Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Sushi and Baseball
Early Summer depicts a Japan in transition. Defeated and occupied by the Americans, the Japanese both cling to their traditional ways and embrace new ideas from their occupiers. How does the movie show this transition? Does this movie make a judgment about the new American influence? Is there a political slant, however subtle, in this film? What does this movie think about baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie?
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Early Summer suggests that the transition during Japan’s occupation changes people’s appreciation of life, they no longer have a sense of Mono No Aware but rather connect their own success and happiness to the beauty of life. Early Summer depicts this transition through the differences created by the generational gap. The older generation of adults, Noriko’s parents and grandparents, are shown to be very aware of Mono No Aware, realizing the fleetness of life and they appreciate the little things in it. The long take of the random bride walking through the rice field and the grandparents contently watching demonstrates the method in which they appreciate life. The older generation understands that they won’t achieve everything but that’s alright because they enjoyed the journey. This is starkly contrasted with the younger generation, who don’t realize the fleetness of life. They connect their own happiness to their perception of the beauty of life. This is especially evident of the youngest members of the family, the brothers. There are several scenes where they are shown demanding trains and eventually running away because they didn’t receive them. This connection between material goods and happiness is what defines this newer generation. Early Summer, however, subtly rejects this newer material culture. The scenes mentioned above, regarding the train, are noticeable straight on angles with the kids, but this places the camera at a low-angle for the adults who don’t cave in to their demands. This subtle camera placement demonstrates Early Summer’s preference for the older generation’s appreciation of life. In fact, the entire film is created with a sense of Mono No Aware, which clearly defines its choice of lifestyle. Early Summer denounces the new material culture that occupation brought to Japan, in preference for the earlier sense of Mono No Aware that was all-pervasive in earlier Japanese culture.
ReplyDeleteIn the film early summer the effect of western culture, American culture specifically, can be seen clearly. This invading culture is reflected most clearly in the behavior and mindset of the family’s children. The children are disrespectful to their elders, ungrateful and spoiled. They often call their parents disrespectful names, which is certainly not native to traditional culture. The children do not use manners such as saying please and thank you which are commonplace in traditional culture. Worst of all, when they don’t get what they want, they throw a tantrum as if they deserve something for doing nothing, this contradicts the traditional values of working hard and earning your belongings. The first example of the children’s lack of respect is the scene at the beginning of the movie where the child and his grandfather are having a conversation. The grandfather makes the grandson tell him that he loves him for a cookie but after he is given a cookie, he comes back into the room and says that he hates him. This action perfectly personifies the mindset of the children in the film. They are spoiled with things that they want, however they are ungrateful and show no respect for other members of the family. The most prevalent example in the movie however is when the father brings home bread. The bread is not presented as if it is train tracks yet when the children who believe that they deserve new toys realize it is no they throw a tantrum. They ruin a loaf of bread and disrespect the father because of the new cultural norms that they are accepting, if they had stayed faithful to tradition there would be no issue and anything would have been greatly appreciated.
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ReplyDeleteEarly Summer shows how Japanese people are moving away from some of the more traditional ideas of Japanese culture and moving towards some more American habits and ideas. For example, the kids are always wearing baseball hats showing the impact that the American occupation has had on the country culturally. The children also want trains and other toys that seem to have a bit of an American slant. This shows that the biggest impact of the occupation was on the children not on the adults. The kids have only known America as being the good guys, and they do not appear to have any problems accepting totally new culture. It does the show the kids as a bit more disrespectful to their elders which goes against many Japanese ideals. It is hard to tell if this is because of the American influence or just because the children do not like to listen. The overall the film shows the older people in a more positive light because they are adhering to traditional Japanese values. The political slant of this film is most certainly towards that of keeping the old ways and not moving on to a faster way of life. The kids who are more Americanized do not seem to appreciate the beauty in things like some of the people around them do. This shows that some of the American influences on Japanese culture were degrading the culture a little bit and that people should try and stick to their roots. This movie thinks that apple pie and baseball are not something that adults should be focused on. It considers the American endeavors as childish showing the Japanese culture as more grown up. American culture isn’t necessarily bad, but it isn’t something for adults.
The film Early Summer does show Japan in a transition. It is a transition from a time of people being aware of life and not worrying about unimportant things in life to a newer era filled with people who just want material goods. The newer generation is shown mostly in the kids because of their love of material things such as the trains. The scene where the dad brings home a brown bag filled with bread instead of train tracks shows how ungrateful and unaware the kids of this new generation are. This ungratefulness is exactly what this film is trying to portray. Ozu believed that live was better when people were aware of life and other people. He does this by showing that the grandparent’s lives have been fulfilled because of the way the followed Mono no Aware. They grandparents realized that life is passing and that they need to be simply present. They do this by showing long takes to and displaying the grandparents happier and more satisfied than the children are. This film shows that the Japanese culture is fleeting due the lack of Mono no Aware shown in the next generation. They show the change in Mono no Aware by having there different generations shown throughout the film (grandparents, parents, children). The film shows that the lives of each generation is significantly getting worse to the lack of being aware. Basically, the film is promoting Mono no Aware because Ozu believed it was the best way to live.
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