Educational activity based on the short film Rain and Fish
Identify and express your emotions and feelings while learning to manage them.
Be able to listen and empathize.
Rain and Fish © Risa Kimpara / Tokyo University of the Arts
TitleRain and Fish
ThemeImagination
Genre & keywordsContemplative, rain, waiting, fish, imaginary
Age (for the film)3-11 years
Duration04 min 47 s
DirectorRisa Kimpara
MusicYusaku Masuda
ProductionTokyo University of the Arts (Japan, 2010)
Take part in a class discussion about a painful subject while respecting others and the rules of communication.
This video shows us a little boy waiting near a bus stop. While he waits he gets lost in his thoughts. We realise he is thinking back to his own childhood because we see the character shrink at the start of the story. It seems to be a mixture of memories and daydreams. We see him with his mother. It seems like he misses her. He seems nostalgic for this time when he was with her. She is absent from his life, it is his dad he was waiting for and who gets off the bus at the end of the video.
This video can be interpreted in different ways: the parents are separated or the mother is ill or has died, in any case she is absent. It is therefore an opportunity to deal with delicate subjects in class such as separation, illness or death. The video will be the starting point of the sequence and an important anchor for the work. Feel free to rewatch it several times, especially certain key passages like the one where the child shrinks, the moments with his mother, when he is reunited with his dad at the end.
After unpacking the video, the discussion can gradually move towards the chosen subject. Some students may have experienced the death of an animal, a loved one... This will be the time to let them express themselves if they wish, to share their emotions, to discuss this painful theme while taking care to ensure that the students listen to each other with respect.
Activity sheet written by: Valérie du blog Val 10. Discover the Val 10 blog...
