The complicated issues of adulthood are on show here in this warm comedy drama from the POV of a teenage girl in Au Revoir L’Ete.
This thoughtful film is seen through the eyes of 18 year old Secondary-school girl, Sukuko (Fumi Nikaido) as she takes a 10 day holiday with her Aunt Mikie (Mayu Tsuruta) and discovers that the lives of the adults, including her aunt, are anything but simple. Sukuko herself discovers a personal life-lesson about love as she develops a crush on the oblivious school drop-out, Takashi (Taiga), a refugee from Fukushima who now works at a ‘love hotel’ with Ukichi (Kanji Furutachi) an old friend of Mikie’s sister.
As Sukuko begins her 10 day summer holiday she begins to see how the lives of all these people intertwine. She grows much closer with Takashi and helps him come out of his shell. She begins to suspect there’s a history between her aunt, Mikie, and next door neighbour Ukichi. And she watches suspiciously as shady University professor and old friend of her aunt lingers around trying to get some alone time with Mickie.
The lesson here is clear, life is messy and as soon as you grow up more complications are thrown at you. This down to earth being told through the eyes of a teenager who is still yet to experience many of these difficulties gets her first taste as she falls for someone who clearly has interests in somebody else is a story all too familiar for any teen growing up, experiencing that heartache of not quite being rejected, just not being seen as you see them.
The relationships between the adults is one we see, but don’t dive into all that much because of the perspective of the story. We can tell that Sukuko’s aunt in particular, while being known as ‘the beautiful Mikie’ during her teen days, has struggled herself to find love. Driven now by her career she has two very different histories with both the Professor and Ukichi, and even in her mature years she still doesn’t really have love figured out.
Au Revoir L’Ete tells is wonderfully grounded and real story from writer-director Koji Fukada and one that the film’s lead, Nikaido, plays wonderfully and with a lot of heart and grace. She captures the innocence of being a teen in lust perfectly as she dances around her adult contemporaries with ease to steal the film’s spotlight.
Rating: A tale about the truths of life, taking wonderful influences from various genres to tell a genuine and relatable story, (6/10).
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