European Premiere | In Competition
Taiwan/Japan, 2024, 124’, Mandarin, Japanese, Taiwanese
Directed by: Fujii Michihito
Screenplay: Fujii Michihito, Hayashida Hirokawa
Cinematography (color): Imamura Keisuke
Editing: Furukawa Tatsuma
Production Design: Miyamori Yui, Yao Kuo-chen
Music: Ohmama Takashi
Producers: Chang Chen, Roger Huang, Maeda Koko, Sezaki Hideto
Cast: Hsu Kuang-han (Jimmy), Kiyohara Kaya (Ami), Joseph Chang (Liu), Michida Shunsuke (Koji), Kuroki Haru (Kiko), Kuroki Hitomi (Yuko), Chu Chungheng (Jimmy’s father), Kitamura Toyoharu (Shimada), Liao Huichen (Shu-yi), Chen Yan-fei (Ting), Li Kuanyi (Wei)
Date of First Release in Territory: March 14th, 2024 (Taiwan); May 3rd, 2024 (Japan)
Some say that watching a film is the cheapest way to travel. If that is the case,
18x2 Beyond Youthful Days is the best travel deal of the year, because it takes audiences on a beautiful journey through both Taiwan and Japan for just the price of one ticket.
Based on a real viral travelogue blog by Jimmy Lai (who has also novelised the blog to coincide with the film’s release),
18x2 is an ambitious Japan-Taiwan co-production that successfully avoids all the pitfalls of cross-cultural co-productions. The result is easily one of the best commercial romances from Asia this year.
Co-written and directed by Fujii Michihito, who has become one of Japan’s most sought-after filmmakers since the critical success of
The Journalist (2019),
18x2 is part travelogue and part memory piece. When the film opens in the present, we see Jimmy (Hsu Kuang-han) going home to Tainan after being fired from the game company he co-founded. When he finds an old postcard from a Japanese woman named Ami in his old room, Jimmy decides to take a trip across Japan via local trains (though not explicitly explained in the film, the original blog involved the
Seishun 18 kippu, a budget five-day train pass for unlimited travel on commuter trains). On the impromptu journey, he visits various destinations in the Japanese countryside and makes new friends as he slowly but surely makes his way to his planned destination: Ami’s hometown.
The grey, wintry tone of the present shifts to a warm summery tone as the film flashes back to 18 years prior, when Jimmy was still a young man living at home and working a summer job in a run-down Karaoke box joint in the suburbs of Tainan. One day, Japanese traveller Ami (Kiyohara Kaya,
One Second Ahead, One Second Behind) arrives at the Karaoke joint to ask for a job after she lost her wallet. Jimmy becomes immediately smitten with her, but will she fall for him?
Both the blog and the film reference Iwai Shunji’s romance
Love Letter (1995), which was a sensation across Asia at the time of release. Indeed,
18x2 does evoke memories of
Love Letter, especially with its parallel plot structure and theme of lost romance. While
18x2 doesn’t reach the emotional height of Iwai’s modern classic, Fujii deftly manages to meld two films – a cute cross-cultural romance and a somber road movie – into a coherent film that is funny, romantic and poignant. Fujii and his co-writer Hayashida Hirokawa resist the temptation of over-writing the story, giving their amusing supporting characters just enough to make an impression without taking attention away from the film’s core, the bourgeoning relationship between Jimmy and Ami. Even big-name cameos like Joseph Chang (as a Taiwanese restaurant owner in Japan), Kuroki Haru (as a net café employee) and Kuroki Hitomi (as Ami’s mother) don’t distract from the story, because they all play small, but important roles on Jimmy’s journey.
Like most great romances, the success of
18x2 ultimately comes down to its two stars. The breakout star of TV series
Someday or One Day and Chung Mong-hong’s
A Sun, Hsu plays Jimmy as a cool and shy introvert without losing his charm. Miles away from her breakthrough role in screwball comedy
You’re Not Normal, Either, Kiyohara simply radiates as the warm and lovely Ami. Despite their language barrier (Hsu does most of the work by doing a large number of his lines in Japanese), the two stars share great chemistry. I dare anyone to not root for Jimmy and Ami when he finally has the courage to do something as simple as ask her out to a movie.
Fujii Michihito
One-fourth Taiwanese by blood, Fujii Michihito began making advertisements, music videos and independent films at the age of 19. Since making his commercial feature film directorial debut in 2014 with Oh! Father, he has directed 15 feature films and numerous television series. In 2019, The Journalist was the surprise winner of three prizes at the Japanese Academy Prize, including Best Film. He also directed Netflix gangster drama A Family and blockbuster melodrama The Last 10 Years.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2019 – The Journalist
2020 – The Brightest Roof in the
Universe
2021 – A Family
2022 – The Last 10 Years
2024 – 18x2 Beyond Youthful
Days