Rating: Fresh 7 out of 10 tomatoes
I don't think someone like me was intended to be the target audience for this film, but the filmmaker took care to not leave me out. The film is based on a popular manga (Japanese comic book), serialized in a magazine, that was turned into both an anime and a live-action TV series, and this film, I gather, is the first of two films making up the finale for the TV series.
However, the creators of the film apparently did make an effort to try to make this a stand-alone piece, not requiring knowledge of previous events in the series or the anime or the manga. As such, it was pretty successful. The characters are introduced and the situation and background are set, and although my appreciation level was likely much different from a long-term fan, I needed no prior knowledge to understand what was going on.
The story is a light drama about two classical music students in Paris. Chiaki had come to prepare for a conductor's competition which begins the film, and the titular Nodame is studying piano at the Paris Conservatory.
Although Chiaki wins the competition, he is passed over as the new conductor for that orchestra, but is offered a position with another orchestra whose glory days have long passed. He doesn't know the orchestra is in decline, but accepts once he hears his mentor once conducted the orchestra.
Nodame is as delusional, as Chiaki puts it, as Chiaki is bone-dry serious. She's flighty and quirky and pretends to be Chiaki's wife and dreams of the day when she will rise to the same level as Chiaki and they will perform together.
Nodame is the life of the film. She's fun, big smiles, endearing, gets stepped on, gets angry, and with the madcap cast of surrounding characters, makes the film reasonably entertaining. But Chiaki's story is the main focus in this film, and I assume Nodame will become more of the focus in the second film.
The filmmaker draws attention to the fact that it was based on a manga by including quirky elements, possibly distracting, that may have been used to convey emotions and feelings on paper, but which are not necessary in live-action media. The filmmaker humorously keeps them in and makes those expressions live-action, and anyone familiar with manga would recognize the pedigree.
Also adding to the quirkiness is that the main European characters are played by Japanese actors and actresses, and are indicated as Europeans by wearing white-people-hair wigs – mostly blonde, but in some cases from the style.
Personally I found that a bit vindicating for Asians after decades of being degraded by Hollywood casting white actors as Asian characters. The portrayals here, however, are not the least bit humiliating to Europeans as what Hollywood did. Although the Japanese actors don't change their behavior or mannerisms to mimic Europeans. They still all seem pretty Japanese. All the white actors and actresses parts are dubbed into Japanese.
The film also spends time at the end setting up the second film, establishing a tension between Chiaki and Nodame, with Chiaki's triumph becoming Nodame's soul-crushing revelation, and introducing a host of new characters and cleverly tying them into the events in this film. It may become a mess in the second film, considering how many subplots are suggested, but it was likely necessary because they are probably characters in the TV series whose stories need to be resolved. If so, I appreciate the attention the filmmaker put in to avoid just dropping the new (old) characters in the second film.
I think I will look out for the second film. I saw another Japanese film earlier that was based on a manga which was the first of three (!) films, and I just never found it compelling to rent the other 2 films when they came out, even though I gave the first film a fresh rating. Hm, maybe I should check out those films.
Rating: Fresh 7.5 out of 10 tomatoes.
This is a concept-driven film about the meaning and value we place on various elements in our lives, tangible and intangible, such as clutter, stuff, jobs, skills, aspirations, dreams, stories, experiences and memories. What is important? What has meaning? What has exchange value?
I was able to appreciate the film once I locked onto the concept. The film has several vox pop sections where ordinary Taipei citizens are asked philosophical questions about meaning and value about various things brought up in the film (I'm actually pretty sure I passed by one of the vox pop filming sites on a pedestrian walkway in Xinyi District a while ago because I remember making a mental note of it).
Another device used several times is when the mother character is talking to her 2 daughters and asking hypothetical questions while trying to make a point, and then a 3rd person worker (foot massager, hairdresser, shaved ice vendor, taxi driver) mistakenly answers, thinking the question was aimed at them, implying the questions are meant in general and for the viewer to think about.
The film doesn't really have a plot, it's about 2 sisters who start up a coffeeshop in Taipei (my neighborhood, actually,
Much of the film is in flashback, also well-done since that's a pet peeve of mine after one film did it really poorly and made me feel stupid for not catching it.
My problem with the film is that individual scenes just weren't that compelling. At 82 minutes short, I should've had no problem viewing it straight through, but I found myself getting distracted, and actually during the first viewing, I shut it off to do something else and didn't come back to it for a few days.
It's possible that the film is one that will grow on me. It was produced by Hou Hsiao-Hsien whose films blow me away. He's one of my favorite filmmakers. His films are definitely non-mainstream and are almost meditations. So it may be that his influence and aesthetic is strongly imbued in this film, but not being a Hou Hsiao-Hsien film, it may take longer to sink in.
The flashback is bookended by the arrival and stay of American "sofa-surfers" at the coffeeshop. The sofa-surfer, or couch-surfer, website is a real social networking site which allows people to find people who are willing to offer their sofas for travelers to save on lodging expenses while traveling. It also ties into the concept of value and exchanges.
The Chinese title of the film is "The 36th Story", and the significance is that when the film returns from the flashback, where the 35 stories are explained, the final scenes are the springboard for the 36th story. And what are our lives if not stories? And if our lives aren't stories, what value do they have? And if the future isn't a story, is it worth living?
