150
Million Miracles In Summer
The
film “Summer Wars” is a Japanese animated science fiction film made in 2009,
directed by Mamoru Hosoda, the mastermind behind Digimon Movies and One Piece
series anime. The film was well received by the public viewers and earned 18
million dollars worldwide. It also won several awards in year 2010.
The story starts with a high school
student named Kenji, who is extraordinary well in mathematic. He also is the
representation of Japan to compete in the Mathematic Olympic. During summer
holiday, a female senior from the same school, named Natsuki introduces a part
time job to Kenji, as a helper in her hometown for her great-grandmother Sakae’s
90th birthday. Later Kenji finds out Natsuki’s family is the
descendant of a famous samurai. During dinner time, Kenji meets with Wabisuke,
the son of a mistress and he is Natsuki’s uncle. Natsuki idolize her uncle and
she develops feeling for him since childhood. Meanwhile, Kenji receives an
unknown e-mail with a series of digits. Kenji solves it and the multi-platform
internet OZ is hacked with Kenji’s OZ account. This evil act is carried by an
Artificial Intelligent (A.I.) developed by Wabisuke, who run away to United
State ten years ago. The A.I. named Love Machine wrecks havoc in the OZ
database creates major catastrophic events in real world with GPS false signal,
traffic jam, fire alarm malfunction and water pipes leakage. Natsuki’s cousin
Kazuma tries to stop Love Machine with King Kazma, an online fighting avatar,
but he fails. Great-grandmother Sakae uses her prestige family influence to
stabilize the chaos in society. However, she passes away when her personal
doctor’s phone alarm did not activate when her heartbeat drops. Kenji teams up with
Wabisuke, Natsuki and Kazuma to defeat the satanic A.I. Love Machine.
The animation isn’t just a kid show
filled with joy and laughter. The idea of contrast issues are heavily used in
this film for the theme of east meets west, modern versus tradition and
humanity versus technology. The story has a lot of depths to layer on this
movie “Summer Wars” as the movie brings a tough question to the table. How
could people of 21st century control and balance between real world
and virtual reality? Technology does provide benefits to humanity but it could
be a double edge sword if we are not using it correctly. We heard news about
people is getting addicted to the internet everyday yet we have no solution to
this social problem.
The film is very well relevant to
our daily life as the invention of smartphone allows people to interact through
internet everywhere and every time, yet at the same time it changes the texture
of family and society. Human interaction is no longer the same way as we know.
People are more comfortable to communicate via social network, rather than
face-to-face. In the opening scene, the introduction of OZ webpage shows the
rapid progression and development of internet. It combines multiple business
industries to transform these companies’ products in online catalog for viewers
to select. It also connects billion different users to interact in specific chat
room of their choice. This shows how internet becomes an essential part of our
lives as it manages and records our daily tasks. We are becoming the slave of
technology, rather than the owner of it. Many studies show people who spent
long hours in net surfing have higher chance to diagnose heart disease,
eye-sight problem and communication difficulty. The worst case scenario, the
might be dead for exhaustion after extreme long hours of net surfing.
Next, Love Machine becomes stronger
as it consumes others internet account in OZ webpage. Wabisuke says the hunger
for knowledge is the sole reason of the evil plan Love Machine has carry out.
The capability of multiple links to different sectors make OZ webpage becomes
the primary target for Love Machine to hack. The multi function webpage is illustrated
through the first battle of King Kazma with Love Machine. They are chasing each
other in the internet while random objects are flying around. Human creates
technology to satisfy their hunger by share the knowledge to the whole world
via internet. The movie shows how the desire of learning backfires back to
human as Wabisuke creates Love Machine, an A.I. who absorbs everything in the
internet. This indicates we as human must be considerate when it comes to the
exploration of new knowledge. We have no idea what of our new creation could be
capable to do to our society. It symbolizes the constant debates of machine
threaten humanity around the globe.
Summer Wars also highlights the
importance of family relationship in 21st century. When Kenji is arrested for
hacking the OZ defense system, he confesses his feeling to the Natsuki's family
for their kindness. He has a joyful experience in the house because he seldom
spent time with his parents. Kenji's parents are busy with their work. This
scene highlights the issue of parents' neglecting on their children. As the
bond of family relationship is weaken, children have no choice but they turn to
internet for attention. Like Kenji, he makes a mistake and the police is
hunting for them. It symbolizes the usage of internet without parents'
supervision could lead to bad consequences. In reality, we often heard news of
children is kidnapped through the connection of internet.
Natsuki's grandfather had a mistress
and they had a child while they were still alive. The child named Wabisuke and
he is considered the black sheep in the family. He took the money from
great-grandmother Sakae and run away to United State. He wants his family to be
proud of him as he invents the A.I. Love Machine. The clash of technology and tradition
family value is showing especially in the fighting scene between Sakae and
Wabisuke. He uses his expertise in technology to further advance his career but
Sakae could not agrees with him. It shows the struggle of family relationship
to stay together while the waves of technology constantly weaken it. Family
these days are spending lesser time together as they rather swipe their fingers
across the screen of a smartphone.
However, it shows the bond between
Wabisuke and his grandmother Sakae is deeper than what we could imagine.
Wabisuke uses his grandmother's birthday as the password of his smartphone. As
for grandmother Sakae, she writes a letter to advise her sons and daughters to
tolerate and accept Wabisuke as a part of the family. Wabisuke uses technology
as a way to convey the message of love to his grandmother while Sakae uses the
traditional way to show her concern and appreciation of the existence of
Wabisuke. The story shows generation barrier breaks away in 2 different way of
communication. It symbolizes the combination of traditional and modern
technology that keeps family together.
Since this is a Japanese animation,
there are many Japanese cultural references in this movie. First it is the
introduction of a popular Japanese game named "Koi Koi" with hanafuda
cards, Japanese version of poker cards. In the movie, Natsuki's family members
are playing it as a leisure activity. In the final battle, Natsuki challenges
Love Machine in a card game called "Koi Koi". However, she doesn't
play with real card as the Love Machine resides in the OZ webpage. She has to
connect her video game console to defeat Love Machine. Again, it shows Japanese
people's passion to preserve their culture as they combine a traditional card
game and video game to create a digitalize version of hanafuda. Japanese
younger generation can learn better of their culture with the help of video
game attraction.
Secondly, the Japanese tradition architecture
is beautifully represented on the background for this film. Natsuki’s home is
an ancient Japanese house equipped with koi fish pond and Japanese garden.
Also, the movie highlights the importance of ancient knowledge as Kenji and
Natsuki’s uncles use the art of war from Natsuki’s ancestor, who is a samurai
that defeats an army of greater number by locks the enemy in his castle. They
team up to destroy Love Machine by lure it into a container filled with castles
to drown it. As for great-grandmother Sakae, she senses the danger and calls
any government departments she could reach out to keep public out of danger.
These scenes change the perception of public on stereotype view old people are
incapable to handle daily tasks, let alone giving guidance in critical time
likes Sakae. It also redefines ancient knowledge would still as useful as in 21st
century.
Thirdly, the cultural impact of west
meets west. The battle of King Kazma and Love Machine symbolizes the clash of
it. King Kazma is a representation of a modern teenager in the avatar of
rabbit. He has equips with fist gloves, eyes protector, red jacket and jeans.
He gives the impression of hip and fashionable with the attitude of rebellion.
It shows his appearance design is heavily influenced by western culture. On the
contrary, Love Machine is the representation of a Buddha warrior with twisted
digital image. The flame crown oh its’ head represents his superiority while
the sun behinds symbolizes the origin of life as sun gives life to earth with
the light. The design of Love Machine shows influence from oriental culture.
Love Machine plays the role of god while King Kazma is the warrior who
challenges the god. The fight indicates the freedom fights its’ way to break
free from the chain of superstition and history burden. It shows the acceptance
of western culture to infuse in an eastern society would benefits more rather
than creates negativity.
For Natsuki, she joins in the last
battle with a Japanese card game named koi koi. In her digital avatar, she is
seen with fox appearance on her ears and face. It symbolizes the role of fox
being a guardian in Japanese folk tales. She also wears traditional kimono with
sakura petals to shows the beauty of Japanese lady. Later she transforms into a
goddess-like fox lady with wings, it indicates her urge to protect her family
as a guardian angel. The mix of western culture and eastern tradition could be
seen from her appearance. While she is wearing kimono in the digital form, in
reality she is playing the card game with video game console. Once again, it
shows the perfect blend of modernity and tradition to preserve heritage with
the bond builds with technology.
In conclusion, Summer Wars is
seriously a must watch for all anime lovers. The art style, theme songs and
story would keep anime lovers mesmerize for a very long time. After all, it has
150 million miracles for a special girl to save the world.
References
Abel.
J.E. (2011). Review of Summer Wars. Retrieved from
Saltz.
R. (2010, December 28). Young Math Wizard Stumbles Upon Oz, Deep in the Heart
of the interent. Retrieved from
Thomas.
K. (2011, January 06). Movie Review: Summer Wars. Retrieved from
Schilling.
M. (2009, August 07). Summer Wars. Retrieved from
