Tokyo Fiancée (2014)

Pretty Good

Better Late Then Never

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This one was a strange film. As far as films' ending go it went nowhere. It not only went nowhere they do not offer a rhyme or reason for it not going anywhere. With that said, the beginning and middle were not good either. The 'girl' looked like a boy and I was waiting for the other show to drop and 'she' reveals herself as a he. Then she took her clothes off and it was revealed that she was indeed a she. Still, as mention, the story has no payoff.

Amélie (Pauline Etienne) was born in Japan. She always wanted to be Japanese despite born to Belgian parents and moving back to Belgium when she was five. She's 20 and tries to immerse herself in the Japanese culture. She gets hired by Rinri as a private French tutor. He's her only student. They grow closer together. She gets an one-year contract with a large Japanese company. She hates her job and Rinri proposes to her. She's reluctant and then the 2011 tsunami hits Japan.Most of this has a charming Lost in Translation feel. The romance also has its charms. Pauline Etienne has an endearing wide-eyed persona. Her character does a turn in her attitude. There should be more to that part of the story. The tsunami is a splash of cold water from the real world. The last act is a little abrupt. Overall, this is a charming little movie.

Tokyo Fiancée is an initiatory trip to finding your identity, Amélie (Pauline Etienne) embarks on a journey to find herself. Born in Japan from Belgian parents, she leaves Belgium for the country of her dreams, Japan. Marveling at a culture and a language she feels she missed out on and wants to absorb, but the metamorphosis is not as swift as she had hoped.The film has the sensibility and beauty of Japanese and French film making. It's sweet, innocent and a bit dark. Slowly immersing the audience into a country, a city, and a culture it introduces Japan beautifully through Amélie and Rinri (Taichi Inoue)'s eyes. They both aspire to learn from each other and almost inevitably become close.Amélie and Rinri may be culturally different but they seem to share the same quirkiness. The actors are both touching in the film, they made Rinri and Amélie feel real and natural. Pauline Etienne smartly portrayed Amélie's bubbly personality and her evolution throughout the movie. The movie also smartly integrated the events of Fukushima in the story, making the horrid fit into the atypical love story.Tokyo Fiancée is not exactly a love story, more of a friendship love story. It shows Japan brilliantly, as exciting and slightly confusing as that it may be.

Amélie (Pauline Etienne) was born in Kansai but she is Belgian, unfortunate twist of fate as she stubbornly wants to become « a venerable Japanese writer ». So at the age of 20 Amelie leaves Belgium for Japan to realize her dream. There, to earn her living, she teaches french to Rinri (Taichi Inoue), a young Japanese french culture enthusiast, as sweet and charming as he is sometimes impenetrable… From the ryokans on Sado Island to the streets of Shinjuku, in the intimacy of a cozy room on a rainy and bathing in the hot water of onsens, Amélie and Rinri take a great delight in being together, like enamored kids exploring the pleasures of love, between complicity, fondness and sensuality. But in the mist of discovery and fantasy, it is sometimes difficult to answer the most important : who am I, what do I want ?Through breast-taking shots of Japanese city, suburbs, rivers and mountains, Stefan Liberski offers a coming-of-age film in the form of a playful comedy, funny, light but not always as light as it seems, brought to life by a remarkable pair of actors."Delicious, yes, that's the word."