MOVIE: 南極料理人・Chef of South Polar

rabbitheartwrites
Jun 30, 2017
3 min read

Since I am on a roll today, I thought I would do another blog post!

One of my and my boyfriend's favorite things to do is to watch movies. He has introduced me to a number of movies that I have never watched, (and most likely wouldn't have ever watched if not for him), but I am glad to say that I have also introduced my share of movies to him. If you summarized the kind of movies he watches and the kind I watch, you wouldn't think we would appreciate each other's recommendations, but actually, watching different kinds of movies has really broadened my perspective.

Thus, I thought I would do little series on this blog about movies!

One such movie that I've wanted to watch with him and that we FINALLY got to watch the other day is 南極料理人 or Chef of South Polar. The official English title sounds a bit strange, but I guess another close translation would be Chef of the South Pole.

Plot Summary:

Based on two autobiographical novels by Jun Nishimura, "Antarctic Chef" centers around a research expedition living in Dome Fuji Station near the South Pole. The area, which is located far from Showa Station, has an average temperature of -54 degrees celcius and is situated 3800 meters above sea level. A cook named Nishimura (Masato Sakai) leaves his family behind in order to assist the expedition. Out in the middle of nowhere, Nishimura manages to cook extravagant meals consisting of high-class ingredients like foie gras, spiny lobster, and Matsuzaka beef in this true story of wintering party male bonding.

(Source: http://asianwiki.com/The_Chef_of_South_Polar)

This is one of my all-time favorite movies. There are so many things I appreciate about this movie, and being able to watch it again (after not watching it for 5 years!!) really gave me a new found appreciation for all the nuances I enjoyed about it.

Below are three main points that I enjoyed about the movie:

1. FOOD (and so much more)

I am going to mention the obvious right off the bat. This movie has gorgeous shots of food and how it is made. I've always just had a personal inclination towards food movies and a fascination for how food is prepared. (I guess growing up watching the Food Network had something to do about it.) For me, a good food preparation scene really grips you, and makes you focus on the food in a way you might not do in regular day to day life, and this movie definitely does that.

Apart from the visual aspect, what makes it all the more compelling to watch are the situations in which certain food is showcased and how it really affects the emotional state and the dynamics of the characters. Plus, the cultural nuances that the viewer learns through the food.

Some of my favorite food scenes:

2. STORYTELLING

What I've noticed with some Japanese movies I've watched is they really have a certain form of storytelling where they don't "tell" the audience what's happening, instead they show little bits of information to give the viewer deep insight into a character's situation. I really like how this kind of storytelling was employed in this movie, highlighting the struggles / background of the characters.

In this movie, the phone booth is crucial because it is one of the few ways the Fuji Dome members can connect to the outside world. The conversations the members have in this phone booth, though mostly short, say a lot about them and what staying away in the South Pole means for their personal relationships back at home, without having to give a complete background story.

3. THE CHARACTERS

If I had to live in the South Pole away from my family for more than a year with a group of strangers, how would I do?

I thought about this after watching the movie, and I think I would probably be a mixture of the doctor, Shuunin, Hara-san, and Nii-san. Each member has a different reaction to the experience, and getting to see the development of the characters and how they cope with the situation, was particularly enjoyable for me. They kind of formed a little family within the Fuji Dome, with Moto-san as the sort of father figure, Nishimura-san as the mother, Taichou as I guess, the grandfather? And the other members being the children.

My favorite character would have to be Nishimura-san. He doesn't say much verbally, but he conveys so much with his facial expressions!

Some of my favorite Nishimura-san expressions: