“I’ll do anything for you. I’ll make you great, no matter what I do.”
“I truly want you to become prime minister.”
“Please don’t go anywhere!”
These are the words that Maiko speaks to Taro in the movie, “Beautiful Lure.” They sound like words of love. But when you watch the movie, you realize what she actually means.
“I’ll make you great, no matter what I do, even at the expense of others, even you.”
“I truly want you to become prime minister, for the sake of my fame.”
“Please don’t go anywhere. I don’t care if it makes you suffer, just love me and keep me happy.”
Man or woman, this tendency to be self-centered can be found in all of us.
Do you have the Four Features of Painted Skin?
1. Do you get caught up in how others see you? Other people cannot be controlled to see and think how you want them to. Therefore, this can bring a lot of unhappiness.
2. Do most of the thoughts in your head start with “I”? Always thinking about how you feel is a sign of strong self-love and self-centeredness.
3. Do you lie, cheat, or deceive, even if it’s only occasionally? Sometimes we do it to keep up pretenses, but that too can become ‘painted skin.’
4. Do you think about getting closer to people who could benefit you? Are your relationships based on whether someone is useful to you or not?
Do you feel you might have these tendencies? If so, great! A mistake you commit knowing it’s not right is actually better than committing mistakes unknowingly.
How do we correct them, starting with ourselves?
Enter the Middle Way
It is because we are all children of God, children of Buddha that it is possible for everyone of us to curb our tendencies, such as to be concerned about how others see us but do little to develop ourselves. The accumulation of daily, little successes in building yourself up in the right direction will keep us from being swayed but other’s evaluation of us. Or, truths such as, “Your happiness will come from other’s happiness,” will open us to greater joys than the kind we can give ourselves.
The movie, “Beautiful Lure – The Modern Tale of Painted Skin – ” was created so that we can develop our soul in this direction. There are also two related seminars you can sign up for! Watch the movie, and explore your true self through these seminars.
Movie Showings in NYC
Saturday June 5th 2-4pm
Also available upon request!
SPOTLIGHT
Let me introduce the main star, Nao Hasegawa, who plays the character “Maiko Yamamoto”
Born in 1992, Nao is a Japanese actress active in many fields including film, TV, and stage. Her credits include TV drama, Nukemairu (2018, NHK), the play MOTHER: the story of Tome Torihama (2017), and the film Ashita no Kimi e (2018, Star’zway). In the movie Immortal Hero (2019, Nikkatsu), she passionately played a nurse who had a great influence on the main character. In the movie, The Real Exorcist (2020, Nikkatsu), she played the role of a mother of two children, who warmly watches over the main character. In her previous film, Twiceborn (2020, Nikkatsu), she played an intelligent and pure woman whom the main character admired in college.
Nao has been taking on a wide range of roles. In this film, Beautiful Lure – A Modern Tale of “Painted Skin,” she broke new ground by playing a two-sided bewitching woman. She also sang the film’s image song 1, “Selfish Love.”