| "Train Man" is a Web 2.0 love story. This sensitively done romantic comedy is unique in that computer mediated communication (instant messaging, chat sessions, cell phone texting) drives the plot. The hero, a young computer geek named Train Man, is almost never offline during the film, even DURING his dates with the ethereally exquisite heroine "Hermes". Whether through online chats and instant messaging sessions or through fevered cell phone texting, Train Man receives dating advice and encouragement from a diverse chorus of online friends whom he has never met. There is irony in the fact that the very technologies that appear to separate us in the modern digital age are employed to bring together two real people in real places.
I would have given the film 5 stars were it not for the fact that, like many Japanese romantic comedies, the film is sentimental and 15 minutes too long. This film is a great film to own and appropriate for children. In fact non-techies may need children to help translate the online activities happening on the screen. In "Train Man", the internet saves the day in a cold world of city bustle and isolation. |
