舟を編む (Fune wo Amu, English title The Great Passage) is a novel about a team of people making a dictionary. It was adapted into a live-action movie in 2013, and a TV anime series in 2016. In 2024, NHK made a live-action TV series that focused on the later part of the story, after Kishibe Midori joined the team.
While the story is about making a dictionary, it is actually about the importance of words. How words have meanings, how words help us to express what we are thinking. It is about why we create words: we create words because we want to pass something on. It is words that tie us together.
As someone who works with words, works based on words interest me. This story is no different. Having watched both the 2013 movie and 2016 anime, I was quite interested in this NHK series even before it started airing. NHK wasn't really known for making great drama series in the past, but in recent years, NHK seems to have taken a shift in policy and approach to try and appeal to younger viewers. I was curious how they would adapt this story today's audience.
And having finished watching the final episode today, I must say I was really impressed. By focusing on the second half of the story, after Kishibe Midori joined the team, this drama series was able to tell a story that relates to people who use smartphones and online search more than flipping through thick dictionaries. The final episode was even set mainly in 2020 and portrayed life under the COVID-19 pandemic. Its portrayal of what words are for, how we need to be careful in choosing words, and all those other aspects of words brought tears to my eyes many many times. I would never have expected I would cry while watching a TV drama about people making dictionaries. But that was what happened over the past few months, while watching this series.
I highly recommend this show to everyone. It will change the way you think about the words you use when talking to people.
Links:
舟を編む The Great Passage Wikipedia entry
The Great Passage (NHK TV drama)
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