Review: Patisserie Coin de rue (2011)

Notice anybody familiar in that movie poster?  If you've seen the Rurouni Kenshin live action movie, you should know those actors.  Yosuke Eguchi (Saito Hajime) and Yu Aoi (Takani Megumi).

Lately, I've been looking into the filmography of Yu Aoi.  Apparently, she's won a lot of acting awards and she takes on challenging roles that require her to learn a certain skill or master an accent.  I have Hula Girls waiting in the wings and I've heard that's another good movie. 

Patisserie Coin de rue is about Natsume, a cake-maker's daughter from Kagoshima who went to Tokyo in search of her boyfriend.  Tomura was once a famous pastry chef who quit the business eight years before.  He frequents the Patisserie Coin de Rue owned by one of his colleagues, Yuriko (Keiko Toda).  Natsume's boyfriend used to work there but had since moved on.  The employees refuse to help her.  Not wanting to give up, Natsume applies for a job at the pastry shop and eventually gets accepted as general help and then apprentice.  Throughout the movie, you will see why Tomura quit the business and how Natsume brings him back to it.

The movie is very simple.  The acting is the best thing about it.  I loved both of the lead actors as well as the supporting characters.  Yu Aoi and Yosuke Eguchi were convincing pastry chefs.  I think they studied a bit of the craft while filming this movie.  Yu Aoi really is a great actress.  She gives so much to the character.  I liked all the English dialogue, especially the one in the end when they were serving a dinner party.  And man, those cakes looked exquisite! 

There really isn't much to say about this movie.  Just watch it for yourself, I guess.