Kamome Diner (2006)

★ 7.3 1h 42m IMDb
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On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her.

Kamome Diner

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Cast

Satomi Kobayashi
Satomi Kobayashi as Sachie Age 60 · Kyoto, Japan Satomi Kobayashi (born May 24, 1965) is a Japanese actress from Tokyo. She won the award for best newcomer at the 4th Yokohama Film Festival for Exchange Students. She is married to screenwriter Kōki...
Hairi Katagiri
Hairi Katagiri as Midori Age 63 · Ōta, Tokyo, Japan Born in Tokyo, 1963. Graduated from Seikei University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Japanese Literature. Started acting while working part-time at the Ginza Bunka Cinema, movie theater.
Masako Motai
Masako Motai as Masako Age 73 · Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan Born in Shibuya, Tokyo. A Japanese actress joined in Shasha Co.. Started acting in around 1972, created an acting band called Gekidan Sanjyumaru with Eri Watanabe in 1979.
Tarja Markus
Tarja Markus as Liisa Age 80 · Riihimäki, Finland Tarja Markus is a vocalist and actress. Tarja Markus was born on 14 January 1946 in Riihimäki, Finland. She is an actress, known for Punatukka (1969), A Time of Roses (1969) and Vain silloin kun naura...
Jarkko Niemi
Jarkko Niemi as Tommi Hiltunen Age 41 · Tuusula, Finland Jarkko Niemi (born 30 October 1984, in Tuusula) is a Finnish actor. He is an actor and writer, known for Syke: Särkynyt sydän (2023), Rölli ja kultainen avain (2013) and Love Records: Gimme Some Love...
Markku Peltola
Markku Peltola as Matti Died 2007 · Helsinki, Finland Markku Peltola (July 12, 1956 – December 31, 2007) was a Finnish actor and musician. He was born in Helsinki and grew up there. He was actively involved in founding and acting with the Telakka Theater...

Audience Reviews

CRCulver 6/10 Jun 05, 2018
Although the two countries are located very far away from each other, there is a special link between Finland and Japan. After living in Finland for a few years, I have come to think of the Finns as the "Japanese of Europe" for their culture that seems alien to the rest of the West, a very reserved and homogeneous society that foreigners find nearly impossible to enter. In Japan, Finnish exports like the designers Ittala and Marimekko and the Moomins children's books have proved huge successes. The Japanese film KAMOME DINER celebrates this kinship by offering native audiences a fish-out-of-water film about Japanese women in Helsinki, but on universal themes that could appeal to viewers in Finland and beyond. The film is director Naoko Ogigami's adaptation of a novel by Yôko Mure.

As the film opens, we meet Sachie (Satomi Kobayashi), who has inexplicably decided to move from Japan to Finland and open a bare-bones eatery. That she has decided to serve rice balls (onigiri), a Japanese dish virtually unknown to the rest of the world, instead of the usual sushi or tempura only makes the premise all the more absurdist. After a month, she finally gets her first customer, but it is only a local fan of Japanese culture (Jarkko Niemi) who, by long tradition, gets his coffee for free everyday since he was its first patron, and he never brings any friends. When she meets with Midori (Hairi Katagiri), a Japanese woman who has just arrived in Finland and seems lost in life, Sachie decides to bring her on at the diner. They make an odd couple, these two, as as Sachie is petite and self-confident, while Midori is tall (gigantism tall) and awkward. Nevertheless, they gradually turn their restaurant into a success while discovering something of the Finnish society around them.

Any filmmaker taking on the subject of Finland is likely to pay homage to Aki Kaurismäki, Finland's most prominent filmmaker. Certainly the design of the diner, with its austerity, bleached pastel tones, and old-time decor is a typically Kaurismäkian touch. Some of the dry humor is also comparable to the the Finnish auteur, and a minor character is played by Markku Pelota, part of Kaurismäki stable. However, mainly this film lacks the bleakness or bitterness of Kaurismäki's work, and has a more straightforwardly heartwarming and cute ambiance.

As a Helsinki resident who knows the quirks of the culture and can recognize all of the shooting locations, I found this an occasionally amusing film, something worthwhile. However, it doesn't feel very deep, and it may be that its themes of female solidarity will prove accessible mainly to female viewers (author Yôko Mure has a mainly female readership in Japan). There is also the frustration that, in spite of the film's attempt to attract a female audience as well, some aspects of it must be based in references to Japanese culture that foreigners won't understand. For example, is Jarkko Niemi's character being lampooned as a typical Western "wapanese", or is the tension between him and Midori based on some other factor?

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