As a retired English teacher, I’ve been burned so many times on books adapted to movies, Fahrenheit 451 (speaking of burned-Oh Truffaut!), Cold Mountain, etc. etc., I was downright wary when I saw the rather dull trailer for Touch (book by Olaf Olafsson). But alas, my fear was just a fault of who developed the trailer.
Touch is engrossingly moving, but I do think the book’s background gave me a heightened sense of awareness. Without that, as one of my audience members said at the Talk Back at Sarasota Film Society, the plot may have seemed a tad scant.
The acting was miraculous, especially considering this is only Koki’s (the model who plays young Miko) second acting role. Likewise Palmi Komakur also knocked it out of the park as the young Kristoffer. Egill Olafsson and Yoko Narahashi are also totally sincere as the older pair. Egill’s tears upon seeing Yoko for the first time in 50 years were very affecting.
The adapted screenplay by the book author and director Baltazar Komakur clipped the plot down to a two hour piece and while I totally agree on limiting films to two hours, again reading the book is almost mandatory to get the plot to not feel slighted. Why not parallel the Peace Movement of the anti-Vietnam years with the Hiroshima Peace Monument.
The cinematography is gorgeous, with soft muted lighting adding to the romance of the flashbacks juxtaposed with the crisp visuals of modern day Japan.
I expected the Beatles song Yesterday and the song Sukiyaki (both in the book) to be in the film, but I realize rights to those must be grand figures. Late 60’s tunes make up for the lack and add ambiance to the flashbacks.
A job well done and worthy seeing book reading or no.
