Momotaro: Friendship and Family

While Japanese children are growing up, most will have heard the tales of the peach boy, Momotaro. Although there are many variations in the story, the essentials are the same: Momotaro rallies animal allies to help him defeat the demons that are terrorizing Japan. Children know Momotaro as a charming, charismatic hero who goes on a journey with a monkey, dog, and pheasant. In 1943, Japan’s first animated film, Momotaro’s Sea Eagles, was released. While referencing a major folktale, this anime leads us through the story, not by focusing on Momotaro, but by developing the camaraderie and bonds between the animal soldiers. Through friendship and food, the animal soldiers bond and create a makeshift family to get them through a difficult situation. Although both the anime and folktales encourage similar values of cooperation, hard work, and courage, the community of the anime is held together by closer ties and bonds, in contrast to how the community in the folktales are held together by Momotaro.

Momotaro has a differing image between the anime and the folktale. Even though he always retains his role as a leader, he is portrayed as two different kinds of leaders. In the many versions of the Momotaro legend, he is shown as an engaged leader, leading his animal allies straight to the enemy and fighting alongside them to bring down the demons. Yet in the animated film, he always seems to be at the sidelines, commanding and giving orders while watching over the situation with a pensive attitude. Both versions of him show his abilities as a leader, but his authority comes across to the audience in different ways. Brash and dominating Momotaro from the folktale clashes with the calculating and calm Momotaro from the film, who gives the spotlight to the animals.

Throughout the film, the camaraderie and friendship between the animals are firmly established. In an early scene where the dog attempts to put on his hachimaki, his monkey comrade laughs and taunt his friend as he demonstrates the correct way to wear the hachimaki. With the help of humor, it is immediately evident from the scene that these two are close friends who maintain the façade of a rivalry in which they joke around and enjoy each other’s company. Later on in the plane, the dog tries to build a tower of blocks, but the monkey tries to correct him yet again and shows him how to properly build a block tower. When he succeeds in building the tower, the monkey smirks in satisfaction while the dog fumes. The plane suddenly jerks and knocks over the tower, rousing the dog to laugh hysterically. This scene further cements the friendship between the dog and the monkey. There is a sense that these animals have been through many adversities together, and have come out with this close bond. As the rabbits watch the other animals depart on their planes, they wave enthusiastically, showing their concern and wishes for their comrades to return safely. In another scene, as a group of monkeys are fleeing an explosion, a fellow monkey gets his tail trapped by a door; unable to leave anyone behind, another monkey looks back and shoots the tail of the trapped monkey, allowing him to escape. This scene is undoubtedly comical, yet we can see the unity among the soldiers. The humor and cuteness interweaved throughout the movie serve to make the characters more endearing to the audience, making us feel more attached and concerned about this family-like group of animals who are risking their lives.

Smugly, the monkey demonstrates the correct way to wear a hachimaki.

The monkey angers the dog with his arrogance when he successfully builds the block tower.

Using some simple foods, the bonds between the soldiers are further highlighted. Millet dumplings, which play a key role in the folktales, makes an appearance in the film to provide strength and confidence to the soldiers before they enter the fight. By giving them muscles, literally, and being a commonality that all the soldiers are able to share and find comfort in, the animals are able to come closer and attain greater unity. This humble Japanese snack which the targeted audience can easily recognize and identify with reinforces and supports the image of the animals as a group of close companions fighting for a single, honorable purpose. Another simple food that appears is the onigiri, which the animals enjoy at the end of the film in celebration of the safe return of the troops. After successfully completing such a large mission, there are no lavish celebrations, just a group of friends who rejoice over simple, modest rice balls. There is no need for anything extravagant because these animals are simply happy in knowing that their friends and companions are all safe and sound.

The monkey who has returned safely celebrates with onigiri as he picks off the crumbs from his face.

Millet dumplings are utilized by Momotaro to his advantage in the folktale. As he meets each animal along the way, he offers the dumplings, which his parents made for him with love and care, as a bribe for them to come along and help him in his quest. In these situations, Momotaro’s headstrong and obstinate nature become apparent as he threatens the animals to accompany him. Momotaro declares “there will be no mercy” (24) for anyone who tries to hinder him. The animals accept his offer because they are in awe of him and his authority and also need the food for sustenance. The dumplings are used by Momotaro as a reward and as a way to keep his control, depicting him slightly as a bully, which contrasts with how food is used in the anime. The anime seems to allude to these instances by using the millet dumplings in a different way. When trying to comfort a lost baby eagle that has landed on one of the planes, one of the monkeys pulls a toy plane out of the millet dumplings bag instead of actual dumplings. With this single plane, the soldiers gain an important ally in the baby eagle’s mother, who swoops in at the end of the film to save soldiers who are plummeting into the ocean. The toy plane, which references the dumplings of the original stories, is used by the monkey in a kind and gentle way to comfort a despairing animal. The film is able to illustrate the animal soldiers in a more flattering light than Momotaro is portrayed in the folktales.

Baby eagle is comforted by the toy plane withdrawn from the millet dumplings bag.

While the folktale version of Momotaro left home for his journey and later returned home again to his parents, there was no apparent family unit in the anime. Yet the values of family were not absent from the film. The soldiers under Momotaro may not be family, but they all act in support of each other, rooting each other on and anticipating their return home together.  At the end of the day, these animal soldiers have forged a bond arguably stronger than of that between Momotaro and his parents. The animals leave the ship and also return to the same place, reunited with the other members of their crew. It’s possible to consider that ship their home, at least temporarily. Through the pair of friends who tease each other playfully or the rabbits that cheer for the rest behind the scenes, it is clear a family has formed. Although the folktale is centered around Momotaro, the bond and community built between the animal soldiers in the film is what cohesively holds the story together.

Rabbits from the crew wait in worry and rejoice to hear that all soldiers are returning back safely.

Momotaro’s Sea Eagles is a wartime animated film targeted towards a younger audience, just as the Momotaro folktales are largely children’s stories. Yet the stories told by these two different media are not the same. The folktale works to build up Momotaro as the hero, who happens to be accompanied by these three animals, the dog, monkey, and pheasant. Momotaro is the protagonist of the story and Momotaro is the one who returns home with the treasure and glory. In the film, the story centers around the hard work of the animals, who work together to bring down the enemy. In the end, the story is about them and the family and friendships they have created.

Tampopo: Around the Dinner Table

Just a short vignette from the movie Tampopo becomes one of the most touching scenes. Juzo Itami introduces the inevitable and despairing theme of death, yet is also able to show how much happiness can be taken from some of your last moments. In this scene, a man hurriedly runs home to his wife on her sickbed. In a slight state of denial, he insists that she get up and cook him and their three children dinner. Without hesitation, this mother and wife cooks her last meal and watches her family eat her food exuberantly before she passes away.

This family enjoys their last meal together.

Although undoubtedly one of the saddest scenes of the movie, the joy displayed by the family transcends the feeling of death. These last moments of happiness center on the pervading theme of the movie: food. Food is a way to connect, a way to show kindness, a way to feel a heightened sensuality; food is universal. The family in this scene decides to spend their last night together gathered around the dinner table, enjoying a delicious meal. This is certainly not how I think about spending my last day, yet the smile of the dying mother right before passing is undeniably genuine. The close up on the mother shows that her smile is one of no regrets. It’s enough for her to see her family happy. While watching this scene, I realize something that’s easy to forget when we all become obsessively immersed with our lives; some of the simplest, essential things such as a meal with family can bring the most happiness.

A humble smile, stemming from her joy of seeing her family enjoying her cooking.

Some of my best memories of my dad are of the dishes that he’s cooked for me and my family. As food engages all of our senses, food becomes something incredibly memorable. Just cooking a meal for someone shows how much you care about them. The heart that goes into making food seems like it radiates out from the steam that escapes a dish. Feeling the heat hit my face gives me such warmth. As the three children devour their food, do they realize how much joy their mother must feel? This mother and also wife clearly cares so much about her family that she wants to cook food for them despite being on her deathbed. This scene from the movie shows how food can take care of people, how food nourishes people. Even after death, the father prompts his children not to cry over their dead mother, but to simply enjoy this last meal that she has painstakingly cooked for them. After his wife is pronounced dead, he digs into his bowl with a revived rigor. Even though the scene may seem slightly exaggerated, it only serves to highlight the importance of food as a way to show care, happiness, and bonding.

The next time someone cooks for you, I hope you can see how much love and care was put into the food. Simply enjoy it!

Minamata: Influence of Food on Social Relations

Tsuchimoto Noriaki’s documentary, “Minamata: The Victims and Their World,” portrays a social manifesto movement and hardships suffered by patients with the Minamata disease. Minamata disease can impair motor functions and senses in humans and has killed countless living beings through their consumption of mercury-poisoned seafood. Within this documentary, the unrepresented patients are finally given an opportunity to convey the reality of their difficulties through the various footages, interviews and images. It also depicts the significant effect the food holds over the people of Minamata. Japanese people are increasingly dependent on their local food supply, and it is due to this reliance that the widespread suffering from this venomous disease occurred. Through participatory documentation, it effectively captures a web of complex social relations influenced by the local food consumption in Minamata.

Takae discussing her effect of the Minamata disease on her marriage.

Food plays a key role in the relations between the people of Minamata. This first image is a close-up scene of one of the many patients, Takae Sakamoto. She contracted the disease when she was only seventeen. She married her husband and bore a child but was banished from her husband’s home when they discovered her infliction. Despite the devotion and love between the couple, his family heavily opposed the match, fearing it would negatively influence his younger sisters’ marriages. The Minamata disease disrupted family ties, and even love. Close shots of the victim within the intimate setting of her home evoke feelings of sympathy within the audience. With effective use of both strong quotations and imagery, audiences are capable of recognizing her loneliness and gain a greater understanding of the patients’ everyday lives outside the cinema. Through this documentary, viewers are able to relive the hardships alongside the patients as they narrate their experiences. The scene captures the reality of complex issues and is conveyed with a sense of realism; it feels authentic, untouched, with no pretentiousness to be found. This could not be done without the participatory interaction between the filmmaker and his subject. By approaching the subjects with a warm and engaging attitude, the interviewer is able to bring out the patients’ true emotions, providing a sense of intimacy and domesticity for the viewers. 

Establishment of The Tokyo Accusation Committee leads to change in Minamata community

The Minamata disease may have disrupted families and marriages but it has also brought forth unification among the community through their shared hardships. After the outbreak of the epidemic occurred, the small town was forced into a conflict with the Chisso Company, the party ultimately responsible for the mercury poisoning and resulting disease. Through the company’s irresponsible pollution and neglect, the common people’s lives were ruined and as a result, they allied together through one singular cause and established The Tokyo Accusation Committee. This organization consisted of patients, fishermen, and other related members of the community who banded together to strive for compensation and admission of wrongdoing from the government and guilty parties. As they shared the same local food supply, the community watched in horror as their fellow peers and family members were slowly being struck down by the infectious disease. Having experienced this phenomenon together, they gained the strength and courage to voice their opinions and oppositions. This gathering scene is also a symbolism of power and the potential of a community. The sash that the Minamata patients proudly wear brought a small community together and public recognizes of the struggles. It represents a very strong connection among the people of Minamata and places an emphasis on rallying people to find effective ways and opportunities for expressing their concern to the government.

Even if the epidemic has ended, the victims’ suffering prevails and the fight for Minamata still continues on. A central theme of the documentary is the responsibility of survivors to retell the horrors of their experiences, allowing the struggle against inaction to live on. As viewers of the film, we carry this burden as well. As a result of this disease, people have lost parents, children, family, marriage, love, and more. So now is the time to provide the neglected areas of Japan with our attention and unbiased minds. Food can bring unification, separation and suffering, creating a complicated and slightly paradoxical influence on social relations. However, the most important factor in unifying at social movement is community. With one, little change can be done but through strength in numbers, people are granted with a voice, power, and the ability to make necessary and just changes to society. The future is shaped by the actions and the voices of the present.

Cafe Soul: Food Leads to Memories

Jun wanting to learn more about Sang Woo and Morandang

Café Seoul is a Japanese film about a young journalist named Jun who is looking for something worthwhile to write about while being stationed in Korea.  While chasing an angry and rude musician, who we learn about later, Jun runs into a small family owned café known as Morandang.  This is where Jun meets the owner and cook of the café named Sang Woo.  Jun takes an interest in the café because he felt connected with Sang Woo and his family memories since Jun also worked in a café in Japan with his family.  .  It is really interesting to note how food connected these two very different men with very different cultures.  One of Sang Woo’s two brothers named Sang Hyuk, who was the same angry musician from the beginning of the movie, was forced to take care of the shop and cook the food when Sang Woo’s arm got injured by gangsters.  These gangsters injured Sang Woo because they want to force him to sign documents giving up the property Morandang is on.  After much contemplation, Sang Hyuk decides he will take the shop over but it was really evident that he was not a particularly good chef.  This took much trial, error, and frustration but with the help of his brother and Jun, Sang Hyuk becomes a very legitimate cook.  Throughout this time of cooking, Sang Hyuk learns many interesting things about cooking and food in general.  Sang Woo teaches him about the patience and care food needs in order to be perfect.  Making good food takes time and a large amount of effort for it to be good.  It also takes the right combination of seasoning.  Food is delicacy and art to create and Sang Hyuk learned this the hard way.  There was also another problem going on in the family business.  The youngest brother, Sang Jin, took the name of the restaurant and made a much more fancier and elegant one.  He also wanted to forcibly remove the name of their family restaurant in the process of making his café the world empire of restaurants.  Sang Jin’s Morandang looked a lot less traditional and more modernized.  This is the direction he wanted to take Morandang.  There was a really emotional scene when Sang Hyuk begs his younger brother to at least change the name.  Sang Jin refuses and a battle of rice (cooking competition) takes places at the end of the movie.  Another important them that occurs in this movie is the idea of memories food gives the eater.  The memory of food and family is what connected Jun to the family of the Sangs.  The younger gangster also remembered the memory in which whenever he would get in trouble the father of the three brothers would give him delicious food to make him feel better.  The older gangster also yearned for those memories he had with the dead father and the food from the café connected him with those memories, especially in the last scene.

The Art That Draws Humanity Back Together

Food provokes the buds on your tongue to water. It provokes the subtle twitching of your nose. But most rewardingly, food provokes your memories, especially the most nostalgic and seemingly abandoned ones. The film Café Seoul, directed by Takemasa Haru, replants the story of three brothers  (Sang Woo, Sang Hyuk, and Sang Jin) and their family’s traditional Korean confectionary shop trampled among corporation gangsters, while a Japanese journalist attempts to write an article about the shop and ultimately becomes a part of the surrogate family and brotherhood. Café Seoul ultimately reveals food as an art of the senses that draws humanity back together.

One key idea from the film is the notion that food that has integrity is an art of the human senses.

Nostalgia of Nurungji

In this first screenshot, Dong-choon, a past friend of the family and now an elite gangster, recalls the memory of the three brothers’ grandfather, his kindness, and the nostalgia of nurungji. Dong-choon watches and hears the sprinkling of the sugar intently, almost hypnotized by the image of such simplicity. As he takes a bite of the nurungji you can hear the crisp crunchiness of the scorched rice; you could even assume the smell, the subtle nutty scent of yellowed scorched rice. Sang Hyuk then pours hot water in a bowl of smaller pieces of nurungji, creating an aftermeal rice tea. After Dong-choon takes a sip of watered nurungji the atmosphere changes and the memory of the past is fully recovered. Dong-choon bows his head, then turns to the wall of old familiar photographs, and grieves regretfully. In this sense, food not only requires the participation of all the senses, it also serves as an everlasting beacon of light that tugs on the heartstrings of every human being. No matter how distant you drift from your origin, food is a dependable compass (or GPS) that faithfully draws you back to kinship and friendship.

A motif in the film is the use of parallel imagery to illustrate the opposing elements of humanity.

Jun and Sang Hyuk looking at family photos

The first parallel is the similar situations between Jun and Sang Hyuk. Though Jun lost his family he hopes to keep Sang Hyuk’s family from falling apart. In these two screenshots both men (one Japanese, the other Korean) look deeply into their family photographs, which serve as reminders to keep living despite the hardships and the absence of family members.

Flashback of the brothers eating Nurungji

Similarly, the screenshots above depict the relationship between food and family through the use of flashbacks. As stated above, the nostalgia of nurungji brings people back together because of the richness of the past and despite the conflicts of the present.

Clashing societies: urban and rural

The film itself is a paradigm of modernized urbanism versus traditional ruralism and the people that struggle within such societies. Thus the last screenshots above show the opposing communities that live right next to one another. Through the medium of food—the traditional Korean sweets from shops like Morandang—the film is able to draw you back to the importance of human relationships and relegates the recognition of individual achievement.

Café Seoul: Where Food Tugs At Your Heartstrings.

   Memories. Family love. Friendship. Such are the elements that constitute the role of food in Takemasa Haru’s Café Seoul. Café Seoul introduces to us of how a Japanese journalist, Isaka Jun who is in search of a story to write, stumbles upon a traditional Korean confectionary shop named Morandang. Jun acknowledges Morandang as a significant family-run business that not only preserves the traditional craftsmanship and delicate procedures of preparation but also beholds the precious memories of the past. He then decides to help Sang Woo to be reunited with Sang Hyuk in attempt to save Morandang from being taken over by the mafias for urban development. The conflict is resolved in the end through a competition between Sang Hyuk and Sang Jin, the other ambitious brother who wants to develop Morandang as his own brand name with the support from the mafias.

 Through food, friendship is manifested in this film as one that goes beyond the boundaries of nations, cultures, and identities.

    Overcoming even language barriers, Sang Woo slowly embraces Jun after a heartwarming moment of mutual understanding. Upon noticing the display of family portraits around Morandang, Jun shows Sang Woo a photograph of his family and comparing the two, Jun tells him that they are the same. The camera then reveals a close up of Sang Woo’s expression as he looks up to Jun, giving him a thoughtful smile of understanding.  Food in this context serves as a link that forms the friendship between Jun and Sang Woo, as both associate their respective confectionery shops to the love they have for their families. This is also reflected through the relationship between Sang Hyuk and Jun as they effortlessly bond over kneading the dough despite the unpleasant encounters they have had with each other previously. In a way, Jun eventually becomes a part of the family, finding a home within Morandang. It is evident to see that food rekindles kinship and develops friendship amidst the characters in Café Seoul.

  Takemasa employs effective cinematography techniques in the form of flashbacks to emphasize the nostalgic attributes that the traditional sweets served in Morandang presents to its customers. Madam Young who is a frequent customer in the shop recalls her fond memories of eating Roasted Mochi with Green Tea over the past years living in the neighborhood. The mafia that comes into the shop regularly relates his experience of eating Konsorugi to his childhood days through a flashback reiterating how Sang Woo’s father would give him little pieces of sweets whenever he tried to hide in the kitchen from his mother. In the final round of the competition, Sang Hyuk’s Nurungji triggers a flashback of Don Chun’s reminiscence of the kindness that was showed to him by Sang Woo’s grandfather when he was a child.

  Nurungji, in all its simplicity, is able to stir a poignant memory within everyone who has tasted it. The three brothers savor Nurungji together in unison (the scene is overlapped with a flashback showing us a younger version of the three doing the same), recognize the familiar taste of their father’s love for Morandang and realize that they are family once again.

   At the end of the film, we are dawned with the realization that food is not merely just a form of daily nourishment for our bodies; it also what helps foster our relationships by strengthening the bond we have with other people. Food is what drives Jun in his passion as a journalist in the food magazine. Food is what leads him to meet Sang Woo and his confectionery bakery by a twist of fate.  It is food that draws Sang Hyuk back to the shop, rekindles his kinship with his brothers, and gives him a purpose of living after having his dreams to pursue music shattered due to his sudden deafness. It is also food that reminds us about love, nostalgia and kindness. Food indeed, as portrayed succinctly by Takemasa in Café Seoul, is what truly tugs at our heartstrings, bringing people together against all odds.

The Sense of Unity and Family in Food

In Café Seoul, Jun, a Japanese freelance writer travels to Seoul to find inspiration for his article. As he searches for a restaurant deemed worthy of recognition, he stumbles across Morandang, a small Korean bakery that is struggling to stay open since the mafia wants to take the shop’s property. By writing about this shop, he discovers its family history of the shop. This sweet shop has been within Sung- Woo’s family for generations and Sung-Woo, being the oldest, took over after his father’s death and when both of his younger brothers left home to pursue their own dreams. After Sung-Woo injures his arm, Sung-Hyuk, the second brother, returns to the shop while Sung-Woo recovers. Throughout this time, Jun decides to extend his stay in Seoul to help rebuild the brother’s relationship and to restore the quality of the shop.

Sung-Hyuk and Jun baking together

Even though Jun is Japanese, whereas the rest of the characters are Korean, the culture difference is not noticeable in the film. Jun also comes from a family that owned a sweet shop of their own by selling rice cakes. Food becomes the bridge that connects their cultures together. The ability to work together and to create a blend of cultures is evident throughout the film. As you look at the picture above, Sung- Hyuk and Jun work together to recreate the dishes that has once tied Sung-Hyuk’s family together. Food creates unity among them and erases any strangeness they may feel between them. Although Sung- Hyuk and Jun have only met a few times and they speak two different languages, they still manage to come together as one as they bake. The food is used to communicate to each other, which allows it as a way of acceptance and a form of friendship.

Sung-Woo, Sung-Hyuk, and Jun reminiscing about their family

Food is universal and it connects people together through feelings and emotions as they cook and eat. The food itself becomes the representation of memories and the past. It brings the brothers and Jun back to an important part of their lives, family.  This screenshot  shows the two brothers and Jun standing next to each other as Jun describes a memory of his family. This scene is a representation of the three of them as a family. Family is more than being blood related. In this case, food creates a bond between them that they see each other as one of their own.

The mafia leader acknowledges the taste of the norunji to the three brothers

In the end of the film, Sung- Hyuk competes against the youngest brother in a food competition to determine if the shop will remain open or succumb to the mafia. The boss of the mafia, being the judge, has a change of heart after eating Sung Hyuk’s nurunji that brings him into a state of nostalgia. The nurunji causes familiarity of when the Sung’s grandfather used to give it to the mafia’s boss when he was younger. Food has the ability to soften hearts and bring forth cheerfulness and hope. As it is seen in Café Seoul, food is a powerful source of tying the past and the present, and people and memories together.

Food as a Medium for Emotions and Memories in Café Seoul

In Take Masaharu’s Café Seoul, Isaka Jun, a Japanese writer for a food magazine, travels to Seoul, Korea, to find the next topic for his article. While searching, Jun has unpleasant encounters with Sang-hyuk, but they lead Jun to find Morandang, a traditional Korean confectionary shop surrounded by urban development. From Madam Young, Jun learns about the separate paths that Sang-woo’s brothers took and decides to write about Morandang. Jun has had similar family experiences and lost the Japanese confectionary shop that his family operated. He helps reunite Sang-woo and Sang-hyuk in his efforts to keep Morandang open from the mafia who want Sang-woo to vacate and allow urban development. The conflict eventually leads to a match between Sang-hyuk and Sang-jin, the youngest brother whose shop, also named Morandang, is supported by the mafia. By the end of Café Seoul, the brothers and the mafia understand the importance of Morandang as a nostalgic shop where they were once a warm family and visitors of hospitable owners, respectively. Jun also finds that he has a home at Morandang. The director is able to convey the strength of food as a medium for emotions and memories through carefully arranged shots that produce the heartwarming story of Morandang.

It is no coincidence that the title first appears as “Café Soul.” Morandang’s food produces emotions of enjoyment, kindness, joy, and togetherness that linger. Those emotions and the memories associated with them are evoked whenever the old taste of Morandang is savored. Take is able to communicate this idea especially in the scene when Dong-chun stands up after the taste of Sang-hyuk’s nurunji and explains why he chose Sang-hyuk as the winner. Sang-woo and Sang-hyuk are at eye-level with Dong-chun, indicating his respect. It is a contrast to before when he only glances at them and says little but of business. The change is due to the nostalgia brought by the taste and presentation of nurunji which leads Dong-chun to remember the enjoyment and hospitality he felt when served by the brothers’ grandfather. His opinion that Sang-hyuk is the winner is supported by the silence and downward expressions of Sang-jin and Doppe. Although this may be due to Dong-chun’s position and authority as the boss, the previous close-up shots of their reactions upon tasting the nurunji suggest otherwise; the downward expressions are actually those of concession and agreement. Take’s character placement in the frame suggests that the bond between all three brothers has strengthened after a taste of old Morandang. The brothers stand in a row from oldest to youngest and are all dressed in white, suggesting unity. The contrast to Dong-chun standing in front of his followers also brings out this idea that food has helped the brothers to reconnect because none of the brothers believe that one is better than another. Finally, the evenly dispersed, high-key lighting prevents shadows, supporting the positive mood, and draws attention to the white clothes and subsequently the siblings’ facial expressions. All aspects of this carefully planned shot contribute to Take’s success at conveying the idea of food as a strong medium for emotions and memories.

The brothers listen as Dong-chun explains why Sang-hyuk wins the match.

Food Is Where The Heart Is

Sang-Hyuk showing Jun how to correctly make sweets the Korean way

Masaharu Take’s film Cafe Seoul (2009) is centered around three men and how the connection of food brings them together in an unlikely way. Take used the technique of focusing on different point of views to give insight on each character that helps the audience connect the dots when the three stories converge. The first story began with Jun, a Japanese journalist, headed to Korea in search of interest stories. He stumbles in to a Korean confection bakery called “Moran-dang” where he meets Sang-Woo, the owner. Intrigued by the little shop that reminds him of his own from childhood, he decides this is what his story will be on. The second story starts as Jun gets to know Sang-Woo and the background of the shop. The shop was owned by Sang-Woo’s parents who taught him everything he knows about baking. When they tragically died Sang-Woo took over the shop in their memory as his other 2 brothers dispersed. The third story is simultaneously going on. It’s about Sang-Hyuk, a lead singer in a band who is losing his hearing, and with his hearing his dreams of being a musician. When “mafia” guys come in to try to take the bakery away from Sang-Woo they vandalize the shop and beat him up. This is where the third story meets the other two. Sang-Woo broke his arm and can no longer run the shop. When “Moran-dang” is in danger of closing, little brother Sang-Hyuk returns home after drifting apart from his brother to be in a band. With the help of Jun, Sang-Hyuk agrees to run the shop and restore his relationship with his brother. In the end they save the shop and create new friendships. In Cafe Seoul, food is what binds the whole story together. It represents family, love, and memories. In the beginning it is food that brings Jun to the small confection shop when he spills the grains of the store owner. It is then food that intrigues him to learn more about Sang-Woo and through this he learns about the similarities they both share growing up in a confection shop, both having 2 siblings, and both wanting to carry on their parents legacy they left behind. This connection creates a bond between the two men. It was the memories food created that brought Sang-Hyuk back to rekindle his relationship with his brother and ultimately save the shop. The memories of his childhood, of his parents were all tied to the little sweets in the store. Take really focused on the process of making the food showing extensive scenes, close up shots of every detail in the process. The way of making food comes out of love. It takes time and patience to create a beginning to end moon cake that must be nurtured by kneading the dough and handled with care. Food played such a powerful role in each and everyone of their stories.

Everyone coming together to do whatever it takes to save the shop