Thursday, April 14, 2016
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.
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The representation of family life depicted in Early Summer is an accurate portrayal for Japan in the 1950s. As such, it does not particularly remind me of my family because the family traditions and structure are much clearer in the film. Each family member has their own role within the family. For example, the brother’s wife has a clear domestic role. When the brother enters the home every day, she helps him take off his shoes and coat and prepares his bath. Additionally, she is always seen as cooking in the kitchen. Noriko has a clear role as a financial supporter in addition to domestic roles. She remarks towards the end of the movie how they will not be able to have any more expensive shortcake without her income to help her family. However, she is also seen helping the brother’s wife prepare food in the kitchen. The brother also contributes financially with his stable job as a doctor. However, the brother is also seen as a manager more or less. This fact is due to his constant oversight and opinions on Noriko’s marriage. He is the family member who possesses the loudest opinion on her marriage. At the end of the day though, the father is the one with the final say. His opinion was seen as extremely valued when they were discussing marriage after Noriko chose to marry Yabe. While the mother is not seen as much, she is portrayed as one who helps keep everything in line and occasionally tend to the two children. I personally believe that this family structure was not an uncommon one for Japan in the 50s. It demonstrates the transition from traditional roles to more modern roles. These modern aspects are represented through Noriko, who contributes financially to her family. Moreover, she ultimately decided who she would marry which was not a previously common fact for women in more traditional times.
ReplyDeleteEarly Summer contains a very accurate portrayal of Japanese family life from that time period. Ozu films the family in a slice of life fashion with many everyday happenings like family dinners, hanging out with friends, and having dialogue about how their life is going and where it is headed. Since the film explores everyday life in much detail it is slow at times. Apart from Noriko’s sudden marriage, there are no explicitly newsworthy events leaving an unclear plot. In this sense, the Japanese family reminds me of my family because we often have similar dialogue and endeavors. However, the traditionalism in the Japanese family divides itself from my family. The Japanese family has meals sitting around the traditional table almost every single day. In contrast, the family is also slowly being Americanized as depicted by the grandchildren wearing the baseball hats. Still, the values that include the moral lesson of the train tracks being swapped for bread find its way into both American and Japanese cultures. Their family is so interconnected that choices have some sort of an effect of every family member. A great example is the scene where Noriko buys an expensive cake as celebration. Relating to Mono No Aware, the cake is a very rare occurrence and impacts Noriko’s mood making her overjoyed. What may be unclear is that the family all has implications from Noriko purchasing the cake. Economically, the family won’t be able to buy a cake anytime soon. Also, not everyone in the family will be able to taste the cake which leaves the older grandchild a bit saddened. Part of what makes Ozu such a compelling director is how realistic he is in the family and everyday life.
ReplyDeleteIn Early Summer, Noriko’s marriage and decision to marry have various effects on the family, as well as on herself. Firstly, Noriko’s decision to marry is not actually her own decision. There is a lot of pressure on Noriko to get married by her family, and generally by the expectations of society, since she is “already” 28. In this society, since she is at this age, she should already be married. This is where all of the pressure occurs from her family. Noriko’s parents and brother try to find a husband for her. This is very different from what would happen in a family today. Of course there is pressure to get married before some age, but it is not the level of the pressure that is put on Noriko. In today’s society, a woman usually gets married when she thinks she is ready, not because she is a certain age. A woman also gets married to a man of her choice, not her families. In Early Summer, when Noriko chooses a man to get engaged to, her family disapproves. Once again, a lot of pressure is put on Noriko about her decision to marry. In a family in today’s society, this can be rather accurate and a lot of pressure can be put on a woman if a family disapproves of the man she is going to marry. At the same time, many families leave it to the woman to decide what she really wants because it is primarily her choice. Noriko moving out results in many implications in the family because she is, “tearing the family apart.” Since Noriko is a woman, this was always expected because, according to Early Summer, the woman always moves in with the man’s family. This separation of the family is not Noriko’s fault, since she was almost forced to marry a man so quickly, but it is, for some reason, blamed on her. In today’s society, when a daughter gets older, it is expected that she will move out, but this does not “tear the family apart.” It is simply what happens in life: something that is supposed to happen.
ReplyDeleteThe film Early Summer gives viewers a window into the everyday life of a Japanese family. Although I appreciate the film style, I find the plot somewhat unrealistic. Growing up as a second generation Asian immigrant, I was taught to respect my elders, especially my relatives. In Early Summer, the children are disrespectful to their parents as well as their grandparents. The grandparents beg their grandchildren for affection and treat them with love and respect. In return, the grandchildren yell at their grandparents and insult them. In one scene, one of the young boys calls his grandfather “idiot” multiple times. In another scene, the young boys yell at their father and throw a loaf of bread on the ground after his father refused to buy him more toy train tracks. Even today, this kind of behavior would not be tolerated by traditional Asian parents; being disrespectful to a parent or an elder would result in a punishment more severe than discipline session. This conclusion leads me to believe that Ozu chose to exaggerate the disrespectful attitude in the two young boys to emphasize a point rather than to be realistic. Other than the relationship between the two young boys and their relatives, I found the rest of the relationships quite accurate; like the film, many Asian adults I know try to control their children’s lives, even after they turn eighteen years old and are legally considered adults. After Noriko decides to get married, she and her family realize that she will have to move out of the house and their province. The idea of splitting the family saddens everyone but they all admit that they cannot live together forever, as a person begins a new chapter of their life, they need to adapt. This idea is typical of all families both in Asia and America. Looking at the movie as a whole, it can be concluded that the film accurately portrays a typical Asian family despite the exaggeration of the two boy’s disrespectful attitude.
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