kamome shokudo/ruokala lokki (the seagull diner)

[cimorene]

I bought a movie yesterday that I've been wanting since I first heard of it: Kamome shokudo is "the first Japanese movie filmed in Finland", a sweet and off-beat story about a Japanese restaurant in Helsinki and the Japanese and Finnish people it brings together.

Because of my long interest in Japan and my less long, but more immediate interest in Finland (and the situation of foreigners living in it), I found it especially wonderfully compelling, although I think it stands up quite well in its own right. I kept thinking I should rip and upload it for people, but then I remembered that the film's in Japanese and the subtitles are only in Finnish and Swedish, which rather reduces its audience, although since it does have an international title and was screened at the Montreal film festival, it must have been subtitled in English already somewhere.

Satomi Kobayashi in the lead role was really adorable, almost as striking as the beautiful Marimekko clothes, Iittala dishes, and Artek furniture.

Comments

[vellum.livejournal.com]

japan and sweden is a match made in heaven, methinks.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Finland. Japan and Finland have a lot of things in common - design styles and aesthetics, attitudes to food, structurally complex non-Indo-European languages with similar pronunciation, cultural insularity and immigration policies.

[vellum.livejournal.com]

i'm a product of my american generation: i can't tell geography for shit. sorry. D: