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!

A Mayu Matsuoka Crash Course

After falling in love with the spritely Mayu Matsuoka in the short but sweet drama “Okane no Kireme ga Koi no Hajimari” I realized I hadn’t seen her in a lot of stuff, including her classic “Manbiki Kazoku” and so with that and the recommendation of her drama "Genkai Shuraku Kabushiki Kaisha”, I decided to make a weekend of diving into Mayu’s works!

At an easy 5 episodes long, I decided to tackle her drama first. Genkai Shuraku Kabushiki Kaisha told the tale of a dying village out in the sticks who cautiously team up with a man who promises he can bring prosperity to their ailing farming town.

As a young woman unable to get work in Tokyo who returns to her hometown to take over her absent father’s organic cabbage field, I was shocked how big a role Mayu had in this one! I really thought she was gonna be just one of the villagers but she was practically the main character!

A great, heartwarming little drama! 

After the fine feel-good vibes, it was time to take on Shoplifters (Manbiki Kazoku), and as a huge fan of director Hirokazu Koreeda’s other films like Air Doll, Nobody Knows, and Still Walking, I knew this was going to be a moody, slowly paced and heartfelt affair!

Welp, sure enough , it hooked me right from the start with the tale of a sort of Father (Lily Frankly) and Mother Sakura Ando) pair taking in an array of lost or suffering kids (Matsuoka, Jyo Kairi and Miyu Sasaki) and one feisty old grandma (the always outstanding Kiki Kirin in her last role).

As usual with Koreeda's films, a lot of time is spent without anything being said and the viewer is left to soak up the atmosphere and rely on facial nuances between the characters more than actual dialog.

Mayu was great as the one child who is making her own income at a local peep show revue. I was at first surprised to see her in such racy role (all the ones I’ve seen before have been so squeaky clean and wholesome!) but if that wasn’t all, I discovered for the first time how AMPLY ENDOWED Mayu was! WHAAA!

Holy TOLEDO, ya NEVER would have thought that from her diminutive stature in Suizokukan Girl or Okane no Kireme ga Koi no Hajimari, but BOY, Shoplifters not only made you aware of her curves, they literally shoved it in your face!

LOL even Shota can't keep his eyes off his Big Sister's figure, and who can blame him!

LOL just another fun family outing with a well-developed older sister!!

Cheesecake aside, it added up to a wonderful little movie which left you sadder for the characters in the end and had you hoping they’d somehow get together again and have a “happy ending” together. But that's about par for the course for these Koreeda type of movies, a bittersweet, fun and touching drama that makes you think about it long after you're done watching it!

PS, if that wasn’t enough, they also had Aju Makita playing Mayu’s little sister! 

Had to laugh seeing her in her all-too-brief scene…she's certainly playing a lot of little sister roles!

OK, after this Crash Course, I'm ready to see what Mayu Matsuoka has in store next!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com