Summer Wars Movie Analysis Essay PDF

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I wrote a movie analysis on Summer Wars for class. This was assigned to everyone so we all had to analyze Summer Wars....

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Valeria Orraca

November 22, 2019

ASN 3202

Analysis on Summer Wars : Tradition vs Technology At first glance, Summer Wars (2009) seems to be a playful comedy about a family faced with saving the world from the power of an AI. This, however, is hardly the case. Summer Wars is instead a film about tradition, family, and human connection in the face of an increasingly globalized society dependent on technology. It portrays this while also appealing to Japanese conventional values and family systems. As such, in this brief analysis, I will be looking at tradition, modernity, and communication in Summer Wars, and how they relate to Japanese traditional values and family systems. The story starts off by introducing us to Kenji Koiso, a high schooler who is basically a math prodigy, and comes from a small family. Natsuki Shinohara, Kenji’s love interest, brings him to her grandmother (Sakae Jinnouchi)’s home as her supposed “fiancé”. Natsuki’s large, extended family that is gathering at the home is warm and inviting, and Kenji himself notices how the large banquet and boisterous, happy conversations contrast the quietness and solitude of his own home (his parents are often busy, and family dinners aren’t common, he comments). This particular juxtaposition portrays traditional families in a positive light, yet concedes that small Japanese families like Kenji’s are more common in modern times. The Jinnouchi’s are the picture perfect representation of traditional patriarchal systems in Japan, except for one key difference: The household is run by grandmother/matriarch Sakae, and the women are strongwilled, often the ones to lead or take the reigns. The film continues to use the Jinnouchi family as the symbol of tradition, while modernity is portrayed through the online world of OZ, introduced in the very first scene of the film. OZ is an international online network through which users can communicate with people all over the world, as well as partake in activities found in the real world: casinos, fulfilling their

jobs, accessing their personal accounts like bank accounts, etc. Oz essentially relates modernity with globalism, yet this is at the cost of real-world human interaction and human collaboration. The infiltration and subsequent devolvement that occurs in OZ and sends society into chaos and suggests that, while OZ is convenient, it should not replace all aspects of human life, particularly that of real-world socialization. This is especially evident in a key scene, where Sakae retreats to her study and calls dozens of people she knows from her long history in the Jinnouchi family. Sakae rallies these individuals both through emotional support and by helping them organize to tackle problems caused in the real world by the AI that’s taken over OZ (For instance, the AI has taken control of the water system and flooded streets through fire hydrants, and created traffic jams through GPS and traffic light manipulation). However, this is not to say that the film suggests that technology can’t be conducive to human collaboration. Later in the film, members of OZ from all over the world support and cheer for Natsuki as she battles the AI over a game of hanafuda (a Japanese card game). Thus, the film advocates for both instances of human communication as vital and positive, rather than favoring one over the other. As aforementioned, the world of OZ is done in by an AI, known as Love Machine. Love Machine is the brainchild of a member of the Jinnouchi family, Wabisuke Jinnouchi, the love child of Sakae’s late husband who Sakae adopts in young age. Wabisuke moved to America and went to college there, developing Love Machine and selling it to the US Army. The US Army releases the AI into OZ as an experiment, unaware of the subsequent global turmoil it would cause. When the Jinnouchi clan learns of this, Sakae in particular suggests that it is their duty to right this wrong, to save the world through self-sacrifice, even at the cost of their own lives. The Jinnouchi clan had nothing to do with Wabisuke’s actions, yet as a father might take responsibility for the wrongdoings of his son in pre-modern Japan, so does Sakae feel

responsible for her adopted son’s actions. It is a responsibility that, as such, the entirely family bears, and thus, brings them together through a shared sense of duty and, possibly, guilt. This is particularly evident near the end of the movie, as the satellite rerouted by Love Machine is heading straight for the Jinnouchi home, and the family decides to stick by Kenji as he tries to reroute the satellite from crashing into the Jinnouchi home, even as it is seconds away from doing so. Even in the face of uncertainty, the family sticks together and supports Kenji, suggesting simultaneously that he is as much a part of the Jinnouchi clan now as the rest of them. Thus, regarding responsibility, the film alludes to traditional Japanese values, particularly the one that states that the failures of the individual become those of the family, and that the collective must thus right and/or be held accountable for. To recap, Summer Wars is successful in that it tackles many themes without overcomplicating the narrative. The world of OZ portrays the possible future we are heading towards, transnational and facilitating, yet dangerous when completely depended upon. The nature of the Jinnouchi clan is reminiscent of Japanese conventional families and traditions, with a modern twist as a matriarchy. Above all, Summer Wars tells a message that is increasingly applicable even ten years after its creation: In the face of an ever-growing dependency on technology, we should still maintain strong connections in the real-world with those that we love and depend on....