Film Review: Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko

By J.D. Kelly

Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko is the newest film from director Ayumu Watanabe who also directed 2019’s Children of the Sea. Based on the novel Gyoko no Nikuko-chan by Kanako Nishi, the film tells the story of the relationship of a young girl named Kikuko and her mother, also named Kikuko (written with different kanji) that everyone calls Nikuko for her love of meat. For those that don’t know, "niku" is the Japanese word for "meat".  

Nikuko has had a habit of falling for deadbeat men (Sadly, I don’t mean the fans of Ms. Calliope Mori) and moving to a new town when the relationship ends. Because of that habit, she and Kikuko have ended up in a small harbor town where every day seems boring and ordinary to Kikuko but that’s just what Nikuko loves best. As much as it is about the relationship between the two, it is also the coming-of-age tale of the young Kikuko. Over the course of the movie, she learns to see the beauty in the everyday life of this small town and those around her.  

This is helped by the gorgeous art and animation. It has the charm of a Studio Ghibli film no doubt in part of having Kenichi Konishi, who worked on Ghibli’s The Tale of Princess Kaguya, as character designer and supervising animation director.  Environments and backgrounds are filled with life and detail. Characters especially Nikuko have a nice sense of energy and motion as they move.  There are so many scenes of food being eaten or prepared in this movie and so much love and detail is put into it. If you watch this movie, do not do it on an empty stomach. The art style shifts for certain scenes but never loses any of that magic.

I especially liked the use of faces to show how Kikuko comes to see more of someone. Some characters have very cartoonish faces compared to Kikuko’s that looks like it came straight out of Kiki’s Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro but as she gets closer and starts to see more of who they really are, their faces begin to take on more of the Ghibli-esque qualities that she has. Kikuko’s relationship with her mother seems like a standard embarrassing parent situation.  Where Kikuko is small, quiet and indecisive, Nikuko is large, energetic and willing to do anything for her daughter. She’s even compared to Totoro in a few scenes.

Shinobu Otake, whom you might have heard before if you watched the closing ceremonies 2020 Tokyo Olympics, really nails the role Nikuko, giving her all the love and energy that reminded me of my own mother. I think it might remind others of their mothers as well. Cocomi does an equally excellent job as Kikuko conveying all the confusion and emotion of a young girl trying to figure out the world around her.

Overall, this is a great movie that I could easily recommend to just about anyone. Maybe not the hungry but most anyone else. Please take the time to catch this one if you can as it will be opening in various markets starting on June 3.

Overall Rating: A

​For Tickets & Other Release Details Click The Link Below!
https://www.nikukomovie.com/