Wednesday, November 1, 2017
All in the Family
Early Summer shows the relationship between two aged parents, their grown children and their grandchildren. The young children are rebellious and demanding. The grandparents try to buy their grandchildren's affection. The parents and brother try to manage the younger sister's life. Choices about everything from buying an expensive cake to choosing to marry (and to whom one marries) have implications for everyone. Eventually the family so painstakingly captured in a photograph breaks up, as Noriko marries and moves to the provinces and her parents move near the great uncle. How accurate is this portrayal of family life? Is this a "slice of life" (and part of the reason it feels as if "nothing happens")? Does this remind you of your family? Is this how families work? Focus on one scene or character and discuss what it tells us about the dynamics of family life.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In the film Early Summer, Japan is starting to shift towards American culture as a result of the war ending. However, the people of Japan still cling to some of their own culture and do not completely give in to the new way of life. This can be seen in the role that family has in marriage. I feel that in America, families are less involved and marriage and parents are certainly capable of moving on with their lives even if their children have not yet found a spouse. Despite this being the case in America, this seems to be furthest from the case in Japan. The viewer witnesses the main two parents claiming that they want to move out of their house and to the provinces near their great uncle. However, they cannot do this yet do to their last daughter, Noriko, not yet having found a spouse. Consequently, throughout the film Noriko is pressured by her friends and family to get married as soon as she possibly can. She is constantly met by people claiming they have found a potential spouse or fiancé for her to marry. To someone who identifies with American culture, this may seem out of the ordinary. However, the film, Early Summer, portrays this as completely normal in the Japanese culture. What makes this film further identify with the Japanese culture, is how it connects this to Mono No Aware. Mono No Aware suggests that the journey is more beautiful than the final destination in life, and therefore the more beautiful moments are the shorter ones that seem non-important. For this reason, the viewer never sees Noriko get married. The fact that marriage is such a big deal in the Japanese culture and in this film, may leave the average viewer frustrated at the end of the film. However, if the viewer is someone who finds validity in Mono No Aware, they may love the ending to this film.
ReplyDeleteThe movie Early Summer does not portray an accurate portrayal of life. While American parents tend not to involve themselves in their children’s marriages, this should have influenced Japanese culture after the war ended. America should have changed Japanese culture because of their triumph over Japan, but instead the movie depicts a family that involves themselves in their family member’s marriages. While this family has American influence with the clothing and jobs that the members have, it is inaccurate to show that their love lives are not affected by the dramatic change. However, the other events leading up to the marriage may describe a slice of life for the Japanese people. The calm and peaceful life shown in this movie seem unrealistic to an American eye, but I may just be uninformed. The style of filming used in this movie is meant to have a very relaxed feeling to it, and it is not meant to have much drama or action in it. While the children are gumptious and want to make their own decisions, the adults are happy and careful about the decisions they make. It seems that this family is different from the average American nuclear family. Simply watching the depicted family eat breakfast together is much more relaxing than talking about political issues at the breakfast table in America. Or watching the Japanese family talk about marriage is so far different from American families. It is clear that American families have a different type of lifestyle than Japanese families, basing the knowledge of Japanese families off Early Summer.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteEarly Summer is a film that portrays a slice of the family’s life. The film focuses on everyday activities such as going out to lunch with friends and the children playing with their train tracks. The reason the film can be interpreted as “boring” is because the subject matter is so mundane. I think that it is an accurate portrayal of family life. The parents and brother trying to convince Noriko when and who to marry and they all are very intertwined in each other’s lives. This family dynamic very much reminds me of my family and our dynamic at home. My parents thrive on discussing my sister and I’s lives, especially in respect to boys. While it is not on the same level as Noriko’s parents, it is similar. Both sets of parents care deeply about their children, and therefore care about people they choose to be with. While my parents may not hold the reins on who I marry in the future, they still do very much provide input and give their opinions on such matters. Not only this, but Noriko’s brother meddles in her business constantly and tries to manipulate the outcome of her marriage choice. My sister does the exact same thing to me, and I most certainly do the same with her. Another aspect in Noriko’s life that is similar to my own family experience is how fast time flies. At the end of the film, Noriko’s parents are sitting and talking about how fast time flies and how she used to be so young and it seemed to be so recent. I have experienced the exact same feeling in my life.
Early summer is a progressive film of post-war japan which displays a slice of life, while also portraying the rising role of women. The film focuses on every-day life with actions such as eating dinner, and waiting for a train. This movie is slow paced because of the topic it has chosen to show, making the subject matter ordinary and boring. In one of the opening scenes, the smallest boy of the family is shown to be disobedient, rebelling from his family by refusing to wash his face, and then lying about it. Ultimately, his family laughs it off, which displays the power dynamic throughout. Not only is he disrespectful to his parents, but also his grandparents. Several times he calls his grandfather an idiot, and again, they simply laugh it off. This dynamic would be unacceptable in my family life because respect for your elders’ is a crucial aspect to us. Noriko, the female main character of the film, is constantly being discussed about as to who she is going to marry. Her brother and her family are very influential in her love life, regularly pushing suggestions and ideas, which reminds me of my family. My parents are constantly in my business, and regularly push me for information in a range of topics regarding school, swim, or even boys. Similar to Noriko’s family, my parents are less invested in the specifics of my brother’s life, which I believe is a result of the slight differences in the way boys and girls are treated at this time. Although the subject matter of the film was mundane, the underlying message hit home, ultimately making this film easy to understand and relate to.
ReplyDeleteThis movie moves so quickly but yet so slowly. Early Summer portrayed an accurate family lifestyle. Even though the movie was slow and “boring”, this is how life is for me as well. I feel like my life is boring in some aspects and moves very slowly from time to time. Sometimes I cannot wait for the day to be over because it is moving so slow. The movie gives off this boring life aspect in a new beautiful light, to cherish every moment. As I was watching the movie and acknowledged the craftsmanship of skipping over the big life events, I noticed that this movie is very accurate. People now a-days do not have a special event everyday like a wedding or meeting a person to marry. However, the moment’s in-between big events is what makes life so cherishable. Before you know it, life can take a turn and your simple day-to-day life routines can change forever. Just as the Japanese family did in the movie when the daughter got married off. People go through life blind folded and do not take in the beauty of everyday “boring” life. I can relate to this. Since I was three years old, I had two dogs, Holly and Hunter. I went through my childhood growing up with them and playing around. The most cherished moments with them are not when we brought them home (I can’t remember, too young), and not when they got expensive little haircuts. However the times that are most memorable is the times that we just sat on the couch and she fell asleep in my lap, and when my family was yelling and she’d be sleeping on her little pillow. Due to other life events, I did not seem to take in the beauty of my dog sitting by my feet or both of them lying next to each other cuddling. I can relate to this movie because it shows how people look back at memories and see all the changes. Maybe some wish they could do something differently, when others enjoy looking back and seeing time pass so quickly yet so slowly.
ReplyDeleteThe movie Early Summer does not accurately portray family life. While a somewhat generic and seemingly normal family is shown throughout the movie, that does not mean that it is an accurate “slice of life”. In fact, in my opinion the entire theme of mono no aware contradicts the idea of a realistic portrayal of life. One of the major parts of mono no aware is the relationship between beauty and time. Thus this film attempted to constantly depict that relationship through various methods of camera movement, length of take, and other recurring themes. Unfortunately, this distracts from the amount of realism this film has, as this always thinking about life in a positive way by searching for deeper aspects of beauty is not usually possible. This is why a realistic family life is not accurately portrayed. In many cases, people and especially families do not have the time or patience to view their lives this way. Life is not always as peaceful or easy going as the family in this film’s is. That is not to say that mono no aware is not feasible idea, but rather that it is not always realistic. Another example of an unrealistic family life is the way that Noriko’s marriage is handled. Noriko is constantly pressured by her friends and family to not only get married, but marry the ideal person. This does happen, but it is not nearly as simple or usual as it seems to be in the film. That being said, it should be noted that this film is far older than my time, and it takes place half way around the globe from where I am basing all of my knowledge off of (that would be the U.S.).
ReplyDelete