Chonmage Purin ~ ちょんまげぷりん

 

Just finished watching Chonmage Purin. I didn't expect to see the subbed version coming so fast as the DVD just been released a few days ago. I've seen news of this movie quite some time ago, but only saw the trailer yesterday and it's really a cute movie. Off course, can't deny that the pulling factor is Nishikido Ryo, but hey, the kid is cute, the mom is cute and the cakes are yummy, so I'm in.

The story begins with a samurai named Yasube, from Edo period, got lost in time travel while praying in front of a Buddha statue, to the modern Tokyo. He then met Hiroko and her son, Tomoya. Hiroko is a single working mother and it's tough for her to run both role perfectly. So, as a gratitude to let him stay at Hiroko's house, Yasube offered to take care of all the domestic chores including taking care of Tomoya. This brought reliefs to Hiroko and allowed her to concentrate more on her work. While taking care of Tomoya, Yasube discovered his passion in making cakes which was started from making Purin (Flan Caramel) for Tomoya. One thing led to another, Yasube ended up working as a pattisiere and the household is again in crisis.

What I like in this movie is the topic that they bring up, the different view of Edo vs Tokyo (as they put it). Yasube's view of 'Man earns the family keep, woman takes care of the house' doesn't suit well with Hiroko's view of 'Woman can do anything now with the skills they have.' So, to adjust, since he has no job, Yasube proposed to take care of the house while Hiroko earns the keep. Complication surfaces when Yasube also starts to work in the cake shop and Hiroko's life of dual role is back to square one, and she doesn't like it. And that's when the dilemma came, she wants to support Yasube, but on the other hand, Tomoya needs to be taken care of, and she just got promoted. Decisions, decisions...

There are lots of scenes that I like in this movie. First, the scene when Yasube, Hiroko and Tomoya walk together hand in hand on the New Year day (those that the girls wear kimono to go visit the shrine), the 3 of them really look like a happy family, very cute and heartwarming. Then, the scene where Yasube teached Tomoya the samurai move, Tomoya practice with full force which makes him very cute, and when they do it together, it's like a chibi Yasube in training. Next is when Hiroko and Tomoya ate the Purin at the end of the movie, it's shows closure and focus on the purin that relates them to Yasube, forever.

Acting wise, I like overall cast's acting. Ryo-chan portrays the confused samurai quite well including all the hillarity of it. His pattisier training pays off because he looks really cool with the spatulla and even I'm not that good in plastering the cake with cream but he did it without effort, talk about professionality. I'm too used to see Ryo-chan in more serious role so in the end I find this movie may not be so challenging for him, but it's nice to see him as a leading role and it's very seldom to see Johnny's boy in a samurai role (excluding Nino in the recent Ooouku). As for Tomosaka Rie, I love her acting as Hiroko, the single mother. I really feel her desperation as a mother when she realized that Tomoya is missing, all her frantic behavior, albeit her usual cool attitude is portrayed nicely. And lastly, the super cute kid, Fuku Suzuki, at the age of 6, he's very good on the crying scenes. His crying for Yasube felt very real, including all his sulking and whining.

Overall, if you feel like a cute movie to spend the next 2 hours on, this is a good choice, because I feel 2 hours is just a breeze of fun watching it.