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is a 2007 Japanese
comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
written and directed by Naoko Ogigami. Set on an unnamed Japanese island, the film tells the story of a vacationing university professor who comes in contact with several eccentric local inhabitants. It serves as a follow-up to Ogigami's 2006 film ''
Kamome Shokudo is a 2006 comedy film written and directed by Japanese director Naoko Ogigami, based on a novel by Yōko Mure. The film is set in the Finnish capital Helsinki, and follows a Japanese woman who sets up a diner serving Japanese food in the city ...
'', and features two of the same actors. It was featured at several film festivals including the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
. During production, Ogigami decided the title of the movie after an impromptu realization that all of the characters in the film wore glasses.


Plot

''Megane'' tells the story of Taeko (
Satomi Kobayashi is a Japanese actress from Tokyo. She won the award for best newcomer at the 4th Yokohama Film Festival for '' Exchange Students''. She was previously married to screenwriter Kōki Mitani. Filmography * '' I Are You, You Am Me'' (転校生; 198 ...
), an uptight city woman, vacationing on a quaint Japanese island (later identified by the director as
Yoron Island , also known as Yoron, is one of the Amami Islands.''Teikoku's Complete Atlas of Japan'', Teikoku-Shoin Co., Ltd., Tokyo, The island, 20.8  km² (8 sq. mi.) in area, has a population of approximately 6,000 people, and is administered as the ...
,
Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...
). Upon arriving at the Hamada Inn, she meets the eccentric inhabitants of the island: Sakura (Masako Motai), a mysterious older woman who runs a shaved ice stand on the island during the spring season, but accepts no money; Haruna (
Mikako Ichikawa is a Japanese actress and model from Tokyo, Japan. Her older sister is the actress and model Miwako Ichikawa. Biography Due to her older sister being in the modeling business, Ichikawa made several appearances in the fashion magazine ''Olive'' ...
), a biology teacher who sighs about the lack of cute boys in her class; and Yuji the innkeeper (
Ken Mitsuishi is a Japanese actor. He has appeared in films such as ''Chaos'' and '' Tokyo Playboy Club''. Filmography Film ;1980s *'' Tora's Tropical Fever'' (1980) *'' Foster Daddy, Tora!'' (1980) *'' Sailor Suit and Machine Gun'' (1981) *''Tora-san, the Ex ...
) who draws confusing maps and boasts the lack of cell phone reception at his hotel. The first morning of her vacation Taeko is woken by a kneeling Sakura at her bedside, who greets her with a cheerful ''Ohayo gozaimasu'' (good morning) and invites her to join in the island's morning aerobics. Taeko declines but later wanders down to the beach to watch the islanders performing what Yuji calls their "merci" exercises, a light aerobics program invented by Sakura. Taeko's fish-out-of-water feelings are only accentuated when Yuji attempts to explain "twilighting" to her, a local pastime consisting of thinking while staring off into the horizon. After a few days Taeko becomes fed up with the quirkiness of the inn's residents and checks into the Marine Palace, the island's other hotel, but rapidly realizes that the forced labor mentality at the Marine Palace is not to her liking. Lost but rescued by Sakura on a tricycle, Taeko returns to the inn where she is later joined by a former student, Yomogi (
Ryo Kase is a Japanese actor. Early life Kase was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. He moved to Bellevue, Washington in the United States soon after his birth, due to his father's job being transferred. He's father Yutaka Kase was former chairman a ...
) and slowly learns to accept and then love the inn's unique way of living.


Cast

*
Satomi Kobayashi is a Japanese actress from Tokyo. She won the award for best newcomer at the 4th Yokohama Film Festival for '' Exchange Students''. She was previously married to screenwriter Kōki Mitani. Filmography * '' I Are You, You Am Me'' (転校生; 198 ...
as Taeko *Masako Motai as Sakura *
Mikako Ichikawa is a Japanese actress and model from Tokyo, Japan. Her older sister is the actress and model Miwako Ichikawa. Biography Due to her older sister being in the modeling business, Ichikawa made several appearances in the fashion magazine ''Olive'' ...
as Haruna *
Ken Mitsuishi is a Japanese actor. He has appeared in films such as ''Chaos'' and '' Tokyo Playboy Club''. Filmography Film ;1980s *'' Tora's Tropical Fever'' (1980) *'' Foster Daddy, Tora!'' (1980) *'' Sailor Suit and Machine Gun'' (1981) *''Tora-san, the Ex ...
as Yuji *
Ryo Kase is a Japanese actor. Early life Kase was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. He moved to Bellevue, Washington in the United States soon after his birth, due to his father's job being transferred. He's father Yutaka Kase was former chairman a ...
as Yomogi


Themes

A major theme of the movie is the importance of taking one's time and appreciating life, contrasted to Taeko's normal urban lifestyle and mindset. Many scenes of the movie quietly depict simple moments of life like eating, watching the ocean, or playing a mandolin. Henry Stewart of ''
The L Magazine ''The L Magazine'' was a free bi-weekly magazine in New York City featuring investigative articles, arts and culture commentary, and event listings. It was available through distribution in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Hoboken. History ''Th ...
'' described Megane as "an ode to the pleasures of unhurried living." Another critic said of the film, "On this paradisical island little else matters beyond the recharging of spiritual batteries and the enjoyment of eating." Sakura is the epitome of this ideal – waiting intently in front of a cooking bean pot in order to turn off the heat at exactly the right moment or painstakingly preparing her special shaved ice. The film's plot is purposely slow-paced, a fact which Ogigami acknowledged at the San Francisco festival screening when she issued a sleep warning to the audience, all the while implying that such an act was in accordance with the spirit of the movie.


Reception

The film was featured at the
2008 Sundance Film Festival The 2008 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 17, 2008 to January 27 in Park City, Utah. It was the 24th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was ''In Bruges'' and the closing night film was '' CSNY Déjà Vu''. Films ...
, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, and
San Francisco International Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by the San Francisco Film Society, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in in ...
. The
International Federation of Film Critics The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...
awarded ''Megane'' with a Special Jury Mention in 2008, " r the freshness and optimism of the comedy, that glides along at an unexpectedly serene pace." At the
Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...
''Megane'' won the Manfred Salzberger Award for "broadening the boundaries of cinema today." The film was also shown at the 2010 Nippon Connection film festival in
Frankfurt, Germany Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
and the 2011
Japanese Film Festival The Japanese Film Festival is a film festival held in Singapore and dedicated to Japanese cinema. It was held annually from 1999 to 2016, and curated with Singapore audiences in mind, led by local programmers with a wide-ranging programme of film ...
in
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. Reviews were mixed. John Anderson of ''
Variety Magazine ''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based ...
'' called the film "a vaguely magical, insistently modern fable that could become an arthouse hit", praising the film's acting, production values, and "extraordinarily confident direction." One professor of Japanese cinema called it "the perfect antidote to the trite 3D fare Hollywood's been throwing at us of late." However, not all reviews were so high-minded. The film received a 40 percent rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
. Nick Shager of ''
Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'' gave the movie one star out of four, calling it pretentious and "just about insufferable," and David Fear of ''
Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an enginee ...
'' called it "the cinematic equivalent of a rock-garden
tchotchke A tchotchke ( , ) is a small bric-à-brac or miscellaneous item. The word has long been used by Jewish-Americans and in the New York City English, regional speech of New York City and elsewhere. It is borrowed from Yiddish and is ultimately Slavic ...
sold as exotica to tourists." ''Megane'' has also achieved the status of
art film An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...
and has been featured in various museum presentations, including at the Maison de la Culture du Japon in Paris and the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
in New York.


References


External links

* * {{allRovi movie, 426711, Megane 2007 films Japanese comedy films Nippon TV films Nikkatsu films Films directed by Naoko Ogigami 2000s Japanese films