DVD Review: Tokyo Fiancée

Tokyo Fiancée is a sweet and touching film about a young woman named Amélie (played by Pauline Etienne) discovering herself in a foreign country that she hopes will adopt her as its own. At the beginning of the film, we see her walking through the streets of Tokyo, and through voice over narration she tells us: “I was twenty. I wanted to be Japanese, it was my sole ambition.” She was born in Japan, but her parents were Belgian, not Japanese, and her family returned home when she was five. Then, at the age of twenty, Amélie purchased a one-way ticket to Japan, and the film shows us her time there.

In addition to wanting to become Japanese, she wishes to become a writer. But for now, she gets a job teaching French. She has one pupil – a young, handsome Japanese man named Rinri (played by Taichi Inoue), who himself expresses a desire to become a Knight Templar. Ah, we all want to become something else, particularly at that age. We learn that he loves all things French the way she loves all things Japanese. The French lessons soon become a guided tour of Tokyo, with the pupil teaching as much as the teacher, and soon they are romantically involved.

Amélie is sweet, with a wide-eyed innocence and excitement, and that makes her instantly likeable. Even if her name were not Amélie, she would certainly remind you in some ways of the character from the film of that name. And this film has fanciful little jumps of imagination, like a brief shot of how things might turn out, before she determines, “No, that’s not how it’ll end.” And the morning after they first have sex, little hearts pop up all around her and she bursts into a song about her love for Japan (while wearing a T-shirt depicting the Japanese flag). The film has a light, playful tone, like when Rinri shows and demonstrates many of the unusual gadgets in his parents’ home.

And there are some beautiful images, like when she goes off to the mountains by herself. But then some of her leaps of imagination have a darker and surprisingly unsettling aspect, and the film does take on a more serious tone. The film never really strays from her side, so we see the world basically through her perspective. So when she is happy, the film feels light and delightful; and when she is confused or worried, we too feel concerned and at unease, like when she feels like an outsider with Rinri’s parents, and again at first among his friends.

This film features some wonderful performances, as well as a really good score.

Tokyo Fiancée was directed by Stefan Liberski, and was released on DVD on December 15, 2015 through First Run Features. The DVD contains no special features.