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?
In Early Summer, Yasujiro Ozu shows that Western culture has become more prestigious than Japan’s traditional culture throughout the country’s postwar years; he posits that the increased influence of Western culture in Japan is inevitable.
ReplyDeleteOzu first shows that Western influence is supplanting tradition in Japan through the clothing the characters in Early Summer wear. All of the working age characters, including Noriko, Koichi, and Satake, don Western attire when they are in public, whether it be a skirt and blouse or business suit. On the other hand, when Koichi arrives home, the film depicts him taking off his suit and putting on a traditional Japanese kimono. While characters may be content with wearing traditional clothing in domestic settings, they wear Western clothing when they are in professional settings and need to appear polished. Therefore, Ozu shows that Western clothing has become more prestigious than traditional clothing in postwar Japan. Western food is also more prestigious than Japanese food in the film. When Yabe eats Western-style cake in Noriko’s home, he immediately remarks about how expensive the cake must have been and wonders whether her family is celebrating some event. During other meal scenes in the film, Noriko and Fumiko have very few reservations about offering guests or other members of their household multiple servings of traditional Japanese food, such as rice. While Western food is prized and seen as expensive in the society Early Summer depicts, traditional Japanese food is mundane and cheap. Additionally, Noriko and her friend Aya talk about a Western lifestyle as if it is more glamorous than a traditional Japanese one. Specifically, Aya explains in an idealistic tone that she believed Noriko would have a flower garden, a tiled kitchen, and a refrigerator full of Coca Cola, all staples of Western culture at the time. When the friends talk about the more rural and traditional lifestyle Noriko could lead in Akita, they mock the region’s simplicity and its accent. Clearly, the Western lifestyle and the luxuries it entails are more prized in postwar Japanese society than the country’s more traditional lifestyle, which may be seen as unrefined.
Ozu also shows that the increased influence of Western culture in Japan is inevitable. Generally, Early Summer is intertwined with the idea of transience and inevitable change. Towards the end of the movie, Ozu communicates the idea of inevitable change with the wind blowing over the barley fields and the waves on the beach. In the case of the barley fields, there is little the individual plants can do to resist the wind; they simply lean in the same direction as this much more powerful force. In the case of the waves on the beach, the flow of the rising and ebbing tide is constant. These scenes cement the idea that the changes depicted in the movie, such as Western culture’s growth in prominence, are far too great to be stopped. Ozu also shows that Western culture is becoming more prominent on a character level. As aforementioned, only the older characters in the movie primarily wear traditional Japanese kimonos. While working-age characters may sometimes wear traditional clothing, they mostly choose Western suits or blouses and skirts. The two children in the film, Minoru and Isamu, wear Western t-shirts and shorts the entire time. The next generation in the society Early Summer depicts almost uniquely wears Western attire, signaling the eventual demise of Japanese clothing. Furthermore, although Noriko’s decision to live in Akita may be seen as an embracing of tradition, she also has plans to come back to Tokyo within the next few years. Considering that Tokyo is likely the most Westernized city in Japan, the fact that she will return to this city no matter what shows the inevitability of Westernization in this postwar society.
In Early Summer, Yasujiro Ozu depicts the growing popularity of Western culture as it take over that of traditional Japan. When Noriko is discussing her future with her friend, her friend tells Noriko that she always imagined Noriko marrying and moving into a large western style house with a front porch and an awning. This shows that people born and raised in Japan are slowly phasing out of the traditional style of living, moving towards a more Americanized way of life. This theme is continued with Noriko’s engagement. Throughout the course of the film, a major part of the plot revolves around who Noriko will marry. In traditional Japanese culture, daughter (Noriko) will have little to no say in who they marry due to the arranged marriages that were standard at the time. However, Noriko breaks this tradition by disregarding the wishes of her father, and decides she wants to marry a family friend. In a deep discussion, Noriko’s parents decide that it is okay for her to decide whom she wants to marry. This extremely progressive decision is one that aligns closely with a much more Western culture as opposed to the Japanese one that would be expected from an Ozu film. The characters’ clothing choices, but more specifically Koichi further develop this theme. When Koichi arrives home from work, he takes of his Western style suit and replaces it with a traditional Japanese kimono, showing that, while it is acceptable leisure wear, in public, and especially in the professional workplace, Western style clothing is much more widely accepted. This illustrates an interesting situation where Japanese tradition is being pushed out of the foreground and is actually taking over Japanese culture.
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