Consuming certain kind of products can shape someone’s identity and status in society. Within this framework, this paper looks at two representations of a specific place and period in time, the...Show moreConsuming certain kind of products can shape someone’s identity and status in society. Within this framework, this paper looks at two representations of a specific place and period in time, the Japan of the 1950s. Japan was recovering from the Second World War, its economy started to slowly grow again and consumption became an important matter in creating a homogenous middle‐class in society. Important in this process was the idea of “electrifying” households. This thesis looks at representations of consuming through the lens of cinema and analyzes how patterns of consuming electronic products such as the “three sacred treasures” (sanshu no shinki), the black and white television, the refrigerator and the washing machine, are displayed and what kind of effect acquiring these products may have on individuals and the people surrounding them. It leads to the following research question: In representing the elements of everyday life in 1950s Japan and displaying the effect of the consumption phenomenon and the electrification of society, what differences in the function of consuming electronics such as the “three treasures” are present in the films "Ohayō" and "Always: Sanchōme no Yūhi?"Show less
