Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Mono No Aware
Mono no aware is the Japanese idea of the awareness of the transience of beauty and the ultimate sadness of life. After watching Early Summer can you better understand this concept? Where there scenes that evoked both feelings of joy and sadness, moments of beauty and tears? What were your emotions at the end of the film? What did you think about some of the images we discussed in class: the waves, the photograph, the child's balloon? Are there moments when you felt the sadness and the beauty of life?
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Early Summer allowed me to understand mono no aware in a more profound manner. The film’s morals seemed to value life at any given time, cherishing every waking second rather than the few and far between special moments. The opening scene was a beach shot showing the waves crash against the shore in the early morning. There was a certain serenity to the scene where one can appreciate the beauty of nature. In contrast, the majority of films today have a fast-paced start to hook the viewer. The film continues to show the family’s home in long cuts with a duration of five to ten seconds. A simple hallway with a few caged birds were the focus of the viewer during the first minutes. This continues throughout the entirety of Early Summer as the family goes through their regular morning routine or an average dinner. Because of this, there is a calm and relaxing sense to the film. Early Summer does give off nostalgic emotions, for example, there is a moving shot over the rice fields flowing in the wind like waves at the end of the film. Throughout the movie there are many references to the passing of time, how the grandparents talk about the early stages of their family and how their children have grown up. Early Summer is unique when compared to most Western films in this sense. There is much attention drawn to events such as Noriko’s wedding, but the viewer is never able to experience it.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching Early Summer, I now further understand the complex concept of mono no aware. The Film represents mono no aware in a new light and proves the Japanese ideas of beauty and the fleeting of life. The opening scene of the movie is at the beach picturing waves crashing on the sand. Similarly, the ending scene is of grains flowing in the wind. These shots tell a story about how human life is just like a wave – it is fleeting. The beauty of nature is represented in these takes while still enforcing the philosophies that life is always passing and you must enjoy the little things. I think that the scene of the child’s balloon floating off into the distance most closely represents the ideas on mono no aware and helped me better understand its meaning. This scene evoked both feelings of joy and sadness. Throughout the film there are many references to the passing of time. One major point the movie focuses on is Noriko’s coming of marriage and the separation of family. At the end of the film I felt unfulfilled because although we can infer that Noriko does actually get married the spectator is never able to experience it. I was very excited about this movie because I was hopeful that at the end I would witness Noriko’s wedding and marriage; however, not experiencing this significant part of the plot alloyed me to further understand the concept of mono no aware.
ReplyDeleteOzu’s Early Summer succeeded in capturing Mono no aware, the idea that things are made beautiful because they are temporary and there is a streak of sadness in all good things because they are fleeting. Though short and seemingly insignificant, the scene showing the child’s balloon floating in the sky with Noriko’s parents intently watching it is one of the strongest depictions of mono no aware. Right before the parents’ attention turn to the balloon, they are already discussing how content they are in life. The husband points out that, though the wife may think life could be better, life is going pretty well, and therefore their family should be content and live in the moment. At that moment, the couple notices a solitary balloon drift peacefully in the sky. The husband remarks that somewhere a little child is crying because they have lost their balloon while the couple admires it for a short moment. This moment captures exactly the idea of mono no aware. The fact that the balloon will only temporarily be in view before it drifts off into the far distance makes it even more valuable to onlookers, because they recognize that they need to cherish the moment while it lasts, stopping everything to look at this balloon. The image of a single balloon floating in a vast, infinite sky also evokes a feeling of both joy and serenity and a deep feeling of sadness. This image evokes a feeling of joy and serenity because the balloon continues gracefully on an undisturbed path while floating in the sky, and it is a visually appealing and calming scene, much like how people see kites in the sky as a beautiful view. However, it is also conveys a deep feeling of sadness, because seeing the balloon in the air can make one feel lonely, as though they are the lonely balloon in an infinite universe of time and their actions are utterly irrelevant. As one watches this peaceful scene of a balloon floating away into oblivion, one gets the feeling of melancholy because the smallness of the finite balloon compared to the largeness of the infinite universe makes one feel as though their actions have no real impact and may prevent one from feeling as though there is significant meaning in life, as everything is ultimately fleeting, just like how the beauty of a solitary balloon will ultimately pop and disintegrate in the sky. The end of the film left me with the emotions I feel when I reminisce about past Christmas holidays. I look back at these memories and feel happy because every Christmas holiday is a time of familial reunion and relaxation. However, I also feel slightly sad when recalling these memories because I know I will never be able to relive the exact same happy moment in time and see the world I did the same way as when I was little.
ReplyDeleteEarly Summer conveys the idea of mono no aware by demonstrating the sentiments of different characters regarding marriage of Noriko. The main plot of the movie is driven by Noriko and her change in attitude with marriage. Noriko’s change in attitude regarding marriage especially demonstrates mono no aware. The film first shows a scene in which Noriko has an argument about marriage with her friends. Her sentiments against marriage gradually changed, and she became receptive to marriage and found a partner. While these two attitudes are drastically different, they do not contradict, since they occurred at two separate moments of time and did not occur simultaneously. This perfectly conveys the mono no aware: every sentiment is temporary, yet cherished at that temporary moment. Moreover, another scene of Noriko’s parents talking about their soon-to-be-married daughter demonstrates similar ideas of mono no aware. The two parents look at a wedding occurring in the field behind their house, and they talk about how they would miss Noriko, yet they were also happy for their daughter’s marriage. This complex mix of emotions brings further demonstrates mono no aware: sentiments are constantly changing and each moment is a unique blend of sensations. The ephemerality of moments in life perhaps lasts longer that just a moment, for it defines a moment, it captures a moment, it feels a moment.
ReplyDeleteMono no aware is not only captured by symbols and icons portrayed in the film Early Summer by Yasujirō Ozu but also the dialogue and actions of the film's characters. The most prominent example of this is with the scenes of Minoru and Isamu, the two children of the family. We see how passionate and energetic the two are about various things from train tracks to rebelling against their parents about chores. Their innocence from youth and even stubbornness at times is used as a character trait to demonstrate the empathy of mono no aware. I believe that Ozu uses these two minor characters for the audience to have a moment to reflect on how they may have acted as children. Were they stubborn yet innocent like Isamu and Minoru? Or more caring yet without action like how Noriko could have been as a child? When I was watching the scene of Minoru and Isamu running away, I felt a personal connection to the neglect that the two children were feeling from their parents. Although the consequences that I received were drastically different and without violence, the scene caused a moment of sadness yet joy as I remembered my happy youth. These are the aspects of life that I believe we should most cherish, moments where we can relate to others and reflect positively in order to grow and mature. At the end of the film, I was upset because I wanted to learn more about what happened to Minoru and Isamu and how they will have grown into more mature adolescents. Overall, I felt that the film was good because of how it connected to me and how I realized the mono no aware in my own life.
ReplyDeleteMono no aware, the idea that both sadness and beauty come from transience, is strongly depicted through profound scenes in Early Summer. In the around the middle of the film, there is a scene where the father and mother are sitting in the park enjoying the scenery when they see a balloon floating up to the sky. The camera focuses on the balloon as the audience takes in the beauty of the sky and the calm movements of the balloon. It is a stunning shot. However, the Noriko’s father mentions that, somewhere, a child is crying because they lost their balloon. This short scene is very significant as it perfectly illustrates mono no aware. It shows the fleeting beauty of the balloon and also shows the sadness that this beautiful picture brought someone else. Towards the end of the film, there is a scene where the family takes a group picture. It’s so cute and really beautiful to see the family all together for this picture, but the scene precedes a reminder that Noriko will be getting married and the parents will be leaving. One of the most important plotlines of Early Summer is Noriko’s marriage. Once Noriko finally makes the decision to marry the man she loves, she is happy. It’s a beautiful moment in her life and it is what she had been waiting for all her life. The picture-taking scene capitalizes on this happy feeling, but also causes the audience to feel sad as we know that the family will soon be separated. At the end of the film, Noriko show sadness for the first time in the movie and weeps. While she is happy to be getting married and to be starting a new life, she will miss her parents immensely. Similarly to the balloon scene and the picture-taking scene, Noriko’s crying scene depicts how beautiful things also bring sadness. These are just a few examples of how Early Summer emphasizes Mono no aware, the concept that beauty comes from transience, and that with beauty also comes sadness.
ReplyDeleteJoy and sadness definitely have relationship to one another they are essentially antonyms. Since they are antonyms one cannot exist without the other, but mono no aware has an interesting take on the emotions. Mono no aware suggests that sadness actually creates joy. For example, dying is a scary thing, and I think the overwhelming majority of people would consider it a sad circumstance of life. Mono no aware would say, instead of looking at death as this thing to be dreaded, accept that it is their and that it is sad, but think of the sadness there to be all the more happy and joyful you are alive and well now. Mono no aware is existential yet optimistic, which is an odd combination because in my opinion those two adjectives do not normally go together. The most apparent instance of mono no aware in Early Summer is the balloon scene. The balloon is slowly drifting away with air currents soon to be out of sight from the grandfather in the park, yet for that moment he take in the beauty of it. He comments on how the beauty of the balloon is at the result of some child’s sadness, for some child had to lose the balloon in order for him to be able to enjoy it for this brief moment. That scene is so clearly mono no aware, for it taking something that is seen as beautiful, juxtaposed with sadness and fleeting nature of the moment.
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