Memory Triggers

Memory is one of those funny things. They come up without warning from time to time, when you hear the odd song, smell a specific scent, or eat something specific. That is to say, memory seems to be intimately tied into the senses.

          The reason I bring this up is that I recently watched an episode of the Magnum P.I. reboot. In this episode, entitled "Dead Inside", Detective Gordon Katsumoto hires Thomas Magnum and his partner, Juilette Higgins, to investigate a potential dirty detective within the Honolulu Police Department. The plot unfolds as it does in a serial like MPI, with one of the last sequences from the episode's third act focusing on Katsumoto achieving catharthis with how the case gave him some perspective on the drug addiction his late sister battled with while she was alive. 

          It was during this sequence where the show used a rendition of "Hero", a song by folk (?) pop (?) group Family of the Year. The song's a whimsical, melancholic number that underscored the bittersweet emotions experienced by Katsumoto when he made peace with his sister's situation and the difficulty his family had to go through becuse of it. For me, though, it was incredibly familiar, and seemed poignant and important, although I couldn't put my finger on why that was at the time. I couldn't even remember the title of the song. 

          So naturally, after finishing the episode, I did a lyric search of the song on the Internet, and subsquently remembered that the original version of the song was used in Richard Linklater's 12-year epic Boyhood. 

          The film was released back in 2014, and I remember going into it blind, with virtually no knowledge of what I was about to watch. All I knew was that I was a fan of Linklater's film "Waking Life". Little did I know that I was in for one of the most extraordinary cinematic experiences. Much has been said about Boyhood over the years, and it has consistently been part of many top ten lists. Watch it if you can.

          A huge part of the film's impact on me, however, is the film's incredibly personal depiction of a growing boy's life in a standard American broken family, and all the emotions evolving and unraveling throughout the process. And the "Hero" scene where Mason prepares to leave for college encapsulates, in a three-minute scene sans dialogue, all of these emotions, and is incredibly relatable for many. 

          It doesn't hurt that in both instances – with Boyhood, and in Magnum P.I., the scenes utilizing the song are both very emotional sequences played by actors who've proven themselves to be pretty capable of conveying subtle emotions. 

          Here's the official music video for "Hero", for those of you who're mildly curious about the song. And I can't recommend Boyhood enough. Just make sure you've got tissues ready.