I simply can't understand for what this must have format of a film, which always reminds us of such great people, as Akira Kurosawa,Felini,Tarkovsky. Even if this film was intended to be a simple commercial film, then it's even worse because of the following reasons.
This film's plot is very, very loose(if it can be called "plot"). An woman about 30 to 35, opened a Japanese restaurant in Helshinki,at first without anybody's help,keeps it for a few months without getting any customer. Who is she? Where she got that sum of money without which such an ineffective business can't be continued for such a long time. We can't know it throughout the movie,because no one of the authors of the film--the author of the original story,the director and scriptwriter didn't cared about such "little things".
Then suddenly appears a young fin, who's very interested in Japanese anime(again we can't know who he is,how his interest in Japanese anime has begun). He asks the restaurant owner the words of an anime song. But why? Does this detail have any relation to the development of the story or main theme(if it exists at all)? No,not at all. It may be replaced by anything--some part of a Japanese poem or words of any traditional or popular songs. So there's no reason for including this song into their conversations of 5-10 minutes duration .
Then suddenly appears an middle-aged Japanese woman,who chose Finland for destination of her travel by incredibly random way(spinning a globe and pointing by a fingertip). But why? Authors don't try to even suggest her motive. All events in this film are motiveless or,in rare exceptional cases, with very poor and banal motives.
This catastrophic script by a director herself wasn't compensated by directing, because the direction also pointless and without any aesthetic principles.
How some Japanese people could see such an empty thing and say,"it's good"? You know, this is not a film, not even a story for literature. It is a poor example of how shots can be edited so that they seemed to represent a one lineal time-space. I as a Japanese clearly know who is really to be blamed. Half-educated television producers who never have respected film history and film art for these 15 years!
This film's plot is very, very loose(if it can be called "plot"). An woman about 30 to 35, opened a Japanese restaurant in Helshinki,at first without anybody's help,keeps it for a few months without getting any customer. Who is she? Where she got that sum of money without which such an ineffective business can't be continued for such a long time. We can't know it throughout the movie,because no one of the authors of the film--the author of the original story,the director and scriptwriter didn't cared about such "little things".
Then suddenly appears a young fin, who's very interested in Japanese anime(again we can't know who he is,how his interest in Japanese anime has begun). He asks the restaurant owner the words of an anime song. But why? Does this detail have any relation to the development of the story or main theme(if it exists at all)? No,not at all. It may be replaced by anything--some part of a Japanese poem or words of any traditional or popular songs. So there's no reason for including this song into their conversations of 5-10 minutes duration .
Then suddenly appears an middle-aged Japanese woman,who chose Finland for destination of her travel by incredibly random way(spinning a globe and pointing by a fingertip). But why? Authors don't try to even suggest her motive. All events in this film are motiveless or,in rare exceptional cases, with very poor and banal motives.
This catastrophic script by a director herself wasn't compensated by directing, because the direction also pointless and without any aesthetic principles.
How some Japanese people could see such an empty thing and say,"it's good"? You know, this is not a film, not even a story for literature. It is a poor example of how shots can be edited so that they seemed to represent a one lineal time-space. I as a Japanese clearly know who is really to be blamed. Half-educated television producers who never have respected film history and film art for these 15 years!