Details
Chen Liang, a young Chinese man working illegally in Japan, buys an ID and cell phone on the black market. When he gets a call offering a job, he blindly accepts. Chen, now known as Liu, ends up as an apprentice in a rural soba shop. As he acclimates to his new life, he forms a strong bond with his most wise mentor, while a quiet romance develops with a local woman. However, the threat of deportation always lurks around the corner.
Accolades
Trivia
The reason soba was chosen as the film's central dish was based on the location the film was shot at. Oishida, Yamagata Prefecture is famous for its soba culture. As shown in the film, the ‘restaurant’ is really a tatami room in someone’s house. It was apparently a custom for wives in the town to make soba to entertain visitors, and if they were particularly good at it, they would start serving the noodles and earning a living from it. That’s how the [home-restaurant] culture developed. The second reason was because of soba’s metaphorical qualities - it's something that is simple but goes very deep (as it takes a lot of time and technique to master).
Critics
...'Complicity is rich in poetic representations of Japanese food culture and rural life.'
Eye For Film
