The Movie: Touch
The Cinema: The Kino, Collins Street
Stars: 4
Just because something is a little predictable doesn't mean it's going to be bad, and Touch, though a little predictable in places, breathes fresh life into the timeless trope. After seeing this advertised as playing at the Scandinavian Film Festival, I had to hunt it out. I'm glad I did. What came about is a wonderful two hours of entertainment, which was both poignant and thought-provoking little film about closing off past regrets and finding your true love. It's sweet. It's beautifully shot. What's not to like? Oh, and it's mainly in English, with a smattering of Icelandic and Japanese for good measure, making it something a bit different.
The story starts in Iceland, where Kristofer (Egill Olafsson) is on the verge of receiving some life-altering health news. The doctor is at the point of advising him to get his ducks in a row and mark a few things off the bucket list. He makes the decision to travel to London, the home of his youth, to try to work out what happened to his love, Miko (Koki), who he met while working at her father's Japanese restaurant in the early 1970s. Kristofer, (Palmi Kormakur) an idealistic student, had dropped out of college to pursue and easier life, meets Miko, a modern girl with a traditional father, is caught between the two cultures - the one provided by her father Takahashi (Mashiro Motaki) and her life in progressive London.
Of course, Kristofer and Miko fall in love, but this is shattered when Takahashi whisks his daughter back to Japan.
Fifty years on, Kristofer is trying to find his lost love.
The biggest incongruity of the film is the modern telling of the older Kristofer travelling in the first weeks and months of COVID. Nobody was travelling then, but it's a film. C'est la guerre...
But despite this being a little predictable, this is a wonderful little film. It's beautifully shot, not only showing modern day Iceland, and Japan, in ways many of us have not seen before. The fact that it's mostly in English also makes it accessible, though the subtitles, used when the speech is in Icelandic or Japanese, are really good.
Baltasar Kormákur's direction is even handed and the movie, which goes between the modern day and 1970s London is easy to follow. I also loved the cinematography, which is done with a lot of love.
Touch was a most wonderful Friday night film. I'm glad I got to see it before it leaves the arthouse cinemas.
Today’s song:
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