Naoko Ogigami/ Japan 2006/ 102 min/ 15/ Japanese and Finnish with English subtitles

First released in 2006, director Naoko Ogigami’s adaptation of popular novelist Yoko Mure’s celebration of women’s individuality is a subtle but tender musing on the nature of life’s basic building blocks; work, food, friendship, and finding yourself.

38 year-old Sachie (Satomi Kobayashi) has left her home in Japan and opened up a café in Helsinski, where the sparse locals seem uninterested in trying her traditional Japanese “soul-food” onigiri (rice balls). Soon she meets loner Midori (Hairi Katagiri), visiting Finland on a whim. As Midori begins to help in the café and Sachie discovers the secret for making good coffee, the locals take note, and the women might just be vindicated in their risky enterprise.

Despite dealing with a story so slight it barely exists, Ogigami manages to pull you in with a warm atmosphere and curious characters. What charms is the Golden Girls-style camaraderie, each of the central women a well drawn individual. If there’s less depth in it than the lingering pace (you’ll need the temperament to watch coffee being made in real time) and languid photography warrant, its endearing enough that you won’t really care.

Showing @Filmhouse March 12th at 17:45 as part of Girls On Film festival,