Title: Grand Maison Paris / グランメゾン パリ
Rating: 6.5 / 10
Recommended for:
For those who had watched the drama series and SP and wish to find out what happened next to Team Obana in Paris
OR wants to watch a story depicting how people bounce back from setbacks and overcome the odds while featuring delicious-looking dishes
OR are fans of the veteran actors playing key members in Team Obana
* Potential spoilers ahead!
Liked:
- As usual, the story featured Team Obana overcoming the odds and managing to achieve the seemingly impossible goal of getting the elusive Michelin 3-stars honour but this time, at the homeground of French cuisine as foreigners against the incumbents. As I mentioned in my reviews of the drama series and SP before, the fixation on pursuing the glorious but elusive Michelin 3-stars title actually doesn't resonate so much with me, perhaps due to the fact that I know very little about fine dining and French cuisine as a whole although I do enjoy some dishes and their sweets. Therefore, I was a bit concerned initially that the movie would "alienate" me again in this sense because at the back of my mind, Obana's obsession with seeking the 3 stars in Paris just wouldn't resonate with me.
However, what made the story this time more engaging and palatable was uncovering the reasons driving his behaviour. As such, it became a lot easier to make sense of his stubborn-ness and sometimes blind faith in himself.
What also worked for me was how the central theme of how "outsiders" are perceived when they make inroads into the territory of the incumbents was depicted. While it's easy to criticize the French featured in the movie for being narrow-minded, elitist and racist due to their reluctance to accept Obana as someone good enough to work with them, there was a line said by the caviar businessman which really showed how this issue would make a lot of sense if you look at it from the other perspective. Just as the French may not welcome nor acknowledge a foreigner for being good enough in French cuisine to earn the three stars, the same kind of attitude would most likely be displayed if you have a foreigner trying to open a sushi restaurant in Japan and claiming to be as good, if not better than a native Japanese. In this current world we live in, much as we aspire for and seek fairness and equality for everyone, the truth is that protectionism for locals or the majority as well as the animosity and distrust towards foreigners are issues which are impossible to ignore and pretend that they don't exist. The drama didn't try too hard to preach but I think this message still came across in a pretty impactful way.
- Being a story about cooking, I thought that the scenes towards the end featuring the menu which Team Obana came up with to aim for the stars were done pretty well. Not only did the dishes look so delectable and pretty, I think there was ample time in these scenes for the viewers to scrutinise the dishes visually as compared to how everything flashed by in the drama series and SP.
- While I won't say that anyone stood out this time, the older members in Team Obana definitely had a stable and self-assured vibe which made them look charismatic, appealing and cool despite the challenges they faced. By this, I mean Kimura Takuya, Suzuki Kyoka, Sawamura Ikki and Oikawa Mitsuhiro. I would have loved to see more of these four in action though.
Disliked:
- First of all, as a movie which featured cooking, there was comparatively a lot less airtime dedicated to the actual dish development and cooking processes this time. I thought that it was a pity because this was actually one of the key elements which made me like the drama series back then because there was so much effort put into these scenes and they did make the viewers feel more involved in the entire process.
- Unlike the drama series and SP, I felt that Team Obana in Paris didn't really have a stand-out younger generation representative or someone who could become a fixture in the team going forward so it felt like the "succession" element of the story was somewhat lacking. While Ok Taec-yeon's role definitely hogged the limelight for the younger camp, I don't really see him becoming a fixture in Team Obana for future editions of the Grand Maison series (if any) because his character seemed more like someone who should become a top notch patissier on his own with his own shop, not someone working with Obana for the mid or long term.
- For those who have never watched the drama series and SP, it might be challenging to make sense of the story especially the relationships between the members in Team Obana and the experiences they shared together. As such, the storyline might come across as confusing and fail to engage such viewers from the onset.
- Due to the fact that Team Obana boasted an international lineup this time and the location was in Paris, there were at least 4 different languages being spoken in the entire 2 hours. While I can't comment on the accuracy of the English subtitles for French and Korean, the Japanese ones did seem OK as in no blatant translation mismatches and errors. That being said, I think there is a need to delve into the meaning and importance of having subtitles beyond just being a translation medium across languages.
I think that there is always this assumption that for foreign language films shown in Singapore, they tend to skip the subtitles if the dialogue is in English. Maybe it's the same elsewhere - are there Chinese subtitles for movies shown in Chinese-speaking locations? Or are there Korean subtitles for Korean dialogue in movies?
The problem is, much as English is very much used and understood in daily life and business settings here, the content of the lines may not be easily understandable if there is jargon involved or there are pronunciation, accent or even audio issues. In particular, the part where Linda (Tominaga Ai) was explaining the dishes in Grand Maison Paris' set menu - this was entirely in English with zero subtitles appearing on screen. While I did understand mostly what she said, there were some parts which I wasn't sure of because she used some terms to describe the dishes which were not so commonplace in daily life. I guess people who are gourmets or know more about fine dining may be able to understand these parts better. As such, having subtitles would be good to facilitate understanding of the lines.
I also touched on the point regarding audio above. Sometimes, due to the surrounding noise at the filming location or the actors' diction, it can be very difficult to pick up what they are saying. Moreover, subtitles can also help those who have hearing issues to understand the movie without actually listening to the dialogue. For a large chunk of this movie to have zero subtitles, I don't think that's a good move in terms of being inclusive to the audience at large. Just don't assume that the Singapore audience does not need English subtitles for English dialogue, please? If the OTTs are even having subtitles for actions like close the door, the phone rings, surely movies can provide a similar experience without having to go through parts of the movie without understanding fully.
- I guess the movie chose to focus more on the process rather than the outcome. Getting the three stars was more or less a given since Team Obana was already at the edge of the cliff and needed this to survive. However, for the movie to end just like this without no scene at all about how Team Obana reacted to the win, this was too abrupt and felt sloppy. Perhaps there are plans to talk about this aspect in yet another sequel but it would take a lot more to wow people next time instead of just repeating the formula of win -> fall from grace or suffer setback - > overcome the odds -> all over again.
