MEGANE (GLASSES)
Japan, 2007, 106 minutes, Colour.
Satomi Kobayashi, Masako Motai.
Directed by Naoko Ogigami.
Megane is very much a contemplative film, slow-burning, slow-smouldering. It is based on more eastern aspects of retreat from the world, meditation and liberation?
A professor, more detail not given, goes on a holiday in Okinawa. She feels that she is being imposed on by the rather genial staff as well as an elderly lady who is also staying there. She decides to move to another resort, only to find that it is a commune where she is supposed to work the soil for making the vegetables and food which the group eats. She returns to the original place – where she spends the time gradually getting to understand the proprietor, a high school teacher and a student who follows her there. She comes to appreciate the older woman.
The film shows some of the activities (perhaps too strong a word), her knitting, being by the sea, the old lady’s shack for selling crushed ice, exercises, fishing…
The symbol of the title is her losing her glasses as she drives back to the airport – and is able to see more clearly the whole world.
The film would be trying for most audiences – but is a film that asks to be surrendered to, going at a different pace, releasing oneself from pressures.
1.The audience for this film? A more contemplative audience? Eastern and Asian spiritualities and detachment?
2.The Okinawa settings, the beaches, the fields, the crops? The airport and the town and the shops? The natural beauty, the way that it is photographed? The musical score?
3.The title, the main characters wearing glasses, the professor and her losing the glasses – and the proprietor fishing them out of the water? Seeing more clearly?
4.The pace, the lack of action, the editing – and the audience surrendering to the pace of the film?
5.The professor, snooty, on the beach, going to the resort, her wariness of the people? The old lady welcoming her in the morning and her not liking this? Not wanting to eat with the group? Her leaving, going to the commune, her being frightened away? The long sequence of her walk back, being given the ride on the tricycle? Her becoming more adept at mixing with the others, the student following her? The lack of revelation about her past? Her curiosity about the others – and its not being answered? The exercises on the beach and her participation? The transformation? Leaving, coming back, going to the shack with the ices – and the old lady arriving wearing the knitted scarf?
6.The old lady, her arrival, dignity, the shack, selling the ice, greeting in the morning, participating in the cooking, the serving, the meals? The exercises? Her tricycle? Speculation about who she was?
7.The high school teacher, her attitude towards the professor? Participating with the group? Teaching biology? The fishing? The conversations, gradually mellowing?
8.The proprietor, friendliness, the cooking, the meals? Fishing? Helping the professor?
9.The student, his following the professor? His absorbing the atmosphere of the resort?
10.The tableau of the group, the five, the exercises, standing on the beach?
11.The visual presentation of the film, the characters, the landscapes as conducive to meditation?
