Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition – December 18, 1999
Less than two weeks remain in the 1000s. This series, which has continued for over a year, is now coming to its final installment. It’s a strange feeling—both a bit sad and yet a moment of closure.
In recent years, films like Armageddon and Independence Day have depicted worlds facing the end. However, this year's hit film The Matrix leaped ahead 200 years into the future. It was a complex story in which the virtual world created by computers was actually reality, and the world people believed to be real might have been a simulation. The plot revolved around searching for a savior in an era so stiflingly dark it felt suffocating.
As a psychiatrist, I meet many "saviors"—people who claim to be the reincarnation of Christ or who believe they have received revelations to save the Earth from crisis. However, I have yet to encounter someone living a storyline set 200 years ahead. This shows how our consciousness is bound by social relationships, as we cannot transcend the time and space in which we live.
The calendar and the concept of timekeeping are human constructs, but time and space exist objectively, beyond our consciousness.
There is a film that depicts December 30 and 31, 1999, titled Strange Days (1995). In a crime-ridden Los Angeles, where even the police are corrupt, a new trend emerges—discs that allow people to relive others’ experiences through their own brains. The most popular discs feature murder and rape, reflecting something eerily similar to today’s world.
What ultimately breaks through this end-of-the-century chaos is the "devotion" of a strong yet kind woman. As the world welcomes the year 2000, people rejoice, and confetti fills the streets. The film captures this moment beautifully, making me wish to relive such a powerful experience again and again.
So, what can we do when the calendar is reborn? We can decide to live anew. We may not be saviors, but this is something we all can do.
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