all i keep thinking about is the time yashiro said to tsunakawa, “people change.”
and tsunakawa saying, “i don’t think people really change.”
and then i’m in my feelings all over again.
sensei, why are you so good at this? we knew that conversation mattered because everything in saezuru matters. but the way the theme of personal change and stagnation gets developed is so fucking good. it’s so good that i get excited by the narration and storytelling more than anything else.
saezuru feels like a love letter to every trauma survivor caught in cycles of healing and pain, growth and regression. and i, for one, can never be thankful enough to sensei for giving us the real, unvarnished process of yashiro’s healing while simultaneously making us fall in love with him.
yashiro would be a red flag IRL, sure. of course trauma is not an excuse to hurt people. and loving parts of a fictional character isn’t the same as condoning everything they do.
but on the safety of the page, sensei shows us that yashiro is lovable even though he’s been traumatized, even though he’s not completely healed, even though he’s only starting to get better, even though he feels he’s a lost cause, even though he thinks he never left his stepfather’s floor. there is so much to love there; yashiro has always been worthy of love.
trauma survivors in every stage of healing have always been worthy of love.
Be warned, long 10 Things I Hate About You analysis post ahead.
I've been trying forever to figure out why I love this scene from 10 Things I Hate About You, despite absolutely despising literally every other serenade/public grand gestures and I think I've figured it out.
First, there's the issue of motive. In this scene, Patrick isn't trying to declare his love for her, at least not in the traditional sense.
In most public gestures in movies, we see the performer (usually the guy) performing in the form of a question. They want something from the girl, they want an answer from her. But Patrick doesn't.
This scene follows a very confusing sequence for Kat. From her perspective, she's spent the first half of the movie with Patrick essentially begging her to go out with him, and when she finally reciprocates, he shoots her down. Both he and the viewers know that he's doing so from a place of consent. She's incredibly drunk and not thinking straight. She also doesn’t know the truth about why he’s been after her. But it's still feels deeply embarrassing to her and the inebriation doesn't really enter her mind as a factor of his rejection. From her perspective, this is the first guy she's actually been into since Joey heartlessly dumped her and those feelings of not being wanted resurface, and she gets mad at him leading her on for so long only to reject her. From her perspective it was a joke to him and she fell for it.
But when he performs "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", he essentially is answering a question for her, rather than asking. It's not asking "Will You Go Out With Me?". It's saying "I do like you back." It's saying "I don't care who knows it". It's saying "you shouldn't feel embarrassed for being vulnerable".
But more than that, he handles it in a very, VERY respectful way. For one thing, he never identifies her or singles her out. At no point in that sequence, does he mention her name. He performs during the girls' soccer practice, which he's been known to watch frequently. To any bystanders, he could be serenading any of the girls. Or all of them. The camera does focus on Kat and she does kind of step forward at one point, but I think that's just because she's the main character and meant to be identifiable to viewers, especially in a sea of identical uniforms. If you look at the wide shots, she's still mixed in the crowd.
Also, any onlookers would have no context for what was happening, they'd just see it as this ridiculous burnout kid shooting his shot to the entire soccer girls' soccer team. But he knew, and Kat knew, it was a response to the other night, and it was just for her.
Also he's chased off the field by security after that. And there's nothing to indicate that he intended for that to happen, but he likely could have assumed that would be the result. Either way, there is no indication that he would've stuck around after the song was done. His only goal was to embarrass himself and then I think he'd likely skedaddle.
It's also worth mentioning the lyrics of the song he chose:
But if you feel like I feel
Please let me know that it's real
This is the most important part of the scene though, and it's the reason it works so much. He leaves the ball in her court. She doesn't need to respond yes or no. If she reciprocates, she can do so privately. Which she does when she breaks him out of detention. And I could go on about how amazing this movie is but I just wanted to focus on this scene. But it's worth it to mention that he follows her lead post-detention. They don't have a huge conversation about it. They just start hanging out and let it happen naturally, at her pace.
I also think it's worth noting that by this point in the movie, Patrick has already tried to reject Joey's money after he realized his affections for her were real and she felt similarly. But when he ups the amount, Patrick ends up taking it. That said, he uses Joey's money in two (maybe three?) specific ways during the movie. The first is paying for the marching band to play here, and the second is for her guitar at the end of the movie. There's also a tentative third when her favorite band plays at prom. It's unclear if he just called in a favor or if he paid them himself too or what.
If, at this point, he was still just in it for the money, he could've done this scene without the band. He could've tried to make amends without the guitar. But the guitar was a symbol of him returning the "dignity" that Joey and he took from her, when he was paid for taking her out and left her in the dark about his original motives. It's also a symbol that he's listened to her, and learned about her, and understands her, and wants to be with her for her, not the money.
But him hiring the band is a different story. Yes, it does add to the scene and pageantry, but like I said, it's not necessary. He could've gotten the same point across without it, but he chose to give up Joey's money in this way because he still wanted to make this the best version of the 'show' it could be. He wanted her to remember this moment, he wanted her to enjoy it but more importantly, he wants to be with her regardless of Joey's money, so he's making the decision to solely use it on her from here on out.
I guess the TL;DR of it is, this scene works because he put a lot of effort into it being funny and enjoyable and good- it wasn't half-assed in any way. Everything he does, he does to:
A) get the point across to her that he genuinely likes her and to us that he's not doing it for the money.
B) make it a comfortable and enjoyable experience for her, even if she didn't feel the same way or still wanted to reject him.
C) left it up to her if she wanted to provide context for that moment to her friends/teammates or identify herself at all.
D) privately declare his love for her at the same time that he publicly embarrasses himself for her benefit.
And that's why it WORKS. It works so well. I know this is really rambly and long but I just love this movie so much. Also this post was originally like twice as long but my point stands that this is the best and only good public declaration grand gesture of love thank you and good night
