Chonmage Purin (DVD) (Normal Edition) (English Subtitled) (Japan Version) DVD Region 2

Chonmage Purin (a.k.a. A Boy and His Samurai) is technically Nakamura Yoshihiro's first film about time traveling. He has always made his audience travel time instead, employing narrative trickery in films like Fish Story and Golden Slumbers to transport viewers from one time period to another. The narrative devices are often clever on conceptual and structural levels, but Nakamura also never forgets to give each of the journeys a satisfying payoff that works for both the brain and the heart. Chonmage Purin is ironically one of Nakamura's most straightforward films, and it compensates for its relative lack of brains with a very big heart.

Nakamura, who also wrote the script based on Araki Gen's novels, isn't interested in the time traveling part of the story, introducing Edo period samurai Yasube (Nishikido Ryo) after his arrival and from the point of view of Tokyoite Hiroko (Tomosaka Rie) and her son Tomoya. The film is almost completely free of computer-generated graphics, as Nakamura seems to know that seeing a CGI time tunnel matters very little when compared to seeing the flesh-and-blood reaction on the face of someone suddenly thrown into a world almost completely different from his own.

Yasube's later evolution into a pastry chef gives Chonmage Purin its offbeat uniqueness, but the film's most amusing moments come from the fish-out-of-the-water story in the first half. Here, the cultural, gender, and generation gap between Yasube and Hiroko make up the central conflict. On the surface, Nakamura's script plays the conflicts for laughs (especially in Yasube's stern discipline techniques and his belief in duties), but they also reveal plenty about the characters and their values. Tomosaka and Nishikido don't share much screen chemistry, but the romance between Hiroko and Yasube is believable because their characters are believable as well.

In his first leading film role, Nishikido Ryo also isn't particularly convincing as the lost samurai. He may be dressing the part and speaking the right lines, but he simply doesn't seem to be carrying the physical trait of a truly convincing samurai (Amusingly, Yasube is referred to as an actor as his cover throughout the film). However, the film naturally isn't (and shouldn't be) aiming for period authenticity, with Nishikido obviously cast based on his pop star charm and strong screen presence. While Tomosaka Rie and Suzuki Fuku (adorable as Tomoya) are both equally prominent characters in the film, Chonmage Purin is ultimately Nishikido's show.

The other star of Chonmage Purin is, of course, the sweets. The film's highlight is a (reportedly real) cake that faithfully recreates an Edo castle, and it is only one of the many delicious-looking sweets on display in the film. Nakamura shows just enough of the food to serve the story instead of using attractive sweets as a visual aesthetic. Chonmage Purin uses its time travel/samurai pastry chef gimmicks to hook the audience, but Nakamura is smart enough to serve up a sweet fish-out-of-water romance instead. Chonmage Purin may be about time traveling, but its audience probably won't care about how little of it is in the film.