''Calmi Cuori Appassionati'' ( aka ''Reisei to Jōnetsu no Aida''; lit. "Between Calmness and Passion") is a 2001 Japanese movie directed by Isamu Nakae, starring

Yutaka Takenouchi is a Japanese actor. His on-screen acting debut was in the drama 「ボクの就職」 (Boku no Syūshoku) in 1994, after winning a modeling contest. He regularly appears in commercials. Filmography TV series * ''Boku no Shūshoku/My First Job' ...

and

Kelly Chen Kelly Chen Wai-lam (born Vivian Chen Wai-man on 13 September 1972) is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer and actress. She has been referred to as a " Diva of Asia" (). Chen has great success in the East Asian entertainment industry with nearly 20 m ...

. It is a love story about two students who met at an art college in Japan. The film is based on a 1999 novel which was a best seller in Japan. ''Calmi Cuori Appassionati'' was a hit, becoming the 8th highest-grossing film in Japan of 2001. The title tune is " Wild Child" from the album ''

A Day Without Rain ''A Day Without Rain'' is the fifth studio album by the Irish singer, songwriter and musician Enya, released on 20 November 2000 by WEA. Following a promotional tour in support of her compilation album ''Paint the Sky with Stars'' (1997), Enya ...

'' by

Enya Enya Patricia Brennan (; ga, Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin; born 17 May 1961), known professionally by the mononym Enya, is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician known for modern Celtic music. She is the best-selling Irish solo arti ...

. An album of Enya's songs used in the film was released in 2001 as '' Themes from Calmi Cuori Appassionati''.

Plot

Living in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

,in 1997, Junsei Agata is studying to be a restoration expert who specializes in

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

studying under his italian teacher Giovanna.Despite him dating Memi, a language school student in Italy, He feels life is empty. This is because he clings to the memory of Aoi, a girl from school he meets in 1990 in a record shop and dated. One day, he learns Aoi is in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and finds she lives with a wealthy American businessman Marvin Lai, who met her while talking about the painting of Junsei's grandfather. He finds she lives in a different world now from where he left and moved on, and returns to his restoration workshop, only to find out he is falsely charged with the vandalism of a

Cigoli Lodovico Cardi (21 September 1559 – 8 June 1613), also known as Cigoli, was an Italian painter and architect of the late Mannerist and early Baroque period, trained and active in his early career in Florence, and spending the last nine years ...

painting he was restoring. An exhausted Junsei returns home. The next day he confronts Takanashi for falsely framing him of vandalism, but turns out no one can catch the culprit.His italian teacher Giovanna comforts Junsei saying unlike her home italy who is stuck in the past and tries so hard to restore the past, He has a future. However, A traumatized Junsei, unwilling to get another restoration job, runs back to Japan. In 1998, Junsei still is revealed to be missing Aoi, as Memi finds drawings of Aoi by Junsei in his house.Despite living together, Marvin and Aoi still is not married, unlike her friend Daniella who is marrying Lucas.Aoi receives a letter from Junsei, hiding it in a box. Meanwhile, Junsei's grandfather Agata Seiji falls ill. Relationship with Memi is at an all time crisis, after she learns from Junsei's friend Takashi that Junsei once had a baby with Aoi but moved on.To talk these matters, Junsei talks with Takashi, and he replies love with true loves don't end up well. Movie flashbacks to the point Junsei and Aoi break up because Aoi lost her baby without telling Junsei for her own reasons, which Junsei requests Aoi to break up. As Seiji nears his death, family conflict regarding inheritance ensues, and one of the family members insults Aoi of having a baby with Junsei for money. Angry Junsei,fights that family member requesting him to apologize. In 1999,Aoi replaces the painting of Junsei's grandfather with a new painting to move on from memories of Junsei. However, Marvin finds the letter from Junsei in her box and confronts her, doubting her motivations in the relationship with himself, saying her heart is not with him.Aoi decides to read the letter. As she reads the letter,film flashes back to 1990, which reveals Junsei and Aoi's first encounter and how their dating went, as well as the fact that Aoi was always lonely girl who was struggling from her new married parents,and a girl who decided to study in Japan to reconnect with the heritage of his father despite her originally from overseas,and a girl who is trying to find her place in life.After reading Junsei's letter and realizing how Junsei truly understood and loved her, she finally calls Junsei but she hangs up without saying anything and cries afterwards. One day, Angello calls Junsei to tell Giovanna committed suicide without an unknown cause(though it is implied to be because Giovanna did not move on from her love to Junsei, who she had special attention to and treat him as her muse),and Junsei, as the marriage of Luca and Daniella is happening on the other side, reunites with Angello and Takahashi in a workshop.Takahashi finally reveals it was Giovanna that vandalised the painting, and the students framed him to protect their workshop from being closed,and admits Takahashi and Giovanna was jealous of Junsei's talents and his constant nature too much that they did not tell the authorities the truth.Takahashi also tells Junsei, Giovanna's love for Junsei and the workshop planning to be reopened. In the year 2000, Junsei suddenly moves on from his life with Memi in Japan and decides to return to italy as a restoration worker,and disappointed Memi breaks up with Junsei after knowing his heart is still with Aoi. Meanwhile, Aoi rides the plane to LA with his partner Marvin Lai. In 2001, as Junsei restores the picture of Cigoli, he rejuvenates from his trauma from the vandalism incident and Junsei reminice a 10-year promise with Aoi. When he was a college student in Japan, he made a promise with Aoi to meet on the top of the

Duomo ''Duomo'' (, ) is an Italian term for a church with the features of, or having been built to serve as, a cathedral, whether or not it currently plays this role. Monza Cathedral, for example, has never been a diocesan seat and is by definition n ...

in Florence on her 30th birthday. He hangs on to one slight hope that Aoi must have remembered the promise. He decides to return to Florence to prove the love between him and Aoi is true at the top of the Duomo.Aoi takes Junsei to a string quartet concert, which plays the same song when they first kissed, and kisses, and make love. Aoi after realizing that her true love was Junsei all along, she refuses to return with Marvin to LA.However Junsei decides to live the "present", as he cannot fill his heart from her calm rejection of rekindling relationship (continuing til present and possibly future) with passion of a bygone past and nostalgia.(thus the title, betwixt calm and passion, calmness more appropriately translated as cold) Film ends with the two looking at each other from afar in the crowd.

Cast

as Agata Junsei *

as Aoi * Roberto Brunetti as Luca *

Valeria Cavalli Valeria Cavalli (born 1 November 1959) is an Italian actress and model. Selected filmography External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cavalli, Valeria Living people Italian female models 1959 births Italian film actresses Italian televi ...

as Giovanna *

Luciano Federico Luciano Federico (born 28 August 1968, in Sanremo) is an Italian actor. He starred in the 1998 film, '' Radiofreccia''. Selected filmography *'' Una piccola storia'', directed by Stefano Chiantini (2007) *'' L'Ex-femme de ma vie'', directed by ...

as Angelo *

Silvia Ferreri Silvia () is a female given name of Latin origin, with a male equivalent Silvio and English-language cognate Sylvia. The name originates from the Latin word for forest, ''Silva'', and its meaning is "spirit of the wood"; the mythological god of ...

as Daniela *

Arnoldo Foà Arnoldo Foà (24 January 1916 – 11 January 2014) was an Italian actor, voice actor, theatre director, singer and writer. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1938 and 2014. Biography Foà was born in Ferrara, Italy, to a Jewish fam ...

as The Restorer *

Reona Hirota is a Japanese actress. She won the Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 13th Yokohama Film Festival for '' Ōte'' and ''Yumeji''. In 1994, she married the actor Mitsuru Fukikoshi. They divorced in 2005 after having one child. Filmography ...

as Asami *

Nana Katase Nana, Nanna, Na Na or NANA may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname * Nana ( ...

Hisanori Koshimizu Hisanori (written: 尚成, 尚徳, 永徳, 寿典 or 久則) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: * (1880–1970), Imperial Japanese Navy admiral * (born 1978), Japanese actor * (born 1964), Japanese footballer ...

* Tatsuo Matsumura as Seiji Agata,grandfather of Agata Junsei * Ryôta Matsushima * Marisa Merlini as Gina *

Shinya Owada is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator. He is represented with Horipro Booking Agency. He rusticated from Waseda University First Literature Department. Biography Owada is the youngest son of three children. (he has an older brother an ...

as Kiyomasa Agata * Kenichi Sano *

Yūsuke Santamaria , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese actor and singer. Biography Santamaria appeared in Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film critic and a professor at Tokyo University of the Arts. Although he has work ...

as Takashi *

Kippei Shiina is a Japanese actor. Career Shiina portrayed John Rain and co-starred in Max Mannix's '' Rain Fall'' (2009) with Gary Oldman. He starred in Takeshi Kitano's '' Outrage'' (2010). Filmography Film *''Wangan Bad Boy Blue'' (1992) *''A Night in Nu ...

as Takanashi *

Ryoko Shinohara Ryōko or Ryouko is a Japanese female given name. The meanings of Ryoko vary depending on which Kanji is used to write the name. Possible writings * 涼子 – "refreshing, child" * 亮子 – "helpful, child" * 良子 – "good, child" * 諒子 ...

as Memi *

Sansei Shiomi is a Japanese actor. Career Born in Kyoto Prefecture, Shiomi went to Doshisha University. He joined the theater troupe En in 1978 and soon also began appearing in film and television, mostly as a character actor. He won a Japan Movie Critics Aw ...

as The Lawyer * Michael Wong as Marvin Lai

Reception

The film opened at number one at the Japanese box office with an opening weekend gross of 279 million Yen ($2.3 million). It remained number one for a second week.

Award Nominations

2002

Awards of the Japanese Academy The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...

* Nomination - Best Actor -

* Nomination - Best Cinematography - Toyoshi Tsuda * Nomination - Best Lighting - Minoru Kawai

Notes

External links

Official site
(Japanese)
IMDb entry
2001 films 2000s Japanese-language films Films set in Florence Films set in Milan 2000s Japanese films Films produced by Kazutoshi Wadakura {{2000s-Japan-film-stub