Wednesday, April 7, 2010
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?
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I felt this movie was just sad. Beauty did not seem to appear at any point during the movie. The relations between characters were strained, The film did not highlight the beauty in life but rather the complete lack of it. Sure there was great scenery and filming techniques but there is more to beauty, especially in life, than visual images. The lack of affection between the parents and children just appeared really sad.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Marie. If beauty is something to be cherished regardless of how long it exists, the characters clearly lacked a basic set of emotions as a result of it. If they truly believe that beauty surrounds them everywhere at all times, then they appear to have become numb to it. They show little emotion towards anything really, and I feel like the characters often lacked the ability to differentiate between people and things, as everyone and everything was treated exactly the same. For example, the mother and father at one point were wisked away to a hotel because they were deemed a nuissance as everyone was so busy all of the time. Clearly after watching the film, no one is ever busy... ever, and I find it odd that the one time their parents decide to visit in the last ten years, their children show no desire to want to spend time with them. Concerning the iminent death that awaits us all; it seemed like the characters again felt indifferent towards it, without fear... something that truly makes me sad as it demonstrates the fact that they must not cherish life to the fullest. One who is afraid to die is a content man. Perhaps I am not fully aquainted with the entire philosophy and maybe it's a cultural set of beliefs, but regardless the last scene hits me hard as a very meaningfull moment. While the old man fans himself alone, I think about what sort of life he may have lived. Was he happy? Why isn't he mourning the death of his wife? Where are his emotions? And it leads me to a similar conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the first two comments. Tokyo Story was made famous for its powerful imagery and heavy culture saturation, but mono no aware is something I just do not feel like it succeeded with. It may have been visible to a Japanese person living in that time period, but lost in translation to us.
ReplyDeleteTo display the transience of beauty, there must be something obviously meant to be perceived as beautiful that goes away. The old woman who dies does not create this effect because she almost manages to lead a less depressing existence when she's dead than when she's alive. Tokyo, the titular icon of the film, is a beautiful spectacle of human achievement. It, however, remains ostensibly the same throughout the entire film.
The film did not do much to make life appear sad, it just made it appear boring. The final image of the old man alone could have hit the concept of mono no aware as you described it spot on if it had included some context beforehand, such as a flashback to his childhood or young adulthood; but there is no contrast and it is just as dull as the rest of the film.
I feel differently. I think that we just think of beauty in a very different way than the Japanese did back then. The old man lost his beauty in the world, his wife. His wife brought him his beauty. Without her, his life was silent. He had nobody to talk to. Their conversations may be extremely dead and meaningless, but it was the companionship that was the beauty. Now without that companionship, the old man realizes that he really has no form of beauty left in his world. The only thing that is left is himself and his thoughts of the beauty he had.We think of beauty as something that is beautiful to the eyes or something that is beautiful to the mind or senses, but in Tokyo Story beauty has a whole different meaning. It is deeper than that and is hidden in the dull, meaningless conversations.
ReplyDeleteOnce the old man lost his only source of beauty, we can see that his life will be full of sadness. He has nobody to talk to or even spend time with. Usually, movies end in a happy way, but in this case it ends sadly. This sense of sadness leaves the viewer feeling bad for the old man, which is the goal of mono no aware. At the end, I did feel a part of him missing. His companion and beauty was missing and he would be sad and lonely for the rest of his life. Even his neighbor said it to him. He will be lonely.
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ReplyDeleteI think I have a better understanding of Mono no aware after watching this film. The way I understand this concept is that every moment in life--however mundane--has some beauty in it; though these moments will ultimately be over, it is important to savor the beauty in everything. To me, the long takes in this film reflect Mono no aware: it is as if they seek to savor every bit of what is happening. I agree with Jake that the companionship between the old couple also is an example of the beauty that Mono no aware seeks to capture. This Japanese film technique of noting and contemplating the beauty in the "mundane" things in life differs starkly from the technique we are accustomed to, which tends to gloss over contemplation of beauty, rather focusing more on plot.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the film, I definitely felt sad, as is appropriate, considering the old man's loss, loneliness, and sense of betrayal from his family. However, to me the ending was not purely sad, but rather bittersweet, for it was clear that the old man recognizes and accepts the transience of beauty in life. Though he mourns the companionship that he has lost, the old man also recognizes the death of his wife as a natural part of life; he is at peace with the idea that beautiful things do not last forever. Thus, the old man's attitude at the end of the film is the epitome of Mono no aware -- an acceptance of the transience of beauty. He recognizes that life itself is the greatest example of beauty.