Photo/Illutration A scene from “Belfast,” which won this year’s Oscar for best original screenplay (Focus Features via AP)

Illustrator and essayist Makoto Wada (1936-2019) wrote about great movie lines that could pass as maxims, if not life lessons, in their own right.

His pieces, which ran in a magazine under the title of “Otanoshimi wa Korekarada” (You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet!), were later published in multivolume book form.

Wada recalled that many of the lines he selected had to be explained in the context of the movie scenes where they came from. But a good number were perfectly fine without any reference.

In a comedy film, a woman tells a man that something will remain even after the romance is gone. The man says, “Senility, right?” The woman shoots back, “No. Trust!”

In “Monsieur Verdoux,” Charlie Chaplin’s 1947 film, the protagonist, a serial killer, refers to makers of weapons of destruction and makes this unnerving comment: “As a mass killer, I am an amateur by comparison.”

“Belfast,” which won the 2022 Oscar for best original screenplay on March 27, also contains memorable lines.

The story is set in the Northern Ireland city, which was segregated into Protestant and Roman Catholic sections, in 1969.

With a barricade set up, a violent clash occurs. When a young boy mentions “our side,” his father tells him: “There is no ‘our’ side and ‘their’ side in our street. Or there didn’t used to be, anyway.”

Locals do not really want the “enemy” side and “our” side, but they have to live with the sorrow of having the two sides.

Helping the boy with his math homework, the grandfather says, “people wouldn’t be blowin’ themselves up all over this town” if there is only one right answer.

Someone’s sense of justice clashes with someone else’s sense of justice.

A movie has to condense its portrayal of society or a life into two to three hours. Every camera angle and every expression on an actor’s face is packed with meaning.

If I like the work, I want to watch it at least twice and ruminate on the lines.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 30

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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