Flavors of Youth (2018)

Directors: Haoling Li, Yoshitaka Takeuch, Xiaoxing Yi
Stars: Taito Ban, Dorothy Fahn, Matt Fowler
Runtime: 74 minutes

Synopsis: Three short stories with similar themes are told, all set in China.

Animation: 7/10

Performances: N.A. (I don't speak Mandarin)
Screenplay: 6/10
Special Effects: N.A.
Editing: 5/10
Cinematography: 7/10
Score/Soundtrack: 8/10

Verdict: This is not an easy movie to judge. Mostly because I'm not sure if it counts as one. The film is divided into 3 segments each telling its own story and each directed by a different person. And while they have similar themes and similar animation style, they are not connected in any shape or form. What drove me to watch this movie was the phrase "From the creator of Your Name" on its poster. If you don't know what "Your Name" is, I suggest you leave everything right away and go check it out. It's one of my favorite animes to come out in the past few years. Hell, it's one of my favorite animated movies to come out in the past few years. And "Flavors of Youth", unfortunately, is far from the quality of its big sister. Watching the first two stories was a painful experience, to say the least. I felt like I was listening to a 45-minute boring audiobook that was going nowhere. The stories were full of narration that lessened the quality of the narrative, and cruelly lacked the emotional drive they needed to work. The third story, however, left me speechless. It's a beautiful romance between two characters I immediately related to that worked on almost every level. My only issue with it, ironically, is the fact that everything happened so quickly. I wished they made the whole film about it, instead of wasting almost an hour of it on two other forgettable stories. If I had to grade every segment separately, I'd give the first one a 4, the second a 3, and the last an 8. So yeah, if you ever plan on checking "Flavors of Youth", I'd suggest skipping immediately to its third segment. It's the only part worth watching.
   

Final Grade: 6/10