Setsuko Hara as Noriko and Chishū Ryū as Shukichi in Yasujirō Ozu's Late Spring.

Some of the most quintessential instances are said to be captured in Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu’s movies, such as a loyal daughter being married off in the film Late Spring. Although Wikipedia probably sums it up the best, mono no aware roughly corresponds to an empathy and gentle sadness for the life’s ephemeralities. The most contact Westerners have with the term “mono no aware” is probably through the internet, where it draws its fame from being a particularly hard phrase to translate. Bob Seger had always been one of the nameless voices on the radio growing up with the oldies, so I guess it isn’t surprising that I never really listened to the lyrics.īy the time I finally got around to it, I was old enough to appreciate it, and knowledgable enough about art to connect it with something else I had heard about. Like many children, my musical preferences traced an accelerated version of my parents’ own development–I was plunked down first into the music of the ’60s, and it took me 18 years to finally catch up to modern pop. I can’t remember the first time I heard “Night Moves”. Of course, I’m talking about the mono no aware (物の哀れ) in his hit song, “Night Moves”. What’s even weirder is that he can do this in a song about how he was constantly horny as a kid. It makes it weird, then, that his music so perfectly captures a uniquely Japanese aesthetic, one infamously difficult to translate.

I’m not sure he’s ever even been to Japan. What does a quintessential heartland rock song have to do with a traditional Japanese aesthetic?Īmerican rock roll legend Bob Seger isn’t Japanese. Why 'Night Moves' is the Most Poetic Rock Song Ever.

Night moves song