The concept of tourism and the way the people who travel perceive their vacations is a very interesting one, particularly when it involves urban residents visiting rural places, having very specific things in their minds about what they are going to experience. Naoko Ogigami directs a film that plays with the notion in a rather hilarious but also down-to-earth fashion.
Glasses is screening as part of Five Flavours Asian New Year's Eve Online
Taeko, a woman who looks dangerously similar to Ogigami herself, visits an Okinawan island, having booked some nights in a small guesthouse, with the clear notion that she will be left alone there, in her search for peace and quiet. She is, thus, astonished when the hotel proprietor sits down to eat with her, along with two other people of the area, Haruna, a woman her age, and Sakura, an elderly lady whom she also finds in her room waking her up the next morning. Soon after that, she learns that Sakura also leads a series of rather unusual gymnastics on the beach every morning, which are attended by many of the locals. The lack of ice creams in the rather hot setting, where only shaved ice is served to anyone who wants to cool off, by a temporary stand on the beach, again served by Sakura, and the overall noisy demeanor of all the people frequenting the hotel, soon aggravates her to the point that she decides to change lodgings. The next guesthouse, however, seems to be one of those hippie-new age ones, where the customers are expected to work the fields during the day and participate in group discussions in the night. A rather unpleasantly surprised Taeko returns back to the first lodging, and gradually starts to adapt to her new environment.
Naoko Ogigami plays with the aforementioned concept in a rather delightful way, by having an individual as uptight and private as Taeko being forced to spend time among people who seem to have no regard for others' privacy, in a notion that results in a number of hilarious situations. The comment deriving from this whole situation is quite obvious, and seems to apply to every tourist: “you are to adapt to the place you visit, not the other way around”. The presentation of this comment is where the somewhat situational comedy that forms the main part of the narrative derives from, with Ogigami also highlighting the fact that giving in can actually work as kind of psychotherapy for people facing various such issues.
At the same time, the film also highlights the character of the people who live in remote, rural areas, their gossipy nature that derives from an inherent curiosity for anything new, but also the inclination to help those around them as they learn of the issues they face. Furthermore, that their ways may seem absurd to “normal” people is also depicted here, with the whole presentation of the beach gymnastics highlighting the fact in the funniest fashion.
This eccentricity of the locals is exemplified by the cast and particularly Masako Motai as Sakura and Mikako Ichikawa as Haruna, with the two of them actually being quite used to such roles, and highlighting the fact with utter eloquence in this case. Their antithesis with Satomi Kobayashi's Taeko in almost every aspect also works great for the narrative, with her depicting her initial frustration, her “suffering” in the new age hotel and her metastrophe in quite captivating fashion.
The cinematography of the film does not do anything extravagant, since Ogigami went for a minimalist simplicity in the visual department, but the scenery is captivating enough on itself, offering a number of picturesque moments during the movie. The editing allows the story to flow with the relatively slow pace of Japanese indies, although a number of “abrupt” cuts give a sense of speed while heightening the element of humor.
“Glasses” is easy to watch, funny and occasionally very beautiful, a quintessential entertaining film.
