Perhaps a “chilm,” or a cool film, is in order. It isn’t too loud, crowded with melodrama or filled with anxiety that makes you bite your nails. Nor does it turn into laughter until your face and stomach ache but rather evokes a peaceful smile. Those are low stakes titles, nice people, beautiful pictures and overall soothing movies. However, they don’t automatically fall under the category of “feel-good” films.
Think about Local Hero, Being There, Broken Flowers, Old Joy or Eric Rohmer-directed films for instance. They are lovely little movies that sometimes make us laugh and cry as well while also being peculiar but certainly happy movies without overloading on suspense or drowning the viewers in emotions. The new telecast “Chilm” has a number of these amazing works like Joe Pera Talks with You, How to with John Wilson and Painting with John.
Into this hushed line of brilliant joyous shows comes Drops of God—a new miniseries on Apple TV+ —which is perfect for weekends. It is superb to let eight episodes (three are now available) just flow through you; they capture the curiosity and comfort one finds in family culture and wine.
Drops of God follows what happens when Alexandre Léger–a legendary wine maker passes on leaving behind his property as well as inheritance for whoever wins his sensory competition. Camille Léger (Fleur Geffrier) is her father’s daughter who left home many years ago but still she decides to come back when she gets news that he has died in Tokyo where he resided before passing on; she was en route there at the time of his death. She is taken aback when she visits her father’s attorney after dying only to find another person in the meeting – Issei Tomine (Tomohisa Yamashita), who had been raised up as Alexander’s surrogate son because Camille was not there.
Issei is a brilliant young man but deeply troubled, caught between his wealthy, judgmental family who wants him to join their diamond industry and his own passion for oenology. His senses are second to none, although this can be hard to tell from the look on his face which never changes. Camille has a poetic nature that has steered her away from wine making and her father’s influence such that she bleeds profusely every time she tastes any form of alcohol. The psychosomatic surge of blood indicates that she has suppressed much of the trauma and resentment she harbors for her late dad. In a way, Issei loves the dead man more than the winemaker’s own daughter.
The Frenchwoman and Japanese man are thus engaged in what amounts to an extended duel, complete with various examinations over multiple months featuring blind tastings of wines during which they might try to guess vintages or vineyards amongst other things. Drops of God revolves around Issei and Camille as they prepare for each test while dealing with their respective filial issues. They are not foes; actually, they do not even know each other. Nevertheless, by the end of season one they would do.
Eight hour-long episodes make up Drops of God; however, considering this kind of easygoing series with sincerely nice people in it partaking in it is not bad at all. This story therefore softly happens before you see it coming till finally you may as well relaxingly watch it play out itself. Yes these characters have some dramatic problems or conflicts but they are just human beings rather than exaggerated ideas and so these problems tend happen very lightly too. But something beautiful happens at the close of this show that was both unexpected and heartwarming without being sentimental at all.
The characters and the visually delightful settings of each episode (green vineyards, modernistic Japanese structures, old homes) are the things that make this six-episode miniseries so special. It is almost impossible to find anything or anyone in this show that might be considered as hateable. Some “villains” (Issei’s mother and grandfather) do exist all the same but even they are treated with empathy within specific cultural contexts.
Thus, it was interesting to watch different cultures’ reactions to the contest itself and how these core emotions were interpreted through their respective prisms of culture. There is a French perspective and a Japanese one, at times connected by English; besides, there are different nationalities among the actors who starred in it while for international production it had Thai crew.
One more theme within Drops of God is family – what family means, how constraining it can become or freeing too, and ultimately what worth does it have? In case of any main character such as Camille or Issei his relationship with his/her father reflects on the idea of family as a whole. Furthermore, despite being troublingly strange terms like „illegitimate”, which Drops of God has sought to demystify.
This happens through a transition from filial themes into series’ interest in nature. From start to finish “drops of god” simply mean something natural in essence whereas wine itself serves as an excellent metaphor concerning nature like families’ similarity.
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