Just to simplify any confusion, prior to the confusion, I'll be referring to the Japanese/Chinese movies by their English title
A couple of days ago, my boyfriend told me of a relatively new movie called Flavors of Youth. He also mentioned that the movie was produced by the same company who produced Your Name, which is a phenomenal animated film about a beautiful love story taking place between two different era's, and both my boyfriend and I just loved the movie wholeheartedly.
Upon further 'investigation' I find out that The Flavors of Youth was actually Chinese-Japanese co-production between CoMix Wave Films and Haoliners Animation League. CoMix is best known for their movies Your Name and The Garden of Words. The company is also known for its anime feature films, short films, and television commercials, particularly those made by director Makoto Shinkai. As for Haoliners Animation League, they are a little less known but have quite a few net animations under their belt, a few being Die Now, Fox Spirit Matchmaker, and Spirit Pact.
Flavors of Youth is a collection of three short films with an overarching theme of growing up and leaving this behind or finding things that had been lost or hidden. Each film is 20 minutes and focuses on different characters in a different location somewhere in China.
Flavors of Youth//Si Shi Qing Chun
Like Makoto Shinkai’s films, there are a large number of highly spectacular moments in Flavours of Youth, whether they be landscapes, such as the rice paddies of Hunan province here, or closeups of common everyday items, such as the richly depicted bowl of San Xian noodles... The Infinite Zenith WordPress
"The Rice Noodles"
The first part of the movie was directed by Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing. To my disappointment, most of the film was narrated and I hoped that as the story went on it would change, but sadly it didn't. It started with a young boy who would eat rice noodles with his grandmother every morning. She would buy two bowls of noodles from a well-known rice noodle shop named San Xian; one bowl for him and another for her. It was the only time that he had with his other family members. His mother and father worked long hours and he was an only child. One day that store closed and packed their equipment elsewhere, but that memory still held a spot in his heart. Throughout the story, he continues to search for that same taste that reminds him of home, comfort, his unspoken crush, and most of all his grandmother who would always take time from her day to sit down and eat with him. In the end, his grandmother died stating that she won't be able to share soup with him as she did before.
As heartfelt as the story was I felt that the script couldn't spark sadness and you just weren't given enough time to become emotionally invested in each of the characters. The visuals could have spoken for themselves but Xiaoxing spends a lot of time describing the little details.
"A Little Fashion Show"
As for the second story, I was happier that it wasn't narrated as much but it was easy to get lost during the start of the story. This vignette was based on two sisters bonding over their careers, one being a model working in Guangzhou who had succeeded in her life with her looks, with a younger sister who's majoring in the fashion industry. Yi Lin, the model, had used her earned money to help her younger sister, Lulu with her college finances. Too focused on her modeling career, she never found the time to actually spend bonding with her and with an upcoming rivalry in the industry she's lost a sense of hope for her modeling career. In the end, Lulu helped get her through her struggles and, in a way, took over the big sister role. They created their own business together where Lulu created different pieces for Yi Lin to model in. In doing so they've found a balance where they're able to enjoy one another's company but continue to focus on their careers. All of the pieces we were shown are in Yi Lin's favorite color, red.
I thought that in this piece you were given more time to learn the characteristics of both sisters and their family dynamics. You were also given a brief segment of the struggles that some models go through in terms of beauty and aging. I found it somewhat unrealistic how no one except her sister knew that her favorite color was red. You'd think she'd tell someone, right? Nevertheless, it was still a short yet sweet display of sisterly affection that I think made supple use of the time limit very well.
"Love In Shanghai"
The third story deals more with the notions of expectations that parents hold in their children and the has a collectivism vs. individualism aspect to it. It started with a young man named Limo and finding a tape cassette from his childhood crush, Xiao Yu. It quickly switches to his youth giving us a cute story about how they would record themselves talking to each other on tape cassettes. One day, Xiao Yu's parents were pressuring her to go to a prestigious school that needed a passing grade in a test, and he vowed to make it in as well so he could stay with her. With much effort, he passed the test, but unbeknownst to him, she didn't. He soon finds out that her parents were furious, beating her until she needed to be hospitalized. His family needed to move closer to the school, leaving his grandparents behind, and on their way out he saw her waving goodbye.
Moving forward in time just a bit, they meet each other again, but she feels that they've moved apart too much and she's at a loss. Believing that their education separates them she moved away without a word. Fast forward to the future, he's finally able to hear her recorded message that he ignored years ago. He learns that over all that time, she wanted the same as he did, to be with him. Now with his own business she comes back to his doorstep a changed woman, grown up and seemingly more mature, and you can see the awe in his eyes upon seeing her.
The voice acting wasn't the greatest quality as the other two in my opinion. The emotion from Limo was mostly monotone and actually took away from the great story that was created. Although the story is arguably the most compelling out of the three, I only wish the voice acting could have done it justice. Some moments were very unbelievable such as when Xiao Yu asks Limo if he tried to get into the school for her sake, and he told her no, which gave her the final push to move away. Another being how he didn't even visit her hospital bed to tell her the news or bid her goodbye.
A few beautiful landscape/scenery that I thought some could appreciate:
The Rice Noodles
A Little Fashion Show
Love In Shanghai
Overall the different stories were pretty underwhelming and not very compelling, to say the least. I found that switching characters made it harder to truly get emotionally invested in their well being and learn the characters' personalities. I would say they all did well in creating a complete story in the short time they had, each equipped with beautiful, breathtaking art made solely for each scene. It was a wonderful display of China's different cities. Although I think the character animation could use a bit more fine-tuning. Flavors of Youth was my first anime trilogy and, for now, will be my last.
Rating: 7.6/10
If you're a more visual person and want to see a review with a bit more pictures I recommend The Infinite Zenith who's on WordPress. They do a great job on giving more insight about the culture of China and the different themes throughout each story.
Sorry for the lack of posts this past week, the time slipped from me and with my school work and personal life I've been finding it hard to keep up. I've been working a bit more behind the curtain and am trying to keep writing stories since that's one of my hobbies that I enjoy doing most.
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