geemelle

The animation of the background animation is fantastic but the story happening in the foreground left me cold. I was not at all interested in saving the Latin Quarter building and the love story was overly-complicated and melodramatic.

I loved the scenes on the ships and boats but they seemed pedestrian and did not soar.

The story of Umi and Shun would have worked better if they were about five years older and in university, but of course that would not fit with the Korean War to 1963 Yokohama timeline.

I couldn't quite get my head around how busy Uni was with doing little or no actual school work. Perhaps Grandma and the younger sister could help out around the boarding house. It took me twenty minutes into the movie until I realised that this was a boarding house and not just a big weird family.

My least favourite thing about this movie is the voice recordings. Scenes take place outside in a windy harbour, or in a vast glass room, or in a crowded bar yet nobody ever talks with the same breathy voice that I might use when talking to a lover on the other side of a bed.

Most people (and most actors) when talking with a group of people all standing several metres apart might be tempted to talk louder and enunciate. But here they mumble and retreat into their affected accents. It was either all re-recorded in a studio and added at a later date or most of the people in a scene had no idea what the others were saying.

I come late to Chef's Table and when I started watching this series, I expected serious documentaries about pizza restaurants. Instead it is a series about the egos and pretentions of famous chefs.

Pizza is simple street food. I have eaten it on four continents. But an excellent slice does become more wonderful just because you throw some kimchee at it or buy your vegies with a handbasket at the local market.

The main contention of this series is that a restaurant is a success not because of location or value or front-end service or decor or atmosphere but solely because of the ingredients and the passion of the head chef.

I contend that any decent chef with a wood-fired oven can make a pretty good pizza at $50 a pop. What few chefs can do is provide a great street lunch for $5 or $10.

Watching this series I was reminded of glossy magazine articles that tried to convince me that one wine is worth a hundred times more than another because it was grown on the north side of the valley versus the crap that is grown on the south side.

I gave this series five stars for photography and travelogue aspects. The rest is soap opera and BS.