All Summer in a Day

When I was in primary school, my class went on an excursion to see 2001 A Space Odyssey - A film which of course totally blew our minds :)


Before 2001 came on, a short film was screened, about a planet where it never stopped raining.

That film - All Summer in a Day - was such an intensely beautiful, moving experience, that it still echoes in me today. Even now, i come across people who I discover have also seen it, and been moved by it, and knows what a treasure it is. I'd go so far as to say that two people who have seen it share something very special. An understanding, a feeing, i dont know what. But its there - I can feel it.


I didnt realise its significance at first - I was only a primary school kid - though I felt it move me, I was soon rushed off on the trip that was 2001. That was back when time went slowly, and school holidays were a wonderful eternity that never ended.


It was based on a short story by Ray Bradbury. Its proving near impossible to find a copy of the film. A copy on 8mm film exists at ACME - the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, in Melbourne, and I'm hoping that one day I'll be able to borrow it and show it to my friends, and belatedly give them the gift that was unknowingly given me.

It would be easy to look the film up on wikipedia, and spoil it by reading the plot summary. I think that would be a shame though...





Since I got to Japan, it hasnt stopped raining. Yesterday late afternoon, I decided to put on my wet weather gear and venture out. I walked around in the rain, a Self-Contained-Unit, happier by the second to be outside in spite of the weather. I felt like a space explorer wandering around on the surface of an undiscovered planet :)