Amélie (Pauline Étienne) was born in Japan and lived there until she was five. Afterward her family moved to Belgium. Partly because of this she is obsessed with Japanese culture and wants to be Japanese more than anything. At the age of 20 she takes a job as a French language tutor. There she falls for her student, Rinri (Taichi Inoue). However she soon learns being born in Japan and liking Japanese culture, do not make her accepted as Japanese. I do not wish to give away more here. While most romantic comedies are very predictable this movie isn’t. There is quite a bit I did not see coming.
This is a very fun and very charming movie. A huge reason for this is Pauline Étienne’s fantastic performance as Amélie. She brings such charm and likability to this movie. Her performance is irresistibly quirky. She brings a lot of offbeat humor to this movie, yet she always feels completely human and believable. You are always emotionally attached to this character, and this is what makes the movie work so great. She also has fantastic chemistry with Taichi Inoue, and their relationship is completely believable. Her quirky, but touching performance fits this movie perfectly as the movie often shifts tone from a silly quirky comedy to a much more serious film. Like her performance though this movie transitions perfectly and believably between these different tones. Director and writer Stefan Liberski does perfect job combining those two elements and has found an actress who could sell what Liberski does perfectly. The match of director and actress could not be better.
These movie also brings up fascinating and thought-provoking ideas about very cultures and how these cultures view each other, as we see our main character’s hopes of being considered Japanese dashed by the elitism of those around her fiancée.
If you are looking for a romantic comedy that is not just the same story we have seen a million times, this movie will do perfectly.
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