Tuesday, April 9, 2013
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 Tokyo Story can you better understand this concept? What were your emotional feelings at the end of the film? What were you thinking when you saw the final image: the old man alone in the house fanning himself? Are there other moments when you felt the sadness and the beauty of life?
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Tokyo Story is very representative of the Japanese idea called Mono no aware. The concept of Mono no aware is the idea that in the end life is extremely sad but beautiful at the same time. It is about finding the beauty in the fact that we all decay and learning to live in the present moment as a result of it. Mono no aware is the opposite of materialism. In filming this concept camera levels, such as tatami, are used in correlation with longer takes and very minimal camera movement. Tokyo Story exemplifies this concept. Tokyo Story tells the story of an elderly couple that makes the decision to go visit their children. However, throughout their visits it becomes increasingly clear that the children have no time for their parents and can barely make it through the obligatory proceedings of a family gathering before shipping their parents off to a hotel. As the story continues, the children’s disregard for their parents goes from sad to tragic as the mother grows increasingly ill, and one of her children does not even make it back to her before she dies. This tragic story is somehow beautiful and entirely representative of the idea of Mono no aware which is about finding the beauty in the tragedy. This concept is even more exaggerated by the children’s materialistic values which seem ridiculous in the movie, but in reality are the things we all focus on instead of true beauty.
ReplyDeleteComing from the perspective of someone who has been raised to appreciate the American cultural values portrayed through Hollywood cinema, watching Tokyo Story is an unexpected and welcome departure. Tokyo Story has a unique aesthetic quality that is a product of its imagery and slow pacing. I believe that this aesthetic quality is what makes the audience experience a vague but absorbing sense of Mono No Aware. The film is very much about experiencing and observing the world around us. There is a reason that Ozu chose to make the travels of the grandparents a central focus to the film, rather than making the children's lives the central focus. Through Ozu's steady, un-jumbled cinematography and mundane, reflective story telling methods, we begin to see the world of the Grandparents through the perspective of a patient observer. We are in no hurry to see the world change, and neither are the grandparents. We have no place to rush to or pressing matters to stress about, and so, like the grandparents, we lethargically watch the frantic city around us like content and unburdened spectators. Unlike the vast majority of Hollywood filmmakers, Ozu does not challenge his viewer to keep up. Instead he expects us to absorb the contents of the film, the family dynamics, the cultural conventions, the beautiful and varied landscape with a keen eye and a meditative mindset. This is where the concept of Mono No Aware becomes abundantly clear in Tokyo Story. We, like the time-worn grandparents visiting their busy children, are meant to observe the contrast between the contemplative mindset of the Grandparents, whose time grows shorter but ever more meaningful, and the unappreciative mindset of the grown children who rush from one event to another and feel uncomfortable about their parents not having something to do for a few hours. The contrast seems to suggest that the more we stress about the way we occupy our time, the less significance we derive from that time. As Tomi said, "We've seen Tokyo, we've seen Atami, now we can return home." If Mono No Aware is the concept of finding beauty and fulfillment in a conscious acceptance of the ephemeral, Tomi clearly understands that her trip to Tokyo is not about the quantity or duration of her exotic experiences, but the quality of the emotions she can experience from observing her children and their world. The one scene that strikes me as truly beautiful in Ozu's cinematographic masterpiece, is the scene were Tomi takes a walk with one of the grandchildren. They are walking among the flowers on a hillside, framed by mountains, power-lines, and repetitive rooftops. As they slowly wade through the sea of flowers, enjoying the preciousness of the moment, Tomi asks the little grandson what he wants to be when he grows up. As the child promptly ignores her question, it makes us realize how wonderful and tranquil that moment is for the both of them. Yes they must acknowledge change and the passage of time, but they are experiencing something great in spite of all that uncertainty.
ReplyDeleteTokyo Story exemplifies the idea of mono no aware by showing both people that appreciate the beauty of life and also people that are solely focused on materials. The grandparents are very mature and wise and they can see the simple pleasures in life. For example, throughout the film the grandparents care very little about where they're staying or what they're eating. They are most satisfied when they are sitting in the living room with their family just talking. This is a perfect example of mono no aware because they are able to enjoy the little things in life without spending large amounts of money or doing something extravagant.
ReplyDeleteThe children on the other hand, feel as though they need to spend money on their grandparents in order for them to be happy. This is essentially the opposite of mono no aware because they need materials to enjoy life instead of being able to value what they have. At the end of the film, after the grandmother has died, the characters handle the death differently. On one hand, the grandfather appreciates life therefore is able to see the beauty in death while his children just focus on getting their lives back together. One of the daughters even remarks about taking some of her mother's clothes, only focusing on materials and not understanding the deeper meaning behind death. Ironically, the daughter in law with no connection to the family anymore is the only young person to see the beauty in death. She questions the behavior of the other siblings, questioning their mourning techniques and not being able to understand why they can't see the deeper meaning. The film ends fairly abruptly after the death so it is not certain that the children didn't change but all the evidence points to the fact that the children's generation for the most part has trouble with the intricacies of life and are focused more on the materials.
I think that Tokyo Story was a good movie to help me understand the idea of mono no aware. This concept is that there is beauty in life, but there is also beauty in the fact that we're all going to die. Essentially, life is beautiful because we all have to die eventually. Instead of putting value in material possessions, concept of mono no aware puts the value in using material items, not in the item itself.
ReplyDeleteOne main theme of this film is that the younger generation is unable to appreciate life like the older generation is. The family is more concerned with material possessions and money than anything else, and are too caught up in life to actually enjoy it. When the grandmother dies at the end of the film, everyone begins to realize that instead of spending their money on her, the family should have been spending their time with her. The grandmother's death serves as a huge wake up call for most of the young people in the family, except for the daughter. She seems to be the only one who actually understands the beauty of life, and it is apparent that her siblings need to take on her way of thinking in order to be happy.