Kamome Diner (2006)
"Kamome shokudô" (original title)

Where are we welcome? On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, ... See full summary »

Director:

Naoko Ogigami

Writers:

Yôko Mure (novel), Naoko Ogigami (screenplay)

Stars:

Satomi Kobayashi, Hairi Katagiri, Masako Motai

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Satomi Kobayashi	...	Sachie
Hairi Katagiri	...	Midori
Masako Motai	...	Masako
Jarkko Niemi	...	Tommi Hiltunen
Tarja Markus	...	Liisa
Markku Peltola	...	Matti
Anita Linnasola
Eine Räihä	...	(as Eine Raiha)
Marjatta Salin
Pentti Heinonen
Pertti Roisko
Irja Punnonen
Pekka Punnonen
Jussi Vehviläinen	...	(as Jussi Vehvilainen)
Milja Huimala

Storyline

Where are we welcome? On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her, and meets Masako, a formal and ethereal middle-aged woman whose luggage has gone missing. The three women work in the diner, interact, and serve customers. A somewhat brusque man teaches Sachie to make delicious coffee, then he returns under other circumstances. Three neighborhood women inspect the empty diner every day; will anything bring them inside? We learn why Sachie serves rice balls; but why Finland?

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Plot Keywords:

diner | based on novel

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese Finnish

Release Date:

29 September 2006 (Finland)

Also Known As:

Kamome Diner

Filming Locations:

Helsinki, Finland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV), Video Audio Project (VAP), Gentosha

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

User Reviews

Quietly Good-natured

I agree with the previous commenter, that on some level, this was an empty film. But I don't see this as a bad thing: the lack of content can be just as meaningful as the glut of it. Personally, I prefer emptiness: it leaves more room for your own thoughts.

But I wouldn't criticize this movie on its illogicalities (yes, that's a word - at least from now on): there's some very clear surrealist tendencies in the story, and it seems to me that surrealism and logic mix together just about as well as water and oil would.

All in all, I think this film is modest and well made, and even though it mightn't end up as an eternally bright beacon in the vast steppes of the cinematic arts, it sucker-punches the hell out of films that aim to be bigger and more important, but end up being useless fluff.