Flavors of Youth

Flavors of Youth – An anthology movie deals with the regrets and lost opportunities of youth. A young man remembers the bonding with family over food, a model tries to fight her inevitable slide from the top, and a stoic businessman remembers a past love that never came to pass, before learning a secret that will shock him to the core

Flavors of Youth (2018) – Director: Haoling Li, Yoshitaka Takeuch, Xiaoxing Yi

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58292444

Rating: 12

Running Length: 74 mins

Starring: (English Language Dub) Crispin Freeman, Kendall Gimbi, Evan Rachel Wood

Genre: Drama, Animated

REVIEW: FLAVORS OF YOUTH

From Japanese animation studio CoMix Wave Films, the team behind the worldwide smash Anime romantic movie that was ‘Your Name‘, comes ‘Flavors Of Youth’. A co-production with Chinese animation studio, Haoliners Animation League, ‘Flavors of Youth’ is an anime anthology movie comprising of the three segments, each set in China. Whilst each segment is different, they are tied together by shared themes – longing, growth, and young love.

You’d expect high quality from the ‘Your Name’ team but oddly ‘Flavors Of Youth’ seems to cut corners in the animation department. As a freeze frame exercise it is beautiful. Bustling streets, squalid slums, and fashion shows provide vivacious and alive backdrops for the stories told. But the character animation itself is definitely low budget and minimal, the sort you’d expect from a made for TV Anime, not a full blown theatrical release.

Story wise, the segments are somewhat hit and miss. The first story, “The Rice Noodles” is almost entirely told in voiceover, which either imbues the whole section with a reminiscing melancholy or is annoyingly ‘tell not show’, depending on your tastes. Our protagonist remembers how food enriched the key moments of his life, and remembers loves that never were. Second story, “A Little Fashion Show” gets the dialogue shifting and covers a young woman who has peaked in the model industry, only to be threatened by newcomers. How far she goes to stay on top, including being blind to the life of her sister, is a classic tale of self-absorption. This works fine as a little vignette, but lacks any emotional oomph.

The last, and by far best, of the stories is “Love In Shanghai”. It’s a classic tale of misunderstood youthful moments and unspoken attractions, where cassette tapes are traded in order to have low-fi conversations. After battling with academic woes, poverty life, and domestic violence, the successful adult’s discovery of a long forgotten cassette tape certainly brought some tears to our eyes!

Overall ‘Flavors Of Youth’ is a disappointment. It may have good pedigree and talented people behind it, but the weak character animation and generally lacklustre stories means it’s not going to pull in anyone other than dedicated Anime fans.

CONTENT: IS ‘FLAVORS OF YOUTH’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

“The Rice Noodles”

Two young men get into a fight in the street. One yells, “You piss me off!” and a knife is drawn. The knife clatters to the floor and some blood is seen. One of the men is lying on the floor clutching his bloody ankle. We don’t see the actual stabbing.

During the story, the narrator’s grandmother dies due to old age. A flashback shows how much he loved eating noodles with her. He cries at her death, but this scene is short.

“A Little Fashion Show”

A narration talks about a female character’s parents by saying, “Before I had a chance to thank them, they passed away”.

Alcohol is consumed at a party and one character becomes visibly drunk. She slurs her words, becomes over emotional, and falls deeply asleep.

Two sisters watch a movie called ‘Curse Of The Living Dead’. There is a brief shot in the background of a Mummy foot with some blood around it.

In order to lose weight and get in shape for a modelling show, a character stops eating and begins over-exercising. She gets increasingly weak as this segment progresses. Later she says, “The only thing I have got going for me is this body,” before collapsing with exhaustion just before a show.

A male character who is supposed to be a boyfriend is very sleazy and keeps talking about how attractive another model is.

“Love In Shanghai”

A young girl, Xiao Yu, is slapped by her father whilst recording a tape. Her father puts a lot of pressure on her to perform academically.

Xiao Yu fails a test and is beaten by her father. We don’t see the attack but the scene shows the outside of her apartment whilst we hear screams and sounds of violence. Lights of neighbour’s properties turn on but no-one goes to help. Yu is hospitalised afterwards.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘FLAVORS OF YOUTH’ FOR KIDS?

‘Flavours of Youth’ is generally slow but overlaid with high emotional melodrama that imbues much Anime. There will be little to interest the younger viewers, but tweenagers may enjoy the stories about youth and strong, difficult to describe emotions. The movie may be rated 12 but there is little in terms of inappropriate content so we would recommend ‘Flavors Of Youth’ as suitable for children aged 8 and up.

• Violence: 2/5 (a stabbing which is not directly seen, domestic violence which is heard but not seen)
• Emotional Distress: 3/5 (some big emotional moments, especially the death of a grandparent in “The Rice Noodles”, and the romantic realisation in “Love In Shanghai”
• Fear Factor: 0/5
• Sexual Content: 2/5 (lewd but non-explicit comments in “A Little Fashion Show”
• Bad Language: 1/5 (occasional mild usage)
• Dialogue: 3/5 (normalisation of eating disorders and / or perpetuating the ‘skinny is beautiful’ pressure)
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of missed opportunities, past regrets, bulimia, parental pressure, abusive households, lost loves, and empty adulthood

Words by Michael Record