Kamome Diner

The stunningly shot, über-stylish Kamome Diner, a tale of three Japanese women afoot in Helsinki, pays tribute to the quirky cinema of Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki. The film screened to a sold-out house on the closing night of our 2007 Kibatsu event; it seemed only fair to give Vancouver audiences another chance to experience the joys of this remarkably understated yet transformative film. Sachie, from Japan, opens a Japanese eatery near the Helsinki harbour. The speciality of the house is onigiri (or omusubi) rice balls. Her only customer, day after day, is a geeky Finnish boy obsessed with Japanese anime. Two other Japanese women, each with personal issues, begin helping out, and the number of customers increases. The diner, it seems, attracts only patrons with problems, all finding comfort in Sachie’s conversation and tasty cuisine. The film’s mouth-watering attention to food will have your racing to your favourite okazuya after the screening. Kamome Diner conveys the topsy-turvy sensation of being a stranger in a strange land and presents food, no matter how alien, as the center of community and cultural understanding. A little indie film with no PR budget that opened in a single Japanese theatre in 2005, it soon captured hearts and became a surprise box-office success. Colour, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles. 102 mins.

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