Yuki & Nina shows magic of childhood

By Lee Hyo-won

Staff reporter

Captured childhood is always an imagined time, and perhaps this is why works such as ``The Little Prince’’ or ``Alice in Wonderland’’ resonate with ``children’’ of all ages.

With a unique take, ``Yuki & Nina’’ is no fantasy flick ― far from it, the Japanese-French collaboration is a low-key drama for adults that initially reads almost like a documentary. But an unexpected surreal twist, rendered in a poetically sparse language, offers just the kind of magical touch inherent to enduring stories. The result is a fantastic cinematic dialogue between the Brothers Grimm and Freud, as well as Eastern and Western aesthetics.

The film, co-directed by esteemed French actor Hippolyte Girardot and artsy Japanese auteur Nobuhiro Suwa, is neither radically experimental nor does it possess the mass appeal of cutesy toddler movies. Rather the beauty of ``Yuki’’ lies in its almost deceptive simplicity and naturalism, and the 2009 Cannes Directors' Fortnight opener is a great catch at the ongoing 12th Seoul International Youth Film Festival. A timely general release for schoolchildren restless during the summer vacation makes it a highly recommendable family outing.

``Yuki’’ is a rather straightforward coming-of-age story. Yuki and best friend Nina are nine-year-olds who are busy making summer plans like every other Parisian. Their high hopes for vacationing together, however, are burst when Yuki’s Japanese mother (Marilyn Canto) abruptly tells her she is divorcing her French father (Giradot). Yuki is moreover to relocate to Japan, without dad.

Nina, who lives with her already divorced mother, tries to help save the marriage. ``Would a love potion work?’’ ``They wouldn’t sell it to kids,’’ the two carry on, and decide to pen a letter in the name of the Love Fairy urging Yuki’s parents to think twice about the separation. When the beseeching fails however the girls consider resorting to more coercive measures along the lines of staged kidnappings and running away to the woods.

The camera moves eye-to-eye with the children as they try to keep the family whole and ultimately to remain inseparable buddies. The directors curb the drama by showing simple instances of how adults can often be more immature. The scene in which Yuki’s dad tells her that she must passively accept the situation is shot with such shocking minimalism that it stifles the already rather slow pace of the film.

The focus is, however, the artless, spontaneous child’s perspective of separation and cultural uprooting that is comparable to Kim So-yong’s subject of exploration in the indie classic ``Treeless Mountain.’’ Unlike Kim’s film, about two sisters suddenly finding themselves motherless in a merciless adult’s world, ``Yuki’’ sticks to a more fairytale-like narrative in which the protagonist strictly processes everything through her still child-like logic ― which, of course, can be much wiser than the selfish ways often seen in adults.

The Seoul International Youth Film Festival continues in downtown Seoul through July 14. Visit www.siyff.com for more information. The general release for ``Yuki & Nina’’ is on July 15. Distributed by Jin Jin Pictures.