| I never thought I would hear
Enya music in a Toho film. But then, I never knew
that Toho would film a movie partially in Italy,
with a Chinese actress as one of the leads. 2001's
Reisei to Jonetsu no Aida, or, as it is
translated on the Japanese release, Twixt Calm
& Passion, was that film, and it was full
of surprises for me. I couldn't read the kanji
on the cover, however, so I keep thinking of it
under its Italian title, which was clearly emblazoned
on the DVD—Calmi Cuori Appassionati.
When I put it in my player, I was surprised by
the Toho logo, and when I started eating my random
movie snack of the day, I was surprised to realize
I was munching Pizza Margarita Pringles—an
Italian Selection flavor. That's not even counting
the surprises in the film, which is a beautiful
romance film that caught me quite off-balance
with its grandeur—and its sometimes convoluted
plot.
Junsei Agata (Japanese TV star
Yutaka Takenouchi) is the young grandson of a
Japanese artist, and he has decided to take the
rare road of art restoration. In order to fulfill
his ambition, he has gone to Italy to study under
the masters. He is talented in his craft, and
his beautiful teacher Giovanna (Valeria Cavalli)
gives him special care, boosting his career while
making him the subject of a number of nude paintings.
Junsei, meanwhile, is trying to forget about a
particularly passionate and intensely close relationship
he had had with a half-Japanese woman named Aoi
(Honk Kong actress Kelly Chen, Infernal Affairs
III), which had ended badly some time previous.
However, Junsei is one of those fellows that romance
movies love to dote upon—he cannot extract
her from his heart, even with the equally obsessive
efforts coming from his jealous girlfriend Memi
(Ryoko Shinohara, 2006's Suite
Dreams). As tends to happen in these films,
apparently entirely through felicitous circumstance,
Aoi happens to live in nearby Milan, working at
a jewelry shop. Junsei zooms off to see her, and
inevitably meets his replacement in the form of
rich, dull Marvin Lai (Michael Wong, City Hunter).
Emotionally torn, he returns to his studio only
to discover it crawling with policemen. Turns
out someone decided to help him touch up the expensive
Cigoli painting he was working on—with a
knife. The studio closes from the scandal, and
Junsei returns to Japan—but his heart never
leaves Aoi. From there, through his brooding and
the compulsively nosey efforts of his girlfriend
Memi, he begins to discover facts he never knew
about the events behind the last days of his relationship
with Aoi. Once again he changes the direction
of his life, with one last hope consuming his
existence—a promise he made with Aoi ten
years prior.
The story is long and full of twists
as flashbacks and flash-forwards clutter the narrative
with increasing regularity. It's never exactly
boring, but it does become confusing as occasionally
I wasn't quite sure if some given event was supposed
to be in the present or occurring only as a memory
of one of the characters. The romance is of the
ridiculously obsessed kind, much like the one
in Crying
Out for Love, At the Center of the World
(2004). Once again, this all-consuming vision
of love is championed as a superior sort—the
idea of one right person and all-enduring affection.
It's rather disturbing to me, really, but it makes
for a good story. The love presented here is also
of the more sexualized kind—you are warned.
While there is never any actual nudity—even
painted nudity is usually cleverly blocked—still,
the sexual acts simulated on-screen are uncomfortably
graphic for my tastes, with plenty of lashing
about and ecstatic body parts.
Characters are fairly complex,
with Junsei receiving the most fully faceted personality.
Takenouchi is quite likable, and his carved, manly
face complete with cleft chin is well removed
from the usual effeminate studmuffins of Japanese
cinema. His acting captures Takenouchi's awkwardness
and aching heart pretty well, although it's all
pretty familiar from the other Japanese romances
I have seen. Kelly Chen is more impressive, pulling
off joyous moments and teary ones equally well,
complete with streaming teardrops and that cute
nose of hers that turns pink as her emotions swell.
Both she and Takenouchi have to act in several
languages; Chen's English is more credible than
Takenouchi's, while Takenouchi's Italian (at least
to my ear) sounds more impressive. Chen's Japanese
comes off pretty well—I noticed the accent,
and she spoke a little slower than a native, but
it sounded good. Her character, however, is not
as well developed, and her motives are sometimes
downright baffling—the events leading up
to the ending had me barking at the screen in
complete incredulity as to her choices. They seemed
largely motivated just to up the suspense to lead
up to the movie-magic conclusion, but it is to
the film's credit that I cared enough about the
characters to be frustrated with the way their
relationship was heading.
It's worth noting that, when the
actors speak in their heavily-accented English,
the English subtitles dutifully disappear. It's
usually okay, but occasionally the subs would
have been appreciated, although it never gets
as bad as the similarly-themed Japanese-Chinese
romance, 2004's Last Love First Love.
It's a real treat to see the Italian
actors with the Japanese, and they really add
a lot to the film. While Aoi's friend Daniela,
as portrayed by Silvia Ferreri, is a bit annoying,
she's not particularly unrealistic, and Valeria
Cavalli's turn as Junsei's teacher is played with
grace—indeed, I felt that all of the Italian
actors, despite their small parts, were a credit
to the film. Michael Wong as Aoi's boyfriend Marvin,
however, gives the weakest performance of the
film. His delivery is almost monotone and never
seems engaged except in one brief moment of explosive
frustration.
The music is really beautiful in
this film—even if you don't like Enya. The
orchestrated motifs are gorgeous and work beautifully
to pull in and immerse the viewer in the experience.
The Enya tracks are somewhat awkward—Celtic
new age music in Italy? Still, they are pleasant
enough. Some of the other minor themes with acoustic
guitars are less memorable, but serviceable.
Matching the grandeur of some of
the themes is the beauty of Italy. The cinematography
takes great advantage of the sprawling, old-school
awe of these history-infused cities. The contrast
with the plain concrete busyness of the scenes
in Japan is really jarring and helps define a
somewhat otherworldly feel to parts of the film.
This film impressed me. There is
so much beauty in this film, and so much of it
is well-done, it's hard not to respect it. On
the other hand, some elements of the story were
gnarled and the film ultimately left me feeling
somewhere twixt impressed and unsettled. I can
only partially recommend this film, although really
it's worth seeing for the beauty alone.
|
(3/5)