Megane (2007) Reviews

• Maximum Relaxation

  ethSin2008-03-31

  This movie is one of those SLOW and SUBTLE Japanese movies. It's a simple movie about a lady professor going to an island for an off-season vacation. The crazy residents on the island and subtle humor in this movie was very enjoyable for me and there were some really beautiful scenes of the coastline. Acting in this movie is very solid. Not many things are said in this film, but it's very easy to connect with all the characters and tell how they're feeling. We live in such a fast-paced society today, it's nice to be reminded that it's important to take a break once every while and that once again, beauty and happiness can be found in simplest things.

• A subtle gem

  ochichornye2009-08-02

  Some newspaper critics dismissed this as a simplistic new-age fantasy about yuppies that want a break from their hurly-burly city lives. To me they seem to miss the point. I'm one of those people for whom form is much more important than story. Megane is really beautifully shot: the colours, the interiors, the food, the arrangement of the main actors in each frame and the timing of their movements are obviously designed with great care and precision. Yet there is a story here too. It's not very complicated, but beautifully arched and perfectly paced. Like the best of classical music performances, if you make the effort to concentrate and connect you loose track of time and simply enjoy the here and now of the experience. Classical music doesn't 'mean' anything either, or at least it can mean very different things to different persons. The music in Megane, by the way, is often beautiful too (and sometimes downright weird). It doesn't dominate, but subtly supports key moments and adds a little spice. I particularly liked the occasional cello solo. There's little dialog dialog in the film, and the critics are right in saying that it isn't very profound (but occasionally very funny!). Sometimes though, more can be said by two people sitting silently in a quiet spot, watching a sunset and drinking the here and now than by the entire Iliad.

• Charming simple story with a whiff of mystery

  rasecz2008-04-06

  An easygoing film that is as satisfying as a refreshing sea breeze during a summer night at the beach. Impeccably done and acting that is superbly measured. The location is a small island near Okinawa. White sandy beaches and paradisaical transparent waters. A woman flies in and walks to a guest house near a beach. The place, called Hamada, is not easy to find but she does. It's Spring. Off-season. Hamada is operating but the woman is the only guest. The place is run by a cheery and nononsense man that is also the cook. Other characters include an older enigmatic woman that comes to help and a young teacher at a local school. We don't learn a lot about who these people are. This is fine for it lends a whiff of mystery, especially regarding the older woman. The film is primarily about the transformation of the young woman as she is drawn into the unhurried atmosphere that permeates the island and Hamada. She slowly succumbs to the local habits. Despite its slowness, it is never boring. Plenty of whimsical offbeat humor to keep us going. Also plenty of food on display. By the end I was hungry.

• Focus on Escapism

  socialmedia-437-9564492012-07-31

  Have you ever wanted to escape the banality of your daily, stressful routine and venture to an unreachable island? It's an almost universal desire – one which has been covered in a few different ways over the years in cinema. There is the light-hearted approach of traveling to an 'exotic' land, or lands like in the huge commercial success Eat, Pray, Love (2010). Then, there are tales which show a plan to retreat gone wrong such as the dark, independent film 'Martha, Macy, May, Marlene' (2011) or more well-known 'The Beach' (2000). Director Naoko Ogigami's black comedy 'Glasses' ('Megane' in Japanese, pronounced may-ga-neh) falls under a new category. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival entry is neither superficial nor dramatic and follows Taeko, a middle-aged academic professor, searching for a few peaceful days on an unnamed island. There's something charming about her destination but its inhabitants – who all wear glasses – have weird routines she doesn't appreciate. Arriving at the inn, Taeko's stiff modern image reflects her personality: she's an antisocial career woman who hopes that abandoning her phone connection will bring her the rest she's seeking. She expects to be served and pampered but instead is faced with characters who continue to invade her personal space. The inn's proprietor Yuji (Ken Mitsuishi) fails to pick up her suitcase as she enters and later annoyingly joins her for meals. In the morning an older woman, Sakura, stares at her while she sleeps to wake her up. Perplexed and surprised, she engages with them out of courtesy. Twilighting, an activity that seems to involve staring at the sky for hours and contemplating, is their favorite bizarre pastime. This is not her idea of a retreat, so she leaves. But sleep-watching Sakura goes looking for her and Taeko returns, realizing the island is not so bad after all, and finally drops her hostile attitude. It's somewhere here that a delightful journey of self-discovery begins. 'Glasses' is the director's criticism of modern societies. The expressive cinematography; long beautiful shots of life's simple pleasures like watching the ocean, playing the mandolin, preparing and eating and good food, hypnotizes the audience into a contemplative state along with the film's characters. Visually, people and nature merge perfectly in this purposefully slow-paced film, Ogigami's seventh as director. Complementing the mesmerizing landscapes is a script bursting with absurd wit and dark humor. Unlike other films about escapism 'Glasses' didn't make the headlines for boosting tourism in Japan; this is not an attention-seeking picture. Spend 106 minutes with these characters. You might not jump on your computer to book a holiday but you may forget about life's troubles for a while. Find all of our film and festival coverage, as well as our events and education at www.DohaFilmInstitute.com. Follow us on Twitter @DohaFilm.

• Quiet but Not Pointless

  3xHCCH2010-07-06

  "Megane" (Glasses) is the story of a professor from the city named Taeko, who takes an off-season vacation to a remote seaside rest house called Hamada. The people in this house include the absent-minded proprietor named Yuji, a local biology teacher named Haruna and a mysterious old woman named Sakura. Will the snooty Taeko also fall under the inexplicable spell of Hamada with its "twilighting", morning exercises at the beach and "the best shaved ice in the world" concocted by Sakura-san? We never really find out anything substantial about any of these characters. Why are they all here? Why do they behave in this strange way? What happened to them before they came here to Hamada? The director and the script do not tell us directly about anything. The dialogs are thrifty on words, but perhaps pregnant with meaning, I do not really know. Maybe these details are not really important at all, as much as what the effect of the place and of Sakura-san on all these other people. This is what I like about Japanese movies. They have a sense of serenity so unique to them. The music was beautiful, especially with the cello and the mandolins. The stark but artistic photography is mesmerizing with the unique blocking of the people and objects in the shots and the magnificent seaside sceneries. I do not think a movie like this could have been successfully done by any other culture.