Tokyo Fiancée (film)


Tokyo Fiancée is a 2014 Belgian romance-drama film written and directed by Stefan Liberski. It is based on Amélie Nothomb's 2007 autographical novel of the same name. The movie tells the story of a 21-year-old Belgian woman, Amélie, who has a romance with Rinri, a young Japanese man in Tokyo. She met him when she offered French language tutoring services through a bulletin board. It was selected to be screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It received three nominations at the 5th Magritte Awards.

Plot

Amélie is a Japanese-born woman who left at age five and grew up in Europe. At age 20, she decided to return to Japan to reconnect with the Japanese culture. She moves to a small apartment in Tokyo. To make a living, she puts up a poster offering French language tutoring. A young Japanese man, Rinri, starts taking language lessons with her. The two become romantically involved, and Rinri helps her to learn about Japanese culture by taking her to movies, restaurants and other events. She also takes a trip to Mount Fuji, where she gets lost and survives a cold night in a remote cabin. After the earthquake causes severe damage and loss of life, though, her neighbours and Rinri tell her that she must return to Europe, as the disaster is for Japan to deal with. On the plane, she says that she never saw Rinri again, and that she heard that he had married a Frenchwoman, a general's daughter. As for her she'll keep that for another time.

Cast