I sat on Touch for months… always in my “I’m gonna watch that some day” bucket… but I just didn’t pull the trigger. I think because I assumed it would focus more on the present timeline with the older characters dealing with COVID which just wasn’t appealing. So I’m happy that it focuses more on the past and how that informs the present. Plus COVID. <shrug>

The film is about an old Icelandic man who gets a bad diagnosis. So he sets out on quest to find his Japanese girlfriend from fifty years ago (while on the cusp of COVID lockdowns). We then get flashbacks to him as a young man in 70s London where he gets a job at a Japanese restaurant and meets the (very lovely) girl.

I wasn’t expecting a full on huggable romance but that’s what we got. There’s a moment between the the young man and woman that just swooned me into singing “sha-la, sha-la-la ya, ya, ya / you gotta kiss the girl”. It’s that kind of sweet romance… and it has to be to drive the modern day story. Though, sadly, I’m not sure they were given enough screen time before what happens separates them. I wanted more… because I’m a shameless hound dog for love, I guess.

In the modern day, the film is more sad and lonely as we watch the guy try to track his old flame down. He meets new friends and stays too long in hotels. It’s all pleasant… until it starts raining bombs of happiness and sadness… of nostalgia and what was lost and the tragedy of a life unknown.

The film also decides to be about the aftermath of Hiroshima which felt, at first, like a random insert. Like maybe something that had more context in the book. I was wondering what the dramatic connection was between a Japanese girl and a dude from Iceland (it might have had more sting if the guy was American, for example). But even that storyline evolves into something bittersweet in the end (as if an atomic bomb wasn’t bad enough).

Everything worked out for me with this movie, despite my misgivings and fears. This is a very charming, very achingly lovely film in both the past and present. While I could have been happy with just the past storyline given how beautiful these young actors are (sha-la, sha-la-la ya, ya, ya), the older versions of them are also lovely but in a sadder way. I very much enjoyed this film.

Score: 90