traditionally been used as a knot or for decoration. A ribbon can be used to tie your hair back, as Mitsuha does in the movie, or to decorate a gift box. During the Civil War in the U.S., wives waiting for their husband to return wore yellow ribbons around their neck as a symbolic gesture of love. Likewise, “awareness ribbons” represent symbolic meaning for a specific cause. For example, English actor Jeremy Irons wore a red ribbon at the Tony Awards in 1991 to raise consciousness for AIDS, which is now regarded as the first case of making the public understand “awareness ribbon.”

Many guests wore blue ribbons fixed to their collars or around their waists at the 89th Oscars held on Sunday. The motive was a representation of support for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s anti-immigration order. This year’s Oscar winning actress Emma Stone also wore a blue ribbon at a photoshoot after the event. In the medical community, however, a blue ribbon represents prostate cancer, while a pink ribbon represents breast cancer. A red ribbon runs for AIDS. A ribbon in the same color may have different symbolic significance in different fields of community.

In “Your Name,” Mitsuha’s grandmother asks Mitsuha if she knows “Musubi (knot).” She says that tying thread is Musubi, connecting people is Musubi, and the flow of time is Musubi. People wearing ribbons in the same color can feel comfort from being united to the others. However, a ribbon in these days also shows a lack of communication in a society. Whether in Korea or the U.S., a ribbon is used with greater symbolic significance to represent “solidarity of resistance.” Though twisted or blocked, Musubi’s teaching is a connection in the end. When will we get connected to the others as Musubi teaches?