Touch

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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As we get older, we often think back over our lives, wondering how things might have gone differently. Sometimes we think of business decisions that went awry. Or friends who drifted away. Or lost loves.

In “Touch,” a film by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur, an elderly man begins to think about his past, wondering “what might have been.”

The story: An aging widower in Iceland, facing the onset of dementia, reminisces about when, as a young man in London, he dropped out of graduate school to take a job in a Japanese restaurant as a dishwasher because he liked the glance he got from the owner’s daughter. That led to a wondrous affair between Kristófer (Palmi Kormakur/Egill Ólafsson) and Miko (Kôki/Yoki Narahashi), but it ended when her father Takahashi-san (Masahiro Motoki) found out. Then, father and daughter disappeared.

Now, a half century later, Kristófer wonders what happened to Miko. So, he sets out to search for her. But there are secrets that go back to World War II, offering the unique perspective of a survivor of the atomic bombing of Japan.

This love story spans five decades, differing cultures, and historic moments. Extended flashbacks tell the story. We see Kristófer in 2020 as he searches for Miko interspersed with scenes from 1969 when they first met.

“Touch” (a recurring visual theme between lovers) is beautifully filmed by cinematographer Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson. The characters sing a lot of Icelandic folk songs. We have a somewhat predictable happy ending, perhaps implausible, but satisfying.

“I don’t see Hollywood as the big enemy, because this is where the money is,” says Baltasar Kormákur. “Just because I was born on the island (Iceland) doesn’t mean I want to spend the rest of my life telling stories for 300,000 people.”

But sometimes he seems to have a change of heart. “The winters are too long, and there’s only one airline, so it’s difficult to escape when you feel frustrated or claustrophobic. The audience for our films isn’t very large, so it’s difficult to support an industry. But, Iceland is beautiful. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine living anywhere else.”

See for yourself.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com