Passive-Aggressives, prepare to meet your queen. Meet a woman who feels the best way to combat her teenage daughter’s rebelliousness is by creating the perfect lunch for her. Yup, that pretty much says it all and encapsulates the movie. You can stop reading now, if you prefer.
Kaori (Ryôko Shinohara) is a single mother who has managed already to get one child out the door, but the younger daughter, Futaba (Kyôko Yoshine) is a daily ice bucket challenge unto herself. Futaba routinely ignores mom, something parents really love, btw, do keep it up, junior. Yet “ignores” doesn’t quite match exactly what’s going on. Sure, Futaba will flatly pretend like her alarm or her mother’s screams simply don’t exist, but there’s more to her disobedience than standard teenage behavior might allow; Futaba will actively avoid mom at all times, ducking breakfast and conversation, surreptitiously collecting her Bento box lunch, and sneaking out the door without her having said word one to mom.
What’s a mother to do? Here is a child who has figured out how to disobey her (complete failure of HH duties is part of this) without engaging. Oh, this child is a passive-aggressive prodigy; she could already go pro. But the apple don’t spite far from the tree, now do it? And mom is a master. Still insisting upon packing her daughter’s Bento lunch, mom creates daily unique culinary works of art; Kaori makes pictures, cartoons, commercials, conversations (cutting seaweed strips to resemble Japanese language takes a fair bit of practice, I imagine), and all sorts of delightful pictures in food form. Mom works late into the night to get the extra touches that will work on Futaba’s nerves. Oh, it’s all worth it if mom can just get that cringe she craves.
And it is successful! From Futaba’s first involuntary scream upon realization that mom has shared love in food form, Kaori becomes an absentee celebrity at Futaba’s school. At lunchtime, Futaba’s classmates crowd around to see what Kaori has created. This becomes the delight and scourge or Futaba’s life; to any other person, it’s “Awwwww, isn’t that sweet?” Yet, to Futaba and Futaba alone, it’s “Arrrrgh! What has she done now?” There is additional delight in seeing Kaori toil into the wee hours of the morning, working herself to an early grave all to spite an ungrateful brat.
“Now, why doesn’t the girl just order lunches or make them herself?” I hear you ask. I do not know. Could be a Japanese thing. Could be a Kaori-Futaba dynamic. With regards to the Bento Harassment, all we really know is that mom can determine the parameters, which –as the only thing she can control- becomes her sole source of communication between she and child.
You would think there wouldn’t be much to a film about a mother making lunches for her daughter, and you’d be right; there isn’t much to this film. But, and this is where Chinese CGI films drive me crazy – sometimes a film need not be more than that. Here is the story of a single Japanese mother trying to connect with her youngest daughter and finding it near impossible. There doesn’t have to be the part where the daughter suddenly sprouts wings or discovers the Hope Diamond for this story to resonate. This film is about a mother connecting with a voluntarily distant child, and on that score it works for anyone who has ever attempting parenting.
Mom and daughter don’t get on so well
So she puts the kid in Bento Hell
This dynamic? Strange
And it’s so gonna change
When the village gets a Taco Bell
Not Rated, 106 Minutes
Director: Renpei Tsukamoto
Writer: Renpei Tsukamoto
Genre: Taunting your child
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Parents of teens
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Teens
