Shikiorori / Flavors of Youth (2018)
This is a movie anthology so it has three separate stories. The studio who made this is the same as Kimi no Na Ha so the art its gorgeous, but Shinkai isn't the director but the writer is a Chinese guy. All the stories in this movie are set in China and are about Chinese characters. These are nice little short stories. None of them are dramatic so its a nice easy watch. They may not be as interesting as a Shinkai movie, but its a nice portrayal of modern Chinese culture.
First story is called Sunny Breakfast, and its about a young male student who seem to regularly eat a certain type of noodle soup dish. He reflects to his past on how much his noodle soup eating moments has changed throughout his life. The metaphor here seems to be the technological changes as he grew up on the soup made from a couple owned shop to the chain shop he goes to in the city. He describes how different he shops made the soups and how different they taste. This might be a story that I think many people could kind of relate to. There may be a childhood restaurant that is not longer there or has changed over the years. Or I guess any store that may have closed due to technological advances.
Second story is A Little Fashion Show which is about two sisters. The story is about relationships (not romantic) and is rather straightforward. The older sister is tall and is a successful model. She is supporting her little sister and both are living together in the city. The little sister is currently in school and studying fashion design. The conflict here is the older sister having career troubles due to her age, and struggling to keep up that reliable older sister look to her little sister. This story is nice as I'm also an older sister so its a bit relatable on it can be tough to have to be the older sibling.
The third and last story is called Shanghai Love. This story is about three childhood friends who end up going on different life paths. The story focuses on two of the friends, a boy and a girl, who have a crush on each other. But due to parental high expectations both had set those feelings aside to focus on studies thus making their friendship rocky. When the boy is an adult he finds a cassette tape that the girl made that he never got to listen to that makes him remember his childhood. I'm sure there are people who may have lost touch with childhood friends due to schooling. Or even have kept items or keepsakes that would remind them of these old friends.
Overall I do like the movie so if you got an hour to kill, please watch this! The animation on the food in the first story is gorgeous by the way.
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