A Bridge for Passing

Pearl S. Buck recounts travelling to Japan for the production of a film based on her story The Big Wave. Working with director Tad Danielewski and a Japanese cast and crew, she observes the negotiations, delays and cultural misunderstandings involved in turning a tale of volcanic disaster and a destructive sea wave into a motion picture. The production becomes a way of encountering a country rebuilding after war while still carrying vivid memories of defeat.

The account is also a memoir of grief. Buck had recently lost Richard Walsh, her husband and editor of twenty-five years, and the practical demands of filmmaking repeatedly give way to reflections on companionship, death and the possibility of continuing alone. Japan's landscapes, rituals and postwar transformations form the setting for a personal attempt to cross from bereavement toward renewed engagement with life.