時間を買う TO BUY TIME

時間を買う

昨日、映画「タイム」を見たが、ポイントが二つあった。一つは文字通り「時は金」で、「タイム」の世界では時間の売買や貸借が行われている。手首を器械にあてがって時間の売買をする。賃金は時間で支払われ、道路料金も時間で払う。公衆電話代金には１分を支払う。
　二つ目のポイントは、全ての人は２５歳で寿命が尽き、もっと生きたければ時間銀行で時間を買う。時間が買える限り身体は歳を取らず、２５歳の身体を保つことができる。金持ちは１００年とか、１０００年とか買うことができるが、映画の主人公ウイル・サラスのように貧乏な人は１０時間とか、一日しか買うことができない。
　話の筋は，裕福な娘が下層階級の男と恋に陥る「タイタニック」に似ており、ウイル・サラスは億万長者の娘と恋仲になる。二人は娘の父親が経営する時間銀行から時間供給器を盗み、タイムキーパーが二人を追跡する。二人は100万年供給器械を盗み、スラム街の人に時間を分け与える。
　この物語は長寿が必ずしも幸せをもたらさないというメッセージを伝えている。映画の出だしで、１００年以上の時間を持った男がサラスにすべての時間を与えて自殺をする。長く生きていることが嫌になったからであった。
　「タイム」を見て葛飾北斎（1760-1849)のことを思った。北斎はモネ、ドガ、ゴッホ等の印象派画家に影響を与えた世界的な画家である。北斎は魚、植物、動物、人間、風景等を見事に描くことができた天才であった。死期が近づいたとき北斎は、猫一匹満足に描けないことを嘆いたという。89歳の最後の言葉は「あと１０年、いや、あと５年長生きできたら、絵の達人になれたのに」であった。もし北斎が「タイム」の世界に生きておれば、１０年を買えたのに。達人の絵とはどんなものになっただろう。
　私の母は４６歳で、兄は１８歳で亡くなった。二人とも、せめて７０歳までは生きて欲しかった。「タイム」の器械があれば、母に２４年、兄に５２年買うことができるのだが……。

TO　BUY TIME
　　I saw a movie “In Time” yesterday. The story consists of two features. First, it depicts a world where time is literally money. You buy, lend, or borrow time. You just touch your wrist to a tool that supplies or deducts your time. Your salary is paid with time; you give your time at a toll gate; and you pay one minute of your time for making a public phone call.
　　Another feature is that all people die at the age of 25 when your time expires. If you want to live longer, you buy time at a time bank. As long as you continue to buy time, your body does not get old, but stays as young as a 25-year-old person's. The wealthy people, therefore, can buy a lot of time, say 100 years or 1000 years, but poor people like Will Salas, the protagonist in the movie, live day to day by buying only 10 hours or, at most, a day.
　　The plot is similar to “Titanic,” where a wealthy girl falls in love with a low class man. In “In Time,” Will Salas falls in love with a daughter of a billionaire. They steal time-supplying tools from her father’s banks. Timekeeper chases them. After robbing a tool that supplies a million years from the billionaire’s safe, they donate the time to the slum people.
　　The story gives a message that longevity does not necessarily bring happiness. At the outset of the movie, a man who has more than 100 years to live commits a suicide by giving his time to Salas because he is tired of living such a long a life.
　　The movie reminded me of a world-famous Japanese painter, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), who influenced the impressionist painters including Monet, Degas, and Gogh. His paintings of fish, plants, animals, people, and landscapes are amazingly real. He had a genius level talent. In his final years, however, he repented that he was not able to paint even a cat satisfactorily. It is said that his last words at the age of 89 were: “If I had 10 more years or even 5 more years to live, I could be a master.” If he had lived in the “In Time” world, he could have bought 10 years. I wonder what the master’s paintings would be like.
　　My mother died at the age of 46, and my brother at the age of 18. They should have lived longer, till at least 70 years old. I wish I had the tool and could give 24 years to her and 52 years to him.