June 14, 2022

<aside> 📝 This is part of my 30-post speed writing goal I’m calling my Dry Run. Judge me not for my quality, but that I wrote this at all. More here: Writing: A “Dry Run”

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In December 1915, a hungry grizzly bear killed 7 people in a remote village in Hokkaido, Japan. The 5-day long attack is almost too cinematic to be true—and if you don’t believe me, here’s the Wikipedia page.

Sankebetsu brown bear incident - Wikipedia

I contend that not a single Wikipedia page reads more like a movie treatment than this one. In fact, it’s a better read than the treatment for most other movies!

This Wikipedia page is begging to be a movie. Sympathetic characters, twists and turns, suspense and drama… it’s got it all.

A story begins at dawn. A bear appears and spooks the house of the Ikeda family. Will it turn up again?

Then. A dramatic, surprise attack. The bear kills a baby and drags his mother into a forest. But is she alive? Surely the villagers will go after her.

It returns when it’s least expected. The villagers abandoned the house in search of the bear. How could they be so foolish?

In desperation, they locate a famous, expert bear hunter. In the process they learn this bear is known—he’s the hunter’s white whale, and the hunter feels defeated.

A desperate plan, and a controversy and disagreement. Can you imagine the arguments, the passionately emotive vs the cold rational, as they debated the sanctity of their dead families bodies?