Pretty but Pretentious: "Flavors of Youth"

Synopsis

Telling three stories in different cities, this is a work that explores the simple joys of life as three different people experience the bitterness that comes with reality. From memories in a bowl of steaming noodles, a fading beauty finding her way and a bittersweet first love—all in these stories of city life in China.

The Good

There is no denying that the film has got some great visual direction and animation. The way the background is so detailed and how certain scenes are accented really matched well with the overall tone that the film gave. Character-wise and wise, the strongest out of the three was the final one which featured a cassette tape and past regrets. While the third story had the strongest story, however, all stories of the film do hold an interesting quality in how it tries to present a bittersweet quality in connection to the whole “heartlessness” that comes with progress.

The Bad

So how exactly is the film pretentious? It’s rather prominent with the first and second story. First off, the storytelling is rather weak. With the first story, it focused more on the narration and seemed like it was banking on it rather than making more use of its visuals to tell the story. As for the story, it seemed to put a spotlight on the struggles and dramatics that she goes through. In addition, the ending doesn’t seem to work with the way the story was set-up. While the third story was the strongest of the three, it wasn’t by much given its the whole dramatic romance story that was set up with the idea of “the one who got away” or something around that idea. Simply put, it looks pretty but held a weak delivery in terms of story and characters.

Conclusion

In all honesty, the film is more of something to look at rather than really watch. With a weak story, it doesn’t really have much for the viewer to invest themselves in. Sure enough, the idea of the film had potential but its delivery didn’t leave much to be desired. It seemed to rely more on the narration/monologuing of the characters rather than making more use of other film aspects such as music, visual presentation or even camera angles. The only redeeming quality it has is in how lovely it’s art is.

Rating: 6/10