Megane (film)
| Megane | |
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| Directed by | Naoko Ogigami |
| Produced by | Shuichi Komuro, Enma Maekawa, Hanako Kasumisawa, Seiji Okuda, Kumi Kobata |
| Written by | Naoko Ogigami |
| Starring |
Satomi Kobayashi, Mikako Ichikawa, Ryo Kase, Ken Mitsuishi, Masako Motai, Hiroko Yakushimaru |
| Music by | Takahiro Kaneko |
| Cinematography | Minebobu Tani |
| Distributed by | Nikkatsu |
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Release date
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Running time
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106 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Megane (めがね, "Glasses") is a 2007 Japanese comedy film written and directed by Naoko Ogigami. The film is set on an unnamed Japanese island and tells the story of a vacationing university professor who comes in contact with several eccentric local inhabitants. The movie is a follow-up to Ogigami's 2006 film Kamome Shokudo, and features two of the same actors. It was featured at several film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival. During production, Ogigami decided the title of the movie after an impromptu realization that all of the characters in the film wore glasses.
Megane tells the story of Taeko (Satomi Kobayashi), an uptight city woman, vacationing on a quaint Japanese island (later identified by the director as Yoron Island, Okinawa). 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), a biology teacher who sighs about the lack of cute boys in her class; and Yuji the innkeeper (Ken Mitsuishi) 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) and slowly learns to accept and then love the inn's unique way of living.
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 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.
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