The film's plot is presented with past flashbacks interspersing the present time in a nonlinear narrative. The following is a linear summary of the plot.
In the late 1960s, Kristófer is a young Icelander man studying at London School of Economics, but his left-wing beliefs put him at odds with the school administration. After being mocked by his college friends for saying he would drop out, Kristófer impulsively applies to be a dishwasher at Nippon, a Japanese restaurant owned by chef Takahashi, where he meets and falls in love with Miko, Takahashi's daughter.
Kristófer learns Japanese and works hard at Nippon, earning the trust of Takahashi and Miko. he witnesses Takahashi forcibly break up a relationship between Miko and her boyfriend. Takahashi trains Kristófer as a chef and lets him come in early to practice. As Miko visits Kristófer to taste his cooking, they grow closer and start a relationship, unbeknownst to Takahashi. Miko confides in Kristófer that her family was originally from Hiroshima, and her mother was pregnant with her at the time of the bombing. Facing discrimination back home as 'Hibakusha', they moved to England.
Upon coming back from a holiday, Kristófer is shocked to see that the restaurant has been closed, and the Takahashis have moved away without saying a word, except for one final paycheck addressed to him.
Fifty years later, Kristófer is now a widower living alone in Iceland. His memory is failing, and his doctor suggests that he should resolve any unfinished business while he still has time and capacity. Kristófer closes his restaurant and sets out to find Miko just when the world is in the grip of Covid-19 pandemic. Arriving in London in the midst of pandemic restrictions, Kristófer finds Takahashi's restaurant is now a tattoo parlour. He manages to locate Hitomi, a former employee at Nippon, who tells him that Takahashi and Miko moved back to Japan 50 years ago, and Takahashi has since passed away. She gives Kristófer Miko's last known address.
Kristófer visits Miko's apartment in Japan. After a moment of hesitation, the two embrace, not having seen each other for over half a century. Miko reveals the reason for her sudden departure: her father always feared that her children would have birth defects from radiation exposure, so he forbade her from having relationships altogether. When he discovered Miko was pregnant with Kristófer's child, he moved her back to Japan, and later forced her to give the child up for adoption. Miko has remained unmarried since, with no other children.
Miko then tells Kristófer that their son, Akira, was born a healthy child and happily adopted, and is now a chef with his own restaurant and family. She takes him to Akira's restaurant, where she is a regular customer. Kristófer is overcome with emotion upon seeing his son for the first time, though Akira remains unaware of his biological parents.
The film ends with Kristófer and Miko walking down the street hand in hand. As the screen fades to black, he softly sings to her the Icelandic song he sang years ago in a party at Nippon.
Touch was released in Iceland on 29 May 2024. The film had a limited theatrical release in the United States and Canada on 12 July 2024.[1]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 63 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Tracing through the passage of time with a light touch, director Baltasar Kormákur's moving drama is a wistful reverie on life itself."[12]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[13]
^Icelandic names do not have family names, and so the final element of the name of Baltasar Kormákur Baltasarsson is a patronymic, not a surname, while the first two elements are his given names. Some English language articles refer to the director as "Kormákur".
^This person has no surname, and should be referred to by his given name, Ólafur.
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