HAKASE NO AISHITA SUSHIKI (THE PROFESSOR AND HIS BELOVED EQUATION)

Japan, 2006, 117 minutes, Colour.
Akria Terao, Takanari Saito, Eri Fukatso.
Directed by Takashi Koizomi

Please do not be put off by the title.

If you had heard that a film with a title like this was about numbers, mathematics, equations, memory loss and baseball, you might well be puzzled. But it is – and it has to be one of the nicest films (in the best sense) in a long time.

The film opens with students settling down to a maths class with a new teacher. He introduces himself and proceeds to entrance the class and the audience with the story of how he came to be a maths teacher. It involves his single mother who worked for a housekeeping agency and was given the task to look after a maths professor who had been in a car accident and had lost the memory of all that happens after the accident (except for 80 minutes’ retention before it goes and he has to start again). She is a good woman, devout, devoted, listens eagerly to the professor’s theories about amicable numbers, prime numbers, perfect numbers and how maths is interior and is a revelation of truth.

She also brings her ten year old son who is coached by the professor in maths – and then in baseball, which is the sport the professor played when young and which he loves (and remembers all the pre-accident statistics). His sister-in-law, who was made lame by the same accident, is an embittered woman and tries to sabotage the friendships.

While this is an overview of ‘what happens’, it does not do justice to the ‘how it happens’. The performances are rich and rewarding, perfectly credible. The deep humanity and joy that pervades the film has a wonderful effect on the audience’s sense of goodness. There is enough dialogue to suggest the transcendent and the infinite in our world, with the quotation from Blake about the world in a grain of sand and the professor noting that he has been ‘allowed to peep into God’s notebook’.

The film, beautiful to look at, especially with ocean, water, mountains and blossoms, is in the classic tradition of contemplative naturalistic filming of Ozu.

Well-worth seeing and reflecting on.

1.The impact of the film? Charm? Beauty, truth, humanity, spirituality?

2.The Japanese perspective on relationships, courtesy, study, sport? The beautiful landscapes, mountains, sea, water, the house, the baseball, the blossoms? The schoolroom?

3.The musical score, the songs, Bach, the quotation from Blake, the singer?

4.The theme of numbers, mathematics, philosophy, metaphysics? Theology? The tradition of Pythagoras, Descartes, Napier, Euland?

5.The title and its tone, the professor himself? Mathematics, the equation, the perfect equation? Mathematics as a reflection of reality? Underlying reality? Numbers existing before people? People finding language to recognise numbers and their mystery?

6.The boys and girls in class, the discussion about Pi equalling three, Root and his arrival, courtesy, his presenting himself, the class on himself and mathematics, his character, influenced by his mother, the professor, his visual aids on the blackboard, numbers, letters, the Japanese characters and their explanations, images and meanings? Maths, baseball? The attention of the children? Their thanking him?

7.The voice-over, his talking about his mother, her situation, unmarried, bringing up her son, going to the agency, riding the bike, the job, the interview with the sister-in-law, her explanation about her brother-in-law, the accident, the separate house, her work? Her arrival, the brother asking about the shoe size, the factorial of four, her birthday, two-twenty and two-eighty-four – and the sum of the divisors of each of these numbers, and their equalling each other? The background of Descartes? The posting of the letter for the competition, her work, the meals, urging the professor to eat, giving him the spoon, his lack of memory? Her service, her being nice to him, starting over again with his new memory?

8.The background story, the sister-in-law, the factory, the widow, selling the factory, the building of the apartments, the houses, the Noh play, the accident (and later seeing the Noh performance)? Her later confession, her not having the child, whose child? The path her life might have taken? Giving up on her family? No visitors for her brother-in-law? Her watching the young woman, her suspicions, reporting her to the agency for staying over, firing her?

9.The young woman’s life, the discussions about maths, her learning, the explanation of the line and infinity, prime numbers, amicable numbers, perfect numbers, the nature of number twenty-eight, her service, her going to the shrine, devout? A good woman?

10.Root, his name, aged ten, the visit to the professor, learning maths with him, allowing the professor to start over, how this all related to his adult career, studies, classes? Love of baseball, the professor’s knowledge, the statistics, twenty-eight as the perfect number, going to coach the children, over and over and the children not complaining, the play, the accident, going to hospital with the mother, her angry reaction, apologising to her son, the reconciliation? The match, jersey number twenty-eight, the professor happy, he and the mother and their enthusiastic support of the game, the birthday, the gift of the jersey, the professor and his gift of the glove, his sister-in-law bringing it over?

11.The shock when she was fired, the agency director talking with her, the sister-in-law firing her, getting the new job, serving people, the prime number 2311, meeting Root, his visit to the professor, the sister-in-law demanding to see her, their talk, her finally relenting, the celebration of the prize, Root’s birthday, the sister-in-law not coming in?

12.The end, the professor at the sea, the young man coming to see him? The two women sitting on the shore? Images of reconciliation?

13.The motif of sea, water, flowers, mountains, blossoms? The quotation from William Blake? The world and a grain of sand?

14.The themes of the meaning of the universe, abstraction and mathematics, metaphysical principles? God? The professor and his speaking of peeping into God’s notebook?