A gentle cross-cultural decade-spanning love story, Touch represents the impact a first love can have on the rest of one’s life. 

It is a film of love that feels so lonely from its opening shot of a Nordic choir singing in the snowy tundra of a red church. Isolation spreads through the start of the pandemic when a widower Kristofer closes down his restaurant. From the photos in his home, he has lived a good life with his late wife and one daughter, the images of coziness haunt his sudden emptiness.  The more serious loss in his life is the news that he has dementia and his cherished memories from a life before a wife and daughter are threatened to slip. With time passing he returns to the mystery of his student days in London: finding his first love. 

Decades earlier, Kristofer was a student at the London School of Economics but left it behind to be a dishwasher at a Japanese restaurant. Kristofer’s sudden life shakeup isn’t driven to prove a point but by his lovesickness for the restaurant owner’s daughter, Miko. The young man takes this period to fully immerse himself into the Japanese culture to draw himself closer to Miko. Miko on the other hand is a young woman under the rule of her father, she wants to break free and live outside of his strictness. Her father’s fears come true, closing up the restaurant and taking Miko away, disappearing from Kristofer’s life. 

Outside of the love story is a story of a chosen family, Kristofer blends his Nordic nature to become a part of the Japanese culture found in the restaurant. He fills the emptiness of the life he couldn’t get from his own culture for own that fully accepts him to take part in there’s. It’s when the restaurant closes and he realizes he not only lost the love of his life but the family he was missing the devastation cuts through like a knife. Never getting closure on a chapter can manifest over time and for Kristofer it’s years of his life. Kristofer’s wholesomeness makes him a compelling character to follow, never having regret or ill will for a world that once was he adapts to its changes. His drive to find one woman through a time when he should be sheltering and working on his deteriorating health is touching. He has accepted his life story knowing how life works in chapters with the urge to want to make off each era with its closure. There is no master plan to reclaim his life, he is just a man who would like to see a woman who played an integral role in his life once more. 

Touch chooses interesting periods to set this romance that elevate its main thesis of humanity’s inkling for connection, one being the pandemic when touch was the last thing people were doing and the 1960s and more socially conservative times. Making its title not only a reflection of the changing times of touch within society but also the desire for one to feel that sense of intimacy. The timeline follows the warmer-lit memories of Kristofer’s past cutting with the icy coldness of a virus-stricken present. He embarks on his scavenger hunt through visuals of barren streets and masked-up counterparts adding to the idea of a world he once knew slowly melting away. 

In its soul, Touch is an elegant compassionate portrait of the human need for curiosity and reflection as time passes on. 

Grade: A

Oscars Prospects:
Likely: None
Should be Considered: None

Release Date: July 12, 2024
Where to Watch: In Select Theaters