The 66th Essay: Free & Easy (1998-2009, Japan)
Ryoden Kouki Engineering Co., Ltd.
Company Newsletter Series: “How about Taking a Short Break?”
Free & Easy is a popular film series centered on the friendship between Densuke Hamasaki, nicknamed “Hama-chan,” a perpetually rank-and-file employee at a construction company, and Ichinosuke Suzuki, known as “Su-san,” the company’s fearsome president.
At work, Hama-chan has little interest in climbing the corporate ladder. But after discovering fishing as a hobby, his life changes completely. Eventually, the two men transcend the boundaries between company president and ordinary employee, enjoying fishing together simply as “Su-san” and “Hama-chan.”
Their friendship portrays a form of happiness that exists beyond the status, prestige, and recognition that come with one’s position at work.
Drawing on Aesop’s fable “The Fisherman Who Played the Flute” and the old Chinese saying, “If you want to be happy for a lifetime, learn to fish,” the film invites us to reflect on the pleasures of life beyond work and on the relationship between career advancement and happiness.
In today’s workplace, where the kind of carefree lifestyle represented by the old-fashioned “five-o’clock man” is gradually disappearing as Japan’s economy loses momentum, Hama-chan’s way of life raises an important question: What are we really working for, and where does true happiness lie?
Please read the full text here.
