Latest news with #LaGrandeMaisonTokyo
South China Morning Post
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Grand Maison Paris movie review: Takuya Kimura goes to France in Japanese TV show spin-off
3/5 stars Advertisement A world-class Japanese chef returns to his former stamping ground in search of that ever elusive third Michelin star in Grand Maison Paris, director Ayuko Tsukahara's big-screen spin-off of the hugely successful Japanese television series La Grande Maison Tokyo. Takuya Kimura and Kyoka Suzuki reprise their roles in this feature-length adventure shot entirely on location in the French capital. Tsukahara has two feature films opening in Hong Kong this week; time-travel romance 1st Kiss is also debuting in cinemas. Grand Maison Paris sees the director on familiar ground, since she directed five of the TV series' 11 episodes as well as a feature-length special in 2024. Advertisement Adopting a more serious tone than the comparatively lighthearted series, the film finds chef Natsuki Obana (Kimura) facing a crisis once again.
South China Morning Post
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
1st Kiss movie review: Takako Matsu woos a younger man in Japanese time-travel romance
2/5 stars Advertisement Seasoned television director Ayuko Tsukahara (La Grande Maison Tokyo) plunders many of the same themes she explored in her 2018 feature debut Cafe Funiculi Funicula in her latest big-screen venture, the time-travel romance 1st Kiss. Penned by Yuji Sakamoto, whose award-winning screenplay for Hirokazu Koreeda's Monster also deals with temporal distortion and multiple perspectives, 1st Kiss follows a middle-aged widow as she travels back in time over and over again to the day she met her late husband in an effort to save him from his untimely fate. As with the time-travelling coffee shop in Tsukahara's debut, a scientific explanation for precisely how Kanna (Takako Matsu) is transported back to a specific day in 2009 is deemed unnecessary here. Instead, the film embraces the intangible power of love – albeit seasoned with a generous sprinkling of grief and regret. Kanna simply needs to drive through a closed tunnel to magically appear in the picturesque Saitama resort town where her path first crossed that of Kakeru (Hokuto Matsumura), an awkward palaeontology student. Advertisement
Japan Times
01-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
A French shepherd's pie that's Japanese on the inside
With a heady mix of creativity and conflict, the drama of professional kitchens makes for good television. Japan's noteworthy addition to this genre is the binge-worthy 2017 drama series, 'La Grande Maison Tokyo,' now available on Netflix. (A follow-up movie, 'La Grande Maison Paris,' was released in cinemas at the end of December 2024.) Featuring As always, what catches my eye in such a show is simple fare rather than complicated dishes: In episode five, a young chef in the kitchen of the famed L'Ambroisie restaurant in Paris makes a parmentier (a culinary term for a dish prepared with potatoes; in this case, a French shepherd's pie) as a staff meal.
