A real viral travelogue blog by Jimmy Lai is the inspiration behind “18×2 Beyond Youthful Days”, a Japan-Taiwan co-production, directed and co-written by Michihito Fujii of “The Journalist” fame.
18×2 Beyond Youthful Days is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival
36-year-old Jimmy (Hsu Kuang-han) is back at home in Tainan, after leaving it 18 years prior. He is going through a difficult and delicate stage of his life, having been excluded by the successful game developing company he founded and developed. It is certainly time for a break and a reassessment of life priorities and Jimmy starts from his ancestral home, where it all started. Rummaging into his bits and pieces in his teenager bedroom, he finds a postcard from an old crush, a Japanese traveler called Ami he had met the summer before starting University. Remembering how she liked travelling and how important it was for her; Jimmy decides to use this moment between jobs/decisions to explore Japan and maybe head towards Ami's hometown in the North of the country.
From this point on, the film alternates flashbacks from that summer of 18 years ago and the slow trip that Jimmy is making by train across North Japan. Radiant backpacker Ami (Kiyohara Kami) had showed up one summer day at the karaoke parlor where Jimmy was working his summer job, waiting to know the results of the university admission exams. She had lost her wallet and just needed to work for a short while in order to save enough money to carry on her journey. It had been love at first sight for clumsy and shy Jimmy and Amy had always been friendly with him but somehow distant. Memories of that bright summer until the moment they had parted, and Amy had left Taiwan, resurface while today-Jimmy travels and meets some friendly strangers on his way; It was a summer that had shaped heavily his life choices and his future.
Michihito Fujii attempts an interesting experiment with an unusual mix of romantic teen drama, coming-of-age, travelogue, past and present, set in Taiwan and Japan, alternating both languages. The episodic structure of the film utilizes a series of flashbacks that gradually reveal the past events, some generated by conversations that Jimmy has with his occasional travel companions in his soul-searching itinerary that unfold at the same time. The two lines will eventually collide during the final act. It is an ambitious project as the fragmented nature of the narrative in these kind of flashback-rich films is often confusing and tedious too at times. However, in “18×2”, the pieces of the jigsaw fall in place rather effectively, completing nicely an elliptic arch of narrative.
The two 18-year-apart lines of narrative are kept well separated until the last act, by a series of stylistic choices. First of all, an almost opposite palette of colors, a bright, yellowish light imbues young Jimmy's memories, giving it a luminous feeling of youth and cheerfulness. On the contrary, adult Jimmy is set against a muted gray/blue snowy landscape, a sobriety that reflects his moment in life. Camerawork follows this stylistic line too with a net distinction between a dynamic past and a more static present. Moreover, the acting complements these technicalities, with a virtuoso performance from Hsu Kuang-han, acting restless, messy and fidgety as a clumsy teenager and beautifully restrained as a 36-year-old man.
However, despite the clever storytelling, the film suffers a bit of a lack of “pizazz” in a plot the eventually feels slightly predictable and doesn't add much to the plethora of similar stories. A good job at overcoming this lack is carried on by the good protagonists' chemistry and the amiable characters that populate Jimmy's youth, Ami, of course, and the whole gang of his co-workers at the Karaoke joint, run by a charming boss.
All in all, “18×2 Beyond Youthful Days” is a compelling romantic film, bathed in nostalgia, that will please immensely the fans of this genre.
