Flavors of Youth (2018)
★★★½ — Flavors of Youth (2018)
Flavors of Youth is a 2018 animated anthology film, running a trim 74 minutes, produced as a co-operation between Chinese studio Haoliners Animation and the celebrated Japanese outfit CoMix Wave Films. The film is made up of three separate short stories, each set in a different Chinese city, and each turning on the same broad preoccupation: the way memories of childhood and adolescence press up against the harder edges of adult life. It arrived at a moment when Chinese animation was starting to attract serious international attention, and the CoMix Wave involvement placed it in a lineage that fans of Japanese animation would already associate with a particular kind of visually ambitious, emotionally restrained storytelling. Three directors share the credit, Joshua, Li Haoling, and Yoshitaka Takeuchi, each taking responsibility for one of the segments, which gives the film an unusual production structure even by anthology standards.
CoMix Wave Films, the Tokyo-based studio behind the project, had already built a considerable reputation for animation of exceptional visual quality, and that pedigree is very much present here. The film was directed towards a broad East Asian audience, drawing on the shared cultural weight of food, family, and the particular ache of a youth that feels further away the older you get. Those themes have obvious crossover appeal, and the film received an international release through Netflix. For anyone who has followed other animated features reviewed here, such as the hand-drawn warmth of No Dogs or Italians Allowed or the altogether stranger territory explored in Fantastic Planet, this one sits in rather different company: polished, intimate, and rooted in a recognisable emotional world rather than stylisation or fantasy.
The voice cast is drawn from Japanese animation, with Taito Ban, Mariya Ise, Minako Kotobuki, Haruka Shiraishi, and Hiroki Yasumoto among those lending their voices to the three stories. Each segment has its own set of characters, its own city, and its own emotional register, though all three return to the same central idea: that the ordinary textures of a young life, a bowl of noodles, a first friendship, an early romance, carry a weight that only becomes clear once those days have passed. It is a gentle, unshowy premise, and one that lives or dies by the quality of its execution. The anthology format is a gamble, of course. Three stories means three chances to connect, but also three chances to lose the thread. Whether this one pulls it off is, naturally, a matter for the review itself. On the question of Chinese cinema more broadly, the blog has covered a fair range, from the action of New Police Story to the altogether different register of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, so this sits as a rather quieter entry in that corner of the collection.
A-Z World Movie Tour China This movie is actually 3 shorts all connected through reminiscence of youth. The 3 stories are disconnected save for a very short post-credit scene which features all of the characters. The first short "Rice Noodles" is absolutely beautiful. In my opinion the best of the 3. The writing, the animation, the music, they're all absolutely fantastic. It's so touching and heartfelt. If that short was standalone I'd probably have given this a 5*. The second section really brings it all down to be honest. It wasn't that good and the theme is a little troubling with regards to body image, eating and health. Didn't like that one at all. The final section is another rise to a decent story around young love and friendship and how our paths lead in different directions. Throughout all of these stories, the animation is absolutely out of this world. Some of the best I've ever seen. The soundtracks are beautiful piano and strings ensembles. In the end I think this well deserves a 3.5* which could have been higher had it not been dragged down by the middle.
What stays with me, thinking it over, is how frustrating that middle section really is, because the rest of the film earns its place. The first story in particular has a quality to it that you don't easily shake off, and for me that alone makes the film worth sitting through. The animation is the kind you find yourself rewinding just to look at again, which is not something I say lightly. It is a shame that an uneven anthology format means the overall score takes a hit for something that is, in large stretches, genuinely beautiful work. Worth your 74 minutes, with the remote handy for one of them.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2018 | Watched: 2025-06-05
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Flavors of Youth (2018) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon US
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