Departures (2008)

The gift of last memories

Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) just manages to land his dream job as cellist in a classical orchestra in Tokyo, Japan, when the orchestra is disbanded. Forced to sell his hugely expensive professional cello, he gives up on his idea of being a musician, and he and his young wife, Mika (Ryoko Hirosue), return to live for free in his late mother's house in his old hometown, where he falls into a well-paid job, cash up front, though not at all the job he thought was being advertised, but one with high social stigma.

Without revealing Daigo's actual job title, suffice it to say that the backbone of the film is the question of whether or not Daigo will continue with the job. Will he tell his wife the true nature of the job? Will he be able to withstand pressure from others to give the job up? Will he come to like the job or find it too distasteful? Quite a lot of the film details the duties involved in the job. Through Daigo, we get to know both the gut-wrenching parts of the job, and also the emotionally uplifting power of work well done.

This is a rather sweet, quiet, melancholy film, with moments of gentle humour and much real pathos. Much of the emotional impact of the film is doubtless cued by the music, classical pieces, cleverly included diagetically via the playing of Daigo himself.

The script, by Kundo Koyama, is on a par, say, with Colin Higgins' script for Harold and Maude, and the direction, by Yojiro Takita, is immaculate. Wikipedia says that both the lead actor and the director did significant research in preparing before the filming. Motoki is superb in the lead role, and among the main supporting actors, Tsutomu Yamazaki is extremely impressive as Daigo's boss. Other notable players are Kimiko Yo, as his colleague, and Kazuko Yoshiyuki and Takashi Sasano, respectively, owner and long-term customer of a local "sento" bath house.

The story addresses important issues relating to family ties and the social and personal worth of normally stigmatised jobs. There are some very poignant scenes (some involving stones!) and the air in my viewing room did rather fill up with dust towards the end.

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• Director: Yojiro Takita
• Writer: Kundo Koyama
• Starring: Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kimiko Yo, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Takashi Sasano

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• Rating: Exceptional
• When seen: 13 Jun 2012
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Written in WriteRoom, formatted using HyperEdit, posted from my MacBook Pro

The Ramen Girl (2008)

In food as in life, sometimes the missing ingredient is love.

In this sweet comic drama of personal discovery, Abby (Brittany Murphy), a young American woman, moves to Tokyo, Japan, in order to join her itchy-footed boyfriend, Ethan (Gabriel Mann). She gets an undemanding office job and moves in with him. All seems well, but a couple of weeks later, she emerges from the shower to find him abruptly packing his bags to take up a job offer in another Japanese city, Osaka, and a new life that does not include her. Within minutes, he is on his way to the airport, leaving her on the pavement in her towel shouting angrily at the departing taxi, virtually friendless in a big foreign city.

Later, Abby, regretting her harsh words, tries to make up with Ethan by phone. While waiting for him to call back, she is drawn to the welcoming lights of a nearby family "ramen" (fast-cooking noodle broth) restaurant, where she weeps into a bowl of delicious ramen and has a mysterious but pleasant hallucination involving a china cat. On a second visit, with a different ramen dish, Abby's tears are somehow, almost magically, turned to laughter. Although Abby can't speak more than a word or two of Japanese, and the chef, Maezumi (Toshiyuki Nishida), and his wife, Reiko (Kimiko Yo), can't speak any English, Abby begins to frequent the restaurant and takes to helping out by serving dishes to the customers. When the chef tries to eject her, she declares that she wants him to teach her how to be a ramen chef.

I thought this was a really sweet funny film, not a rom-com as such, because although there is a little romance, that is by no means the main focus of the story. It really is a story of personal discovery, of finding a passion in life, and the journey to finding fulfilment along that path. Abby's story is contrasted with that of a young corporate Japanese man, Toshi (Sohee Park), whose personal ambitions are in conflict with his culture's work ethics, and also the story of her friend Gretchen (Tammy Blanchard) and Gretchen's drinking companion, Charlie (Daniel Evans), who show the seamier, more dissolute fate of those who give up their dreams and resort to sensual thrills and mind-numbing intoxicants. The emotional content of magic realism has as great an impact on me as on anyone else, so although from a rational perspective the spiritual element brought to the cooking process is mere wishful thinking, I was able to turn a blind eye.

As for the quality of acting, Murphy (excellent also in Sin City, 2005) projects endearing qualities of sweetness, uncalculated exuberance and vulnerability that make her perfect in the lead role. Nishida is brilliant as the grumpy tyrannical ramen chef, and Yo (so good in Yōjirō Takita's Oscar-winning Departures, 2008) is equally good as the supportive wife. The little coterie of local Japanese women customers in the ramen restaurant is also excellently played, and I was happy to see the great Tsutomu Yamazaki, so good in Departures, cameo as the master ramen chef.

According to Wikipedia, film critic Don Willmott describes The Ramen Girl as "a vacuous but atmospheric analysis of the redemptive power of a good bowl of noodles" in which "The Karate Kid meets Tampopo meets Babette's Feast." I haven't yet caught up with either Tampopo or Babette's Feast, but the comparison with The Karate Kid is apt and complimentary, especially the recent 2010 version with Jackie Chan. I didn't find the film vacuous at all, quite the reverse really, as it is about someone finding fulfilment in life through a demanding vocation, rather than simply through a relationship with another person, as would be the case in a rom-com. Abby's character, who, through passion for a chosen field (cooking), teaches herself self-discipline and a personal work ethic, is surely not a bad role model for anyone. It certainly reflects my path in life.

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• Director: Robert Allan Ackerman
• Writer: Becca Topol
• Starring: Brittany Murphy, Sohee Park, Toshiyuki Nishida, Tammy Blanchard, Kimiko Yo, Renji Ishibashi, Tsutomu Yamazaki

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• Rating: Full price
• When seen: 7 Jul 2012
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Written in WriteRoom, formatted using HyperEdit, posted from my MacBook Pro