Touch
Touch
Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s Touch may encompass several decades, languages, continents and cultures, civilizations etc., and bear themes of memory, ageing, loss and love. However its delicateness is as pleasing as the caress of butterfly wing.
Kristófer (Egill Ólafsson) aged widow who owns a restaurant in Iceland goes to the doctor and reports that he is experiencing forgetfulness and decline of coordination. The doctor orders MRI Scan and in a soft voice adds that now could be one of the best times for Kristófer to think about any unresolved issues or finish any unimportant issues which he wants to take care of while he still can. This also brings back recollections of Kristófer’s infatuation whom he had when he abandoned his postgraduate studies in London to work in a Japanese cafe. He resolves to travel to London as a 60-year-old man in case she does in fact exist. This takes place in March in 2020, the period when countries were going on lock down due to COVID and his daughter was making frantic and frustrated calls which were growing batty with each ring, but Kristófer was pressed for time.
While traveling and conducting some research ourselves, we flash back to the present day and then to the past to see the young Kristófer (Palmi Kormákur) and Miko (Yôko Narahashi) in London during the 60s. There was a visual contrast felt when Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson portrayed the memories in warm colors as opposed to the cold colors in specific present day.
Kristófer cannot study for his courses and stay off the barricades during student protests and boards impulsively a help-wanted sign on the door of a Japanese jeweled trinket restaurant of one Takahashi-san (Masahiro Motoki). It is in that very place, that she first meets Miko, the daughter of Takahashi. This is after one of their exchanges when Miko learns about Kristófer’s past experience working on a salmon trawler from Iceland. Throughout the narrative, delicately made and presented cuisine is offered and consumed, culminating in a preparation of a meal by Kristófer for Miko, which is as sexy and romantic in dreams as their bed scenes are.
The young people say that John Lennon and Yoko Ono were participants of a protest and stayed in the bed for the anti-Vietnam protest. Thus its date is already 1969. Kristófer refers to it as a civil disobedience strategy whereby a protest is taken to the highest luxurious level of a five star hotel.
Nevertheless, Miko views this as a gateway to new adventures in intercultural romance when the shadow of WII was still very vivid in all nations. Whenever Kristófer brings over his school friends to the Japanese restaurant, they make fun of the kamikazes. So, Miko herself has a painful personal link to the destruction of the war.
Now in London, Kristófer is able to find one of the restaurant’s staff members, who informs her that Miko is in Japan now. More schisms reared its ugly head with respect to the characters and the narrative. I mean it’s actually about purging unhelpful emotions at the same time valuing the place tshe is visiting. An ostensibly Japanese ‘salary man’ dons the seat next to him at the restaurant counter. At a brisk pace, a few drinks in and warm friendly discussions turn to arguments and end up in karaoke.
Kristófer goes and buys himself a pair of shoes. As he enters a new shop that has occupied the place one of the Japanese restaurants used to be, he gets a Japanese tattoo. This particular film as with its protagonist has no problem jigging around for a short while, with pleasing catching in that it complements the mild and peaceful atmosphere. Some pictures would make this a race, with Kristófer serious medical tests and quarantine zones in every corner.
Nonetheless, “Touch” manages to be as eluding as the title itself as it has a tone and luxuriant visuals that fit that age of first love that enchants the young and remains relevant no matter how many suns will go down and rise again.
Kormákur ( director’s son) and ólafsson to some extent deny the sameness that these persons possess but now remembering things as Kristófer it makes sense he would want to remember himself as young and handsome. Kormákur’s deep gaze and fluidity of his tall frame do not just depict his character’s curious focus into Japanese culture but also his Touch character’s essence. Whenever Kristófer is with the beautiful Narahashi, a sense of tender warmth surrounds the scenes. Even with the palpable sexual tension between them, it is clear that there will be tragic problems long before Kristófer dies.
Kristófer does not make an attempt to recover his former self, to receive any apology rather than excuses, or claim any explanation. All he is after is looking for Miko. There is just no other motive, no other objective. To a person from his past who says that are you a communist in this day and age, he responds “No, I was more of an anarchist. I am now just an old man.” It is very sad that the beauty of the Touch film includes the possibility to forgive anyone, even Porphyrius at the proper time. Touch is quite majestic.
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- Genre: Drama, Romance
- Country: united states
- Director: Baltasar Kormákur
- Cast: Egill Ólafsson, KôkiPalmi, Kormákur
