Teen romance the Japanese way: This how I would characterise "Words bubble up like soda pop". This culture has a wholly different way of expressing feelings. Shyness dominates, silence too. But maturity is also present in a higher degree than we in Europe have used to. The two protagonists are only thirteen, yet they behave more responsibly than many of their peers: the girl, Smile, has bucked teeth. In our modern society, in which physical image is often more important than anything else, this characteristic of hers is a serious problem. More so since she is a popular influencer. And so she wears a mask to hide her mouth, and thus the way she really expresses herself. What her fans see is only a fake image, one where online videos make up for her real character. She pushes everyone to smile, but she is always sad, afraid that someone will discover her secret. It wasn't always like that. When she was young, her teeth were her trademark, something cute to be proud of. But, as often happens, one day she woke up hating them. Cherry, the boy, cannot communicate because of his introverted character. And so he expresses himself through words, writing traditional haiku poems for others to read. But who does? Only few people care. While Smile loves busy roads and malls, he hates noise, and wears headphones to block it. This is how he lives in harmony. But he also can't express his true feelings to people he loves. He is too reserved to do so.
Their meeting takes place in a mall. The malls, those trademarks of modern society, the temples of consumerism, that attract people just out of curiosity. To see what's new, and possibly to buy it too. Even musicals have been filmed in malls: Chantal Akerman shot one, "Golden Eighties" in 1986, in which she showed the relationships between some people working in a mall: their loves, their joys and losses. With this film she showed how for the citizens of consumerist societies, the mall is like a second home, in which their life takes place. "Words bubble up like soda pop" develops this logic by having its characters starting their romance there. Smile and Cherry don't work in the mall, but both spend much of their time there: Smile shoots her videos, and Cherry reads his haiku to a club of like-minded people. None of them is young. They all come from a retirement home, in which he also works. And so, when he and Smile unexpectedly cross paths, she starts helping in the retirement home, only to be close to him.
One of these elderly people living in the retirement home is an old, short man, Mr. Fujiyama. He is constantly searching for a record, one that will restore his lost memories of an important person. For him, this record symbolises his whole life, his time of happiness now over. This happiness was found in a simpler world, one in which technology played a far weaker role than now. When the heroes decide to help him, it's not only an act of care towards a person that needs it, but one connecting these two different generations.
Mr. Fujiyama seems to be a classic animated distant old character, but his real personality is more like Carl from "Up" than any villain Disney has ever come up with. He just misses his past, and wants to relive it. It is through this aspect of his personality that he wins the viewers' sympathy. He is not one to feel pity for, but rather a character to love, and perhaps his positive portrayal also comes from Japanese culture's deep respect from the elderly, just as the teen romance's depiction speaks a lot about this culture's view of relationships.
That both characters are essentially outcasts - even Smile does not have many friends, except for her followers, who love her fake self and not the person who she really is - reflects an international tendency to let people ignored in the past tell their stories. Characters with niche interests, introverted personalities, whose stories were either not told or used as a form of humiliation, creating caricatures of their protagonists. Though Japan has a different view of concepts such as popularity than the West, it is still admirable for us to watch those movies so as to understand how to integrate characters diverging from our stereotype of the "normal" teenage protagonist, searching for approval. Disney's Japanese counterparts create characters that have no problem being unpopular and embrace this nature, while their finding love comes from these characteristics that make them special.
"Words bubble up like soda pop" is a film that will appeal to every type of audience because it treats the characters' romance with honesty, all the while having some scenes in which it is almost impossible to hold one's tears. It is the complete opposite of soda pop, full of sweetness, a joy in its best moments, that offers not only feeling but also food for thought aplenty. The fact that it is also beautifully animated, charming in its simplicity, renders it all the more better. Yes, all this was a lot, but this film is truly worth of analysis, and perfect discussion material. In such a discussion, words truly bubble up like soda pop.
Their meeting takes place in a mall. The malls, those trademarks of modern society, the temples of consumerism, that attract people just out of curiosity. To see what's new, and possibly to buy it too. Even musicals have been filmed in malls: Chantal Akerman shot one, "Golden Eighties" in 1986, in which she showed the relationships between some people working in a mall: their loves, their joys and losses. With this film she showed how for the citizens of consumerist societies, the mall is like a second home, in which their life takes place. "Words bubble up like soda pop" develops this logic by having its characters starting their romance there. Smile and Cherry don't work in the mall, but both spend much of their time there: Smile shoots her videos, and Cherry reads his haiku to a club of like-minded people. None of them is young. They all come from a retirement home, in which he also works. And so, when he and Smile unexpectedly cross paths, she starts helping in the retirement home, only to be close to him.
One of these elderly people living in the retirement home is an old, short man, Mr. Fujiyama. He is constantly searching for a record, one that will restore his lost memories of an important person. For him, this record symbolises his whole life, his time of happiness now over. This happiness was found in a simpler world, one in which technology played a far weaker role than now. When the heroes decide to help him, it's not only an act of care towards a person that needs it, but one connecting these two different generations.
Mr. Fujiyama seems to be a classic animated distant old character, but his real personality is more like Carl from "Up" than any villain Disney has ever come up with. He just misses his past, and wants to relive it. It is through this aspect of his personality that he wins the viewers' sympathy. He is not one to feel pity for, but rather a character to love, and perhaps his positive portrayal also comes from Japanese culture's deep respect from the elderly, just as the teen romance's depiction speaks a lot about this culture's view of relationships.
That both characters are essentially outcasts - even Smile does not have many friends, except for her followers, who love her fake self and not the person who she really is - reflects an international tendency to let people ignored in the past tell their stories. Characters with niche interests, introverted personalities, whose stories were either not told or used as a form of humiliation, creating caricatures of their protagonists. Though Japan has a different view of concepts such as popularity than the West, it is still admirable for us to watch those movies so as to understand how to integrate characters diverging from our stereotype of the "normal" teenage protagonist, searching for approval. Disney's Japanese counterparts create characters that have no problem being unpopular and embrace this nature, while their finding love comes from these characteristics that make them special.
"Words bubble up like soda pop" is a film that will appeal to every type of audience because it treats the characters' romance with honesty, all the while having some scenes in which it is almost impossible to hold one's tears. It is the complete opposite of soda pop, full of sweetness, a joy in its best moments, that offers not only feeling but also food for thought aplenty. The fact that it is also beautifully animated, charming in its simplicity, renders it all the more better. Yes, all this was a lot, but this film is truly worth of analysis, and perfect discussion material. In such a discussion, words truly bubble up like soda pop.