Flavors of Youth (2018)
★★★½ — Flavors of Youth (2018)
That first short nearly broke me, and I mean that in the best possible way. "Rice Noodles," the opening segment of Flavors of Youth, is one of the most touching, heartfelt pieces of animated storytelling I've sat with in a long time. A young man's memories of eating noodles with his grandmother, the smell of a particular broth, the ritual of a morning routine shared between two people. It sounds slight on paper, and yet I was absolutely floored by it. The writing is gentle but precise, the music is gorgeous, and the animation is extraordinary. If that short had been released on its own, we'd be talking about a five-star film. No question.
But here's the thing. Flavors of Youth isn't one film. It's three shorts, loosely stitched together around the theme of youth and memory, set against the backdrop of urban China. They share a visual style and a tonal warmth, but they don't share characters or storylines. There's a brief post-credits scene that pulls everyone together, which is a nice touch, though it doesn't really make the whole feel any more unified. Think of it more as an anthology than a traditional feature.
The second short is where things come unstuck for me. I won't pretend otherwise. It centres on a young woman and the pressures placed on her appearance, and honestly, the way it handles the subject made me uncomfortable. Not in a way that felt considered or challenging, but in a way that felt careless. There's a real difference between depicting body image pressures and seeming to endorse them, and I think this segment stumbles into the wrong territory. It brought my mood down and my rating with it. These things matter, and I don't think the film earns its way through that material.
Thankfully, the third segment pulls things back up. It's a quieter, more wistful story about young love and the diverging paths that life sends us down. Old friends, old feelings, the particular sadness of realising that the person you were closest to has become someone you barely know. It's not as immediate or emotionally precise as "Rice Noodles," but it's genuinely affecting, and it sends you out of the film on a warmer note than the middle section deserves.
What ties all three together, and what I'd happily watch on a loop regardless of story, is the animation. I don't say this lightly: this is some of the finest animation I've ever seen. The detail in the street scenes, the food, the light through windows, the texture of clothes and skin and steam rising off a bowl of noodles. It's breathtaking work throughout. And the score, built from piano and strings, suits every moment perfectly. It never overplays its hand. It just sits beneath the images and lets them breathe.
It's worth saying this was part of my A-Z World Movie Tour, with China getting its entry here. I've covered Chinese cinema elsewhere on the blog, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which is a very different kind of visual spectacle but shares that same commitment to craft and emotional sincerity. Flavors of Youth sits in a much quieter register, but the care on screen is just as apparent.
Three and a half stars feels right, and fair. The first short alone is worth your time, and the animation throughout justifies sitting with the whole thing even when the middle section tests your patience. It's a flawed anthology, but an often beautiful one. Just go in knowing what you're getting: three separate stories, wildly uneven in quality, held together by some truly extraordinary visuals and music. The highs are very high. The dip in the middle is real. Stick with it.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2018 | Watched: 2025-06-05
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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