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?
The 1951 film, Early Summer, takes place in post war Japan. After a long period of conflict, when Japan was rebuilding they were surrounded by a new culture. American culture. Japan took parts of this and their own and this is represented well throughout the film. I think it is interesting to look at the acceptance of American culture differ between generations. For example the clothing. The movie does not display the two younger boys in traditional Japanese clothing throughout the film. On the other hand, the great grandfather is depicted only in a robe. The younger children have been raised in a more Americanized version of Japan. They had adapted more western customs. It is also interesting to note that the most invasive displays of the infiltration of American or western culture is when they leave the house. The house is run by the older generation. A generation who might not be a lenient to change in culture. The middle generation, one who has seen both sides tends to think of American thing as idealistic and part of a dream reality. Noriko’s friend Aya jokes that if she was able to marry a rich man, she could always have access to, and perhaps even a fridge full of Coca-Cola. It is also interesting to think about the potential effect of western ideals on the rights of women and in this case Noriko. Would she still have been able to have the autonomy to choose a spouse when Japanese culture had been uninterested for years? Early Summer displays the merge of Japanese and American culture in a unique and eloquent way.
ReplyDeleteAmerican Culture integrated its way into Japan after World War two during the American occupation of Japan. Their economy, pop culture, values, and entertainment were influenced by western culture. Yasujirō Ozu applies this phenomenon into his movie Early Spring. Presenting the idea of culture confrontation by using clothing from both traditional Japanese and the newly integrated western cultures. He introduces the idea of Japanese life being a mosh posh of different customs, morals, and lifestyles. Just like within society, the film generates both positive and negative responses to these newly fused cultural displays. Clothes play a major role in displaying the differences between the two different cultures. In the movie the audience can see how culture is different based on where and what one is doing. For example between one’s life in the workforce and life at home. At work Japanese individuals are shown in western clothes signifying the shift in the Japanese economy and workplace towards a more western one. While at home people in the film are shown in more traditional Japanese attire connecting family to a more traditional Japanese culture and morals to their homelife. Ozu also makes a point to show how age affects one’s willingness to open up to western culture. Again he utilizes clothing to show this divide; he only shows the younger sons in the westernized shorts, t-shirts, and baseball caps while only presenting the older grandparents in traditional Japanese attire. Then he shows the parents and middle aged people in a mix between the styles capturing the push and pull of the cultural shift on the generation. Many people in the middle generation were stuck in the middle of two clashing cultures and Ozu does a fantastic job of subtly hinting at this collision of cultures.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1951 film by Yasujirō Ozu, Early Summer, the audience is introduced to a family navigating a Japan in shambles. In this new post-war Japan, the people and culture are somewhat lost. Due to that, Japan had to rebuild. The US had somewhat taken over Japan at this point, from 1945-1951 led by the US army, the allied forces held military occupation over the country. Since US soldiers had been staying there, the culture they carried began to seep into Japan, taking over the culture. One can see the transition, in the clothes worn by the main family the movie follows. The two children dawn more current-looking clothes, while the grandfather wears a traditional Japanese robe, and the parents who are in a somewhat transition period, dawn a healthy mix of the two. It’s as if there were two cultures fighting for dominance, the way of tradition and the new modern/US way. Americans had many negative effects on the people of Japan, however, one thing they introduced was new ideas. I think Ozu uses Coca-Cola to represent this takeover. Coca-Cola is almost seen as a commodity, Coke is a very commonly accessible product in America, however, in Japan, it’s very new. It is the culture taking over. It’s consumerism, creating the need for a product. Japan most likely has a product similar to Coke, but since it’s Coca-Cola, an American product, it’s viewed as a luxury item. The US didn’t merge its culture with Japan, they took over their culture. It was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because now, Japan is a mesh of both cultures. However, now, like America, Japan is rooted in excess, consumerism. Its traditional values hold little weight over that of the dollar, and that change is the true tragedy of this film which Ozu displays so subtly and beautifully.
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