Hello everyone,
I come to you all asking for your recommandations regarding a specific genre of media I adore and do not get enough of, especially nowadays.
I talking about gentle stories, which is a term I stole from : [this movie list](Gentle Cinema, a list of films by Doug Dillaman • Letterboxd . )
It defines a gentle movie as :
Pleasant people doing pleasant things and there’s not much drama and you just kind of feel lovely about the world.
I really, trulu loves those kind of experience. I find that I acutally have very little tolerance nowadays for stories with “evil” people in it, like Games of Thrones, even though I loved it, I don’t think I would still enjoy it nowadays. I find that slower, tender stories are the one I really enjoy and that sticks with me longer .
So ! Do you know any movie, shows, video games, boardgames, role-playing games, that fills this criteria ?
My own recommendations :
.
I just finished playing the video game Wide Ocean, Big Jacket; and that motivated me to do this thread. A very lovely game about two adults and two newly teenagers going camping .
We watched last night Patterson, or the first half of it, and it was very sweet (hopefully, nothing goes horribly wrong in the second half. A movie about a couple, one artist and one bus driver writing poems.
Studio Ghibli is probably what got me into this kind of movie, and I won’t quote them all, but I still have to mention My neighbour Totoro and Kiki’s delivery service; my two favorite.
Jane the virgin was really good soap opera, and a love stories to telenovella. I’m absolutly not familiar with those kind of tv shows, but it still made me feel like it was aimed at me in some weird way. It is the ridiculous story of a girl who want to stay a virgin until her wedding but gets artificially inseminated but her boss’ sister. Very funny, sweet and lovely.
Makes England look beautiful. It’s heart warming, funny and has a great theme song.
From a boardgame perspective…
I think Feast for Odin fits. It may just be that I’m terrible at it, but the open nature of the worker placement means there is always something to do.
Carcassonne as well (unless you want to be an aggressive group). I see it more as an activity to chat over than a competitive experience.
Good Place is extraordinary, the other two are guaranteed “Good will triumph and everything is nice by the end of the episode”.
Books: Please send me a list of gentle books! Even my book club couldn’t think of any.
Closest thing I found in the last few years is “The Girls At The Kingfisher Club”.
Games: Kanagawa, Parks, Canvas.
There’s arguably tension in there because you’re playing against other people to be the FIRST to complete a gentle stroll in a park and collect lovely photos / paint the best painting etc, but there’s nothing nasty in the story or ideas.
Stardew Valley is a pleasant, gentle and low stress farming/ exploration game, and Astroneer is a fairly gentle space crafting game (although I haven’t played so much of this).
Second vote for Detectorists, which is simply wonderful and a happy place for my mind to go to, especially in this last year.
I’m not sure it’s quite the vibe you’re looking for, but Assassin’s Creed: Oranges has a historian mode where you can walk around unmolested, and that game really does a wonderful job of recreating Ptolemaic Egypt (although I musT admit that the working conditions at Ubisoft sound like they are anything -but- gentle, which may be a consideration for you).
Oh oh I forgot A short hike which sounds like exactly the sort of computer game you’re after. I haven’t played it myself but been strongly recommended it by people describing a similar experience to Jacket
perhaps marginal, but Leaving Earth in coop mode (there’s still a win/loss and missions may fail and astronauts die, but there’s also a lot of puzzle about it).
Mental Blocks (again in non-traitor mode) where you’re just passing bits around and trying to make a shape that everyone agrees on. Probably lengthen or remove the timer element.
NMBR 9 maybe - I may be misunderstanding what’s wanted, but it’s basically a giant competitive puzzle rather than having any interaction.
Hallertau is another lovely pastoral experience by Rosenberg. I would also recommend a look at Obsession. edit: Flourish… card drafting a garden and it has coop mode which we tried and enjoyed.
In books, I go for (supernatural) romance when I want to have less drama. There is always some conflict obviously but nothing like GoT. If you want to try epic fantasy again maybe have a look at Brandon Sanderson, he tends to be nicer to his characters. maybe check out Elantris. There is some unpleasantness there but definitely nothing at all like GoT. I enjoyed the GoT books myself and half the TV show (still waiting for next book) but this is the one that turned me off too much drama.
The Good Place is wonderful. I’ll happily second that.
If you don’t mind subtitled movies, there is also Mediterraneo, an Italian movie that I believe got the oscar in the 90s, or at least got nominated. Even though it is based in WW2, it is great, follows a squad of Italian soldiers in a Greek island. No violence at all, despite the setting