Monday 25 June 2012

Rincos Restaurant (2009)


http://asianwiki.com/Rinco%27s_Restaurant
http://asianwiki.com/Kou_Shibasaki
http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/07/rincos-restaurant-mai-tominaga-review.php
http://nishikataeiga.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/rincos-restaurant-2010.html

Method to the madness:

A whole pigs worth.



Kou Shibasaki has been allot of interesting film and play really complicated character's so is worth watching her film. Her characters are complex in the way that all of them have issues in one form or another, Kou Shibasaki chooses roles where the character is either social awkward or just diverse in the way they present themselves to society. Kou Shibasaki's character Noriko or Rinco appears to have a very unusual life from being a child and decides to leave her mother so that she can find some normality but things don't go to plan. Bad things happen to Rinco like her grandmother dies, Rinco loses her voice, she is forced to live her mother and their relationship is not a very loving one. Rinco goes on a journey to pursue the only dream she know; to open a restaurant. The story is a journey of self discovery, Kou Shibasaki's character is almost child like in her manner , the narrative uses allot of symbolism and is constructed like a fairytale.


The story depicts the importance of food, food is a great tradition which is an art form in itself and is use like a form of therapy for the spirit.  The whole narrative surrounds cooking because Rinco don't talk throughout the film and this leads to some really awkward or comical moments throughout the film because the audience knows why Rinco will not talk but none of the other characters do. Rinco's mother seemed very familiar to me so I looked up the actresses name on the Asian Wiki website to discover that Kimiko Yo was also in Ramen Girl.

Ramen Girl is a film that was released in 2008 , it is a Western interpretation of Japanese living and also stars Brittany Murphy. Both Ramen Girl and Rinco's Restaurant have similar themes that it is important the way you cook food because cooking is an art form that effect people on an emotional level.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0806165/

Rinco's restaurant is more of Japanese interpretation of cooking through the method of tradition, The reason i did not recognise  Kimiko Yo at first is because Japanese actors or actresses do not play similar roles repeatability but try to challenge their acting abilities. The audience go on a journey with Rinco, which is to find her own voice and it most be a challenging role in itself to play a character that can not talk throughout the film up until the last second with out laughing. The narrative had like sub-plots going on but the story was between Rinco and her mother; I mention this because most film seem to have a romantic narrative between at least one of the main characters simply because most director feel like this is necessary even if it has nothing to do with the main plot point. There was a love element of the story but this only lasted about 20 minutes of the plot and did not interrupt with the main narrative. don't get me wrong, I don't mind a love story but if I have a chosen a film which has nothing to do with a love story and it turns into one; I just lose interest in the film.



The film is about life and death; the character life their life's in their own crazy little ways, there are no normal personalities in the film and Rinco's mother is an extraordinary character who chooses to have a pet pig and all the neighbours talk about her. This is the reason that Rinco is so quite, she just wants to have a normal life but the thing is that she does not know what that entails because she has had a very unusual upbringing. Rinco is left by herself in the end because the pig gets eaten for her mother wedding feast and her mother then dies. the ironing is that Rinco finally finds her voice when there is no one else to talk to and she discovers that her mother did care about her even though she is not show is. There are allot of philosophical messages in the film, which in themselves are a question on life and questions on peoples interpretation on life.

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