Revisting "The Magic Hour"

 I initially downloaded the Japan movie “The Magic Hour” back in 2009 when I was high on love for Haruka Ayase and was desperately grabbing everything I could find of hers. including Oppai Volleyball, Happy Flight, Amemasu no Kawa and the excellent Cyborg SHE, enjoying them all!

When it came to Magic Hour, however, I was to find that the subtitles that came with it were either corrupted or incompatible with my files, and though I tried gamely to watch the show without subtitles for about 30 minutes, in the end I had to give up!

I DID notice , however, that Ayase Haruka’s role was only a very small part, perhaps due to her being still new to the scene, and thus I didn’t place a really high priority on seeking out subtitles that would work, and instead just put it on a backburner. It wasn’t until recently when I was going through and re-watching some of my old Ayase Haruka movies for a Drama Otaku ranking list I was making,  that I realized I STILL had not yet fully watched the Magic Hour and still needed to find subtitles for them!

Luckily we live in the wonder age of technology not only was I able to find the Magic Hour subbed, but these were terrific DVD rips, just fantastic HQ files compared to the old avi files I had tried to watch before! I was now set! Well I just finished watching it in its entirety, and as the saying goes, “It’s better late than never” because my GOSH was this movie GOOD! Oh, so much FUN with winsome humor and slapstick shticks, I haven’t  laughed so hard in such a long time!

The MAGIC HOUR telss the tale of a Bingo (Satoshi Tsumabuki) who gets caught with Mari (Eri Fukatsu), the mistress of the town’s underworld boss Tessio (Toshiyuki Nishida), and is all set to sleep with the fishes until he promises that he can hook the gang up with DELLA TOGASHI, a legendary hit-man that Boss Tessio has been dying to meet!

Only problem is, Bingo actually has no IDEA how to contact this assassin and was only lying to get his feet out the door. He tries in vain to find the man, but with time running out, it seems like he's out of luck!  But when he happens to spy a film crew shooting down the street, he has a revelation: NO ONE knows what this guy Della Togashi dude looks like, and figures he can just HIRE someone to PRETEND to be the man! 

They set their sights on a down-and-out stand-in actor named Murata Taiki  (Koichi Sato) to play the role of the assassin Della Togashi. Naturally an actor wouldn’t accept such a dangerous role, and the only way Bingo can get him to cooperate is to trick him into thinking he’s working on an ACTUAL movie! 

By pretending to be a hotshot director, Bingo convinces him that the fantastic new movie will be him playing a hitman for Don Tessio, with no script and completely on the fly ad-libbing! At first Murata balks at such a plan, but eventually comes around as it's the only gig he's got!

Seems sure to fail, and everyone is skeptical that they can pull this off, especially Mari, who is incensed to have to play along with this farce! But so passionate is Murata with his ‘role” that he convinces the Don, the Gang, and even those around him, that he might actually be the real deal!

Even as things are running smoothly things are SURE to come crashing down sooner or later, and when it does, it will take all their talents, savvy, and movie-making skills to get themselves out of it! 

A fun, entertaining show set in that magical wonderland of movie-making, and as they run around movie sets and filming, we see nice little homages to Hollywood featuring fun cameos from such stars as Nakai Kiichi, Amami Yuki, Suzuki Kyoka, Tanihara Shosuke and even Karasawa Toshiaki!

And BTW, I downloaded this movie primarily for my love of Ayase Haruka, but what I wasn't prepared for was how doggone ADORABLE Eri Fukatsu was as the sassy and selfish Mari, my GOSH, she stole very scene she was in!! SUCH a CUTIE!!!

What a wonderful movie to watch over the weekend! So glad that I was finally able to give this fine film the proper attention it deserves!!!!

BT,  looking at the imdb page for The Magic Hour, the poster reminded me so much of the cover art for the fantastic Keigo Higashino story "Miracles of the Namiya General Store"(which I wrote about here), and it occurred to me how smilar in "feel" these two books had. Sweet, Winsome, and full of heart, these both were stories that made you feel good and feel like a kid again!

Come to think of it, Toshiyuki Nishida was in the movie version of Namiya General Store, too!

Catching Up On MORE Dramas!

With so many of you pointing out older dramas that I have either forgotten about or haven’t finished watching, I thought it was HIGH time for another huge cram session month to try and complete some titles!

Deka Wanko

 After such glowing comments on this drama, I thought I’d better dig this one up and finish it up!  Deka Wanko- The story of an eccentric woman police detective with an unusual gift to help in her sleuthing- a dog-like sense of smell!

 A very bizarre Mikako here, the director probably told her "act like a spazzy puppy" and MY does she indeed! In her Goth-Lolita outfits she looks JUST like a Pampered pup, and with her haircut in bangs and pigtails, her antics reminded me not just a little of Icelandic Singer Bjork! LOLOL

 Strangely found myself thoroughly entertained throughout the show, lots of fun!

Mikako Tabe is going to have the most eclectic drama catalog, LOL!

Taiho Shichauzo

 As a fan of both Misaki ito and Sachie Hara you would have thought I would have watched this ages ago, but somehow never got around to it!

 The show was based on the animated sries of the same name, and true to its' source, watching the show was like seeing a manga come to life! Wacky hijinks, slapstick comedy and goofy villains, this was pure entertainment! 

 You know what this show reminded me of, the Tamao Sato drama “Hashire Komuin” a Policewoman drama I really loved!

BTW, Seems like whenever the show features zany cops, Shiro Ito is ALWAYS called in to play the chief of Police, appearing as the chief in not only this but Deka Wanko as well!!!

PS As some may recall, I was a huge fan of the animated series, not the show itself, but the theme song from one of their seasons, a catchy little tune called “Hare Nochi Parade” by “Tokyo Policewoman Duo”!

Attention, Please!

 Then we have Attention Please, the very succesful drama about a delinquent rocker chick who decides on a whim to become a Cabin Attendant, thinking she can ace through it and win the affection of the guy she likes!

 Of course, things are harder than they appear to be, and she will soon find that the department has little patience for her antics and attitude!

 Of course, once she decides to get serious, they find out taht she just might have that something special to get her to the top of her class!

Ah Aya Ueto! After  watching the excellent Nagareboshi the other month, I made plans to watch all the backlog of Aya Dramas I had, and this is the first of many!!

Change

 Takuya Kimura stars as an introverted Teacher named Keita Asakura who wants to be kept out of his Politic-driven family. But when his Father passes away just before a huge election, his party needs someone to take his place, and they decide that, come hell or high water, that it's GOT to be him!!!

 Tasked with turning this stuttering bumpkin of a guy into a suave candidate that people will vote for falls into the hands of aide Rika Mayama (Eri Fukatsu) and election-manipulator Katsutoshi Nirasawa (Hiroshi Abe). The team certainly has their work cut out for them, but where honesty and integrity makes up for office inexperience,  their candidate might just make it!

 Ah, so far been a great drama, after seeing Fukatsu and Abe as the troublemaking co-workers in Tsuyoshi Kusanag’s “Narita Rikon” , they are back to do their meddling magic with yet another SMAP member!

 Also a pretty cute appearance by Rosa Kato as a young aide with eyes of puppy love for the humble Asakura! 

 So cute, strangely enough, back in the day, I thought Rosa was kind of weird-looking, funny that now she looks perfectly adorable to me! Ah, just another reason to watch this show!

SP

 Speaking of Kimura Takuya, this drama starring Shinichi Tsutsumi and Junichi Okada seems so much like Kimutaku’s BG series, complete with the double Initial title, Kimura’s stood for Body Guard, and Okada’s stands for “Security Police”…
In many ways it’s exactly the same story, team of guards watching over the Japan Elites, but in this one they give agent Inoue (Okada) an almost supernatural ability to “read’ the room and pinpoint any discrepancies such as nervous tics, secretive behavior, etc, which leads to some great takedowns!

Also, BIG plus for Yoko Maki as one of Okada's kakkoi partners! We don't get to see enough of her!!

Voice

 Medical drama involving 5 students entering Forensics, starring Eita, Ikuta Toma and Satomi Ishihara. After seeing Satomi in not only Unnatural and her current Unsung Cinderella but also Indirectly in Bull Doctor, it is becoming pretty unexciting to see her in yet another Forensics show, though it seems like Eita is the star of this drama, with him being to one with the drive to investigate cases and the one who solves them as well. the others are pretty much just there for support. 

Yawn, A fairly generic show with extremely excessive melodrama. Plus, some of them act so INCOMPETENT during the series that I just CAN'T sympathize.

Subete ga F Ni Naru

  You’d have thought that after Emi Takei went on hiatus and there were no new dramas of hers to see, that i would have watched this one right away! But at the time, it looked like a generic romance flick which I didn’t feel like watching, and so put it away for later. In time, I promptly forgot all about it!

But as part of  my purging of unwatched dramas, I came across it while looking thru my old hard drive and FINALLY decided to check it out! 

 Well, I don't know WHAT kind of romance drama I was expecting (it looked so much like Emi’s earlier romance drama "Seisei Suru Hodo, Aishiteiru" that I just assumed it was a romance drama?), but turns out this is yet another of those “Locked Room” Murder Mysteries, where student Moe Nishinosono (Emi) and her sensei Sohei Saikawa (Go Ayano) use their skills to crack cases where murders take place behind locked doors which no one can have gotten in nor out of.

 You see, that already work and i'm interested...I don't know WHY they try so hard to push a romance between Moe and Saikawa, it doesn’t work at ALL, and in fact, clutters the storyline. I see that this is based on a succesful book, maybe it was a heated romance there, but it fails here.

Not really a fan of these locked room mysteries pre se because the solutions are always so preposterous. I remember REALLY rolling my eyes with some of the solutions for both Satoshi Ohno’s "Kagi no Kakkata Heya" and even some episodes of the Keiko Kitagawa/Sho Sakurai drama Nazotoki Dinner no Ate De…
But If Emi's in it, then of course I'll watch it....

OKAY, back to those dramas!!!!! Still got a LOT on my plate and will be posting updates soon!