O Cozinheiro do Pólo Sul

This marked the first of several films that I have watched during the Japanese Film Festival held in the GSC Cinemas (Msia) in Sept 2013. It contained an interesting concept - basically pertaining to survival skills employed by modern day professionals under extreme working conditions.

It is something everyone can relate to at some point in our professional or student life. Postings to places far from our home, or working 24/7 for a demanding project. Effects conjured out as a result of leaving our comfort zones, like homesickness, feeling out of touch with family members' or loved ones whereabouts, urban lifestyle etc...but in this case, the saving grace is that the 'trapped' scientists had the luxury of a chef to provide the best of the most important necessities of all, which is home made food.

It is rather amazing how sophisticated dishes can be made under lack of variety of food choices, and the low water boiling point. But another sweet side of the movie is that it quite diversely covered the fun activities that are likely to happen to fill in the boredom. There were the unpleasant side of the activities too, for instance during long distance phone calls which were better not made in the first place, or one particular favourite scene where a member threw tantrum as a particular food supply ran out.

The only couple of things I can name that the movie did not cover at all were the doctor's chores, it was like none of the members had any health problems throughout the over 400-day stint.some of the characters were severely underdeveloped, I didn't get to know their background or why they chose to participate in the expedition at all.

Overall this is easily a heartwarming movie but given its time length I felt more allocation to character development could be done to substitute for some of the food scenes. A 6.5/10 movie to me.

A group of people living together at Antarctica's Dome Fuji Station which extremely cold. This film offers a lot of fun and laughter. It's really worth your time to watch this film.

"Tanshin funin" is variously translated as "being posted overseas without one's family" or "short-term unaccompanied transfer", but in any case is an important aspect of Japanese society. It is often regarded as something to be endured for the sake of one's career.

This movie, then, depicts the ultimate "tanshin funin" experience: being posted for more than a year at a research station in Antarctica, at very high elevation, so that there is absolutely nothing of interest in the area. Options for communication are limited as well; phone calls back to Japan are a pricey 740 yen (over US$6.00) per minute. They don't appear to have the bandwidth needed for Skype....

So these eight middle-aged men, sentenced to live together in the midst of endless ice and snow and not much else, have to make their own fun. Which they manage in various ways, more or less, to more or less stave off insanity--which is indeed the understated dark side to this movie: such situations really are hazardous to mental health.

Mostly a fun movie, told from the chef's POV. Some parts may require an understanding of Japanese cultural idiosyncracies, such as the crazy idea for "fried lobster" (which doesn't sound quite so crazy in the original Japanese). Also a serious movie about dealing with loneliness, isolation, monotony, which are often part of the tanshin funin experience.

I have to disagree with another reviewer here though, this film has nothing, other than food, in common with Tampopo (dir. Juzo Itami).

you have heard of the udon western. well, this is the ramen southern, very southern :)

Japanese science team spending over a year in a totally isolated outpost. food is important, as it is in Japanese culture. how people deal with isolation and loneliness and camaraderie. sweetly done.

mostly seen through the eyes of the chef, but good character analysis in general. cinema realite shooting. acting is quite good and gives a real feel for Japanese science/engineer culture. a lot of good food, of course.

if you liked tampopo, you'll love this one.

I got to see a screening of this film at Dc's Japan Information & Cultural Center (JICC) last night. I like going to see films there, because often, they show movies that haven't been released in the United States yet. This is usually because the actors of subject matter is so obscure or specialized that distributors just don't think there's a market here for these movies. But, I don't know why that is. It seems like you can always find people who want to rent all kinds of crazy DVDs. And, this film is actually particularly charming and funny. But it is pretty obscure. The story is about the group of scientists living at the Dome Fuji Station, a Japanese research facility in the heart of Antarctica. And, it's told from the point of view of the crew's long-suffering resident chef. He was a cook in the coast guard, and was assigned to a stint in Antarctica against his and his family's wishes. These guys are in Antarctica on an expedition collecting ice core samples, and it's scheduled to last around four hundred and forty days. All the scientists have their own experiments to run, and they all help with regular chores around the station. But they can't be expected to take care of all their needs by themselves, so they've been given a chef—the titular character. And he's a pretty easygoing, indulgent guy too, to put up with all these guys' wild shenanigans. All this sounds pretty cute, but I can understand why a distributor would have thought this wouldn't do too well outside of Japan.

The story is absolutely delightful. It's full of all the sorts of quirky characters you'd expect to find at an isolated, scientific outpost. And, all the sorts of bizarre behavior you'd imagine they'd engage in too, once the reality of their over-four-hundred day mission finally hits, and the real boredom sets in. The moping, the boozing, the improvised (sometimes nude) sporting events, and all the other tomfoolery. And, then of course, there's the eating—one of the most reliable diversions life has to offer. Heck, the airline industry figured that out ages ago, offering various snacks and nibbles every couple of hours on those long-haul flights. And let me tell you, this chef whips up some of the most exciting meals imaginable—and all from frozen ingredients! But, the boredom is the least of these scientists worries. They at least have their official jobs and chores to throw themselves into if the going gets rough. Their biggest problem is really the loneliness. They're far away from friends and loved ones. But, they're also separated from every other element that was familiar from their old lives. It's a big shock to the system to be thrust into such isolation.

But, these eccentrics manage to help each other through their various episodes. They all go through a few. And, they manage to drive their long-suffering chef almost crazy in the process. It's wild and wacky fun. I loved this movie. But, unfortunately I went before having eaten dinner. It was almost torture watching course after course of delicious, steaming, Japanese food served up, with my stomach grumbling the way it was. It also made the film seem a little longer than it probably was. It runs a bit over two hours, which isn't too crazy . . . unless you're starving. (I've been eating nothing but Japanese food since I saw the film.) I'm not sure when you'll ever get the opportunity to see this movie since it seems to only be playing the festival circuit right now. But, if you ever do, make sure you see it. And schedule a big Japanese dinner for afterward!