Touch is Iceland’s entry in the Best International Feature Film category of the 97th Academy Awards. Although it begins in Iceland, flashbacks take place in London and the present-day story is in Japan.
Kristofer (Palmi Kormakur) is a young man in the 1960s who decides to drop out of the London School of Economics and try something completely different: he takes a job as a dishwasher at Nippon, a Japanese restaurant run by Takahashi-san (Masahiro Motoki). His employer is quite pleased with him for working hard, learning Japanese, and writing haiku. He also tries his hand at Japanese cooking.
Although Kristofer keeps to himself, he is attracted to Miko, Takahashi’s beautiful daughter who works at the restaurant. She in turn uses every chance possible to learn everything she can about this man who reminds her of John Lennon. A simple touch grows to more intimate contact, and the two fall in love. Then one day Kristofer finds the restaurant closed and Miko and her father gone.
The more we learn about touch, the more we realize just how central it is in all aspects of our lives—cognitive, emotional, developmental, behavioral—from womb into old age. It’s no surprise that a single touch can affect us in multiple, powerful, ways.
— Maria Konnikova in The New Yorker
Fifty years later, Kristofer (Egill Ólafsson) has closed his restaurant in Iceland and gone to London. He learns from a former employee of the restaurant that Miko is now living in Hiroshima, Japan. The family, he learns, are survivors of the atom bomb. With only her address to go on, Kristofer travels to Japan for a reunion he hopes will rekindle their love.
Director Baltasar Kormákur, with a screenplay adapted from a novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, unfurls this love story slowly. We see how the young people’s love can blossom moment by moment – a touch of the hands, sitting next to each other on the bus. We also understand the loss Kristofer feels when she disappears. We recognize how his memories can play in his mind years later. And we know why after nearly a lifetime, and another marriage, he will seek her out again.
This is a touching (yes, touching) story about love, loss, memory, and lasting connections. These are characters you will really care about.