Touch: A Japanese-Icelandic love story

Touch is the second film I saw at the 2024 Brisbane Scandinavian Film Festival. See my review of the other film I watched, Before it ends.

Touch | Released in Australia August 2024 | Viewed August 2024 | Directed by Baltasar Kormakur | Main cast: Egill Olafsson, Yoko Narahashi, Palmi Kormakur, Koki, and Masahiro Motoki

I wouldn't normally be interested in a romance film, but there was something about the preview for Touch that drew me in. The film is told in two parts: Kristoff and Miko's developing relationship in a London Japanese restaurant owned by Miko's father during the late 1960s, and Kristoff's quest to find Miko later in life.

Kristoff is Icelandic, studying economics in London. He sees Miko in her father's restaurant one night after noticing the Help wanted sign on the door. What follows is a sweet love story that is broken apart when Miko's father suddenly closes the restaurant and takes Miko with him back to Japan. Kristoff returns to his own homeland, marries, and has a daughter. As a much older man and suffering from ill health and the loss of his wife, Kristoff begins a journey to reconnect with Miko, 50 years after she disappeared from his life.

The movie jumps back and forth between the past and the present but it's beautifully done. The director creates a strong sense of the era in the past part of the film and the actors who play Kristoff and Miko as young adults and as ageing ones are perfectly matched. The emotional connection between the younger versions of the two is particularly strong on screen.

The film is a poignant and sympathetic look at cultural stigmatisms, particularly in Japan post-WW2, and how societal expectations can affect one's destiny. Kristoff's journey to find Miko, in the early days of the pandemic, is intriguing and heartfelt.

I found Touch to be a unique perspective on the love story genre and the 'what might have been' take on it. It's an engaging and warm film without being too sentimental or trite. I learnt something about Japanese culture that I did not know.

My only criticism is that the pacing is a little slow in places. I wish, too, that we'd learnt more about Kristoff and Miko's lives in the intervening years. Other than those minor things, I loved this film and its portrayal of the complexities of cross-cultural relationships. There is emotional depth to the film and the four lead actors do a terrific job of conveying those emotions.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐