Watching Early Summer in Late Winter
February 20, 2007
Everyone who watches films must have had the experience of discovering a film backwards. That is to say, one may know the latter day versions of an earlier style.. and then slowly begin to understand the origins of that style. My most dramatic example comes from my enamorment with Magnolia (1999), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. A friend then clued me in that I should watch Short Cuts (1993) by Robert Altman.. and I moved quickly on to Nashville (1975). After watching these the shine had sure come off Magnolia. Usually my response is not quite so hostile.. I am more often grateful for the way a recent film has sign-posted me back to something interesting.
This subject is in my head from my viewing of Early Summer (1951) this past weekend. It is another film by the Japanese Director Yasujiro Ozu, treating a family in postwar Japan and the pressure to marry that comes upon the daughter in the house. The family is lovingly and carefully filmed.. small details add up to a family portrait.. and near the end of the film we witness a literal family portrait being taken. The irony is that the film is leading up to the splintering of the family when the daughter actually gets married.
Something about the little boys in Early Summer reminded my of Yi-Yi (2000) by Edward Yang. That film too is about a single family, this time in Taiwan. Three generations live together in a single apartment.. the grandmother goes into a coma and during this time we watch the members of the family come to terms with the direction of their lives. In its focus on ordinary life and a single family, Yang owes much to Ozu.. but there is nothing antiquarian in Yang's approach. His characters are set in a modern apartment. The tightly local focus that Ozu brings to his material is cast off by Yang, who situates his characters in contemporary Asia. One of the most delightful moments of Yi-Yi comes as the father goes on a business trip to Japan. We are treated to a convincing depiction of the cultural differences that divide individuals from different Asian countries.. A subject which no mainstream American film would have the patience to touch.
Yang's visual style in Yi-Yi is marked by an aesthetic sensibility. He loves the glint of light off of windows and the abstractions that arise from everyday life. He makes an obviously conscious effort to create a film with moments of beauty. This is different from the literal still-life method of Ozu in which breaks between scenes are fitted with still-lifes taken from the environment of his characters. Nevertheless Yang shows a parallel aesthetic sensibility since the scenes are there solely to please us visually. This high seriousness of intent combined with attention to aesthetic experience I would label as characteristic of Ozu's work.. and Yang is a serious student in this matter.
The connection between these two filmmakers is not the type that leads to disappointment.. nothing about watching Ozu makes Yi-Yi seem less pleasing. Strangely appreciation for Ozu will always be connected to my earlier love for Yi-Yi (which I watched twice in the theater back in 2000). So although chronologically it is Ozu influencing Yang, in my head it will always be that I have come to see Ozu through Yang. Thus our personal directions of influence often move counter to the way they must be talked about in serious film criticism.. And perhaps that is why some topics are better treated in a blog.
