Pacific Overtures (1976 TV Movie)

James Dybas: Second Councillor, Old Man, French Admiral

Quotes 

• Reciter : No one knows what was said behind the shutters of the Treaty House. The Shogun's councilors kept their story secret, and though the westerners have their own official version, I would not believe a word of it. What a shame there is no authentic Japanese account of what took place on that historic day.

  Old Man : Pardon me, I was there.

  Reciter : You were where?

  Old Man : At the treaty house.

  Reciter : At the treaty house.

  Old Man : There was a tree...

  Reciter : Which was were?

  Old Man : Over here. Maybe over there, but there were trees then everywhere... may I show you?

  Reciter : If you please.

  Old Man : There were trees then everywhere!

  Reciter : But you were there?

  Old Man : And I was there! May I show you?

  Reciter : If you please.

  Old Man : I was younger then... I was good at climbing trees... I was younger then... I saw everything! I was hidden all the time... it was easier to climb. I was younger then. I saw everything - where they came, and where they went; I was part of the event; I was someone in a tree. I was younger then...

  Boy : [the tree appears, and the Old Man's younger self runs on] 

  Boy : Tell him what I see!

• Old Man : I am hiding in a tree...

  Boy : I'm a fragment of the day.

  Old Man , Boy : If I weren't, whose to say/ things would happen here the way, that they happened here?

  Old Man : I was there then... It's the pebble not the stream.

  Boy : It's the fragment not the day... I am here still.

  Old Man , Boy : It's the ripple not the sea, not the building but the beam, not the garden but the stone, not the treaty house/ someone in a tree.

• Boy : Someone reads a list from a box.

  Samurai : Someone talks of laws.

  Old Man : Then they fan a bit.

  Boy : Someone bangs a fist!

  Samurai : Someone knocks.

  Old Man : Now there was a pause.

  Samurai , Old Man , Boy : Then they argue it.

  Samurai : 'But we want, no you can't, and we won't, but we need it, and we want, will you grant, if you don't we concede it,' I can hear them...

  Old Man : And they sat through the night and they lit yellow tapers, I was there then...

  Boy : And they chat, and they light, and they sit signing papers, I am there still - If I weren't whose to say, that they're happening?

  Reciter , Samurai , Old Man , Boy : It's the fragment not the day/ It's the pebble, not the stream/ It's the ripple not the sea/ That is happening/ Not the building but the beam/ Not the garden but the stone/ Only cups of tea/ And history/ And someone in a tree!

• French Admiral : I bring word, I bring word, from Napoleon the third/ He had heard what have occurred here from the little bird/ Undeterred, we conferred, though we felt that we'd been slurred, and the verdict was he spurred me here to bring the word/ Would you like to know the word? From Napoleon the Third? It's détente - Oui, detente! That's the only thing we want! Just detente, ah detente! No agreement could be more fair, signing pacts, passing acts, there's no time to make the warfare when you're always making busy with the mutual detente! A detente, a detente, is the only thing we wish, same as them except, additional the rights to fish! You'll be paid, you'll be paid/ And we'll have the big parade, if we somehow can persuade you to accept our aid/ It is not to be afraid/ As we merely wish to trade!

  [cannon fires] 

  French Admiral : Aaaah, detente! Ah detente! That's the only thing we want! Leave the grain, leave the train, put champagne among your imports/ Tell each man/ that Japan can't be bothered giving him ports while she's in a tizzy, dizzy with the mutual detente!

• American Admiral , British Admiral , Dutch Admiral , Russian Admiral , French Admiral : Ah detente! A detente! That's what everybody wants/ You should want/ a detente/ makes a nation like a brother/ We'll be here/ every year/ to protect you from each other, and to see you aren't signing foreign treaties and detentes! Please hello, we must go, but our intercourse will grow/ through detentes/ as detente/ brings complete cooperation/ By the way, me we say, we adore your little nation, and with heavy cannon wish you an unending Please Hello!