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!

The End Is Nigh~Get Ready!

 In an undisclosed secret base resides a renegade medical team of four people who operate in the shadows outside of the official hospital networks. Though no one knows  who they are, their unconventional means and superb skills make them an entity who can decide if one lives…or dies!

There is Jo “JOKER” Shimoyamada (Tatsuya Fujiwara), the PR man of the group who seeks out potential patients,

Gouhito “SPADE” Shirase (Wataru Hyuga), the “hacker” who gets all the pertinent info they need

, and finally Saki “QUEEN” Yoda (Nao Matsushita) and Eisuke ‘ACE” Hazama (Satoshi Tsubabuki), the surgeons of the team, the latter so nicknamed for his almost genius level skills on the operating table. With their powers they can perform virtual miracles…if they deem you worthy!

For their criteria they choose not only on if you can pay the exorbitant amounts they request, but also if the prospect of death and dying has properly humbled you into truly cherishing the idea of a “Second Chance” at living! The rich, powerful and influential are the ones they have their eyes on because those are the ones most in need of a real life reckoning!

Doctor Michizo Kenmochi (Takeshi Kaga) of Chiyoda Medical University, knows how sombre it is to have to tell a terminal patient that they have exhausted all practical options and that there is little chance of recovery...

Though he has excellent medical team including his daughter Reona (Moe Yuki) and Jion Someya (Hayate Ichinose),(as well as Manami Hashimoto, Masei Nakayama, Rea Nagami, Yuta Tanokura)  there is only so much the current medical field can provide…unless you are ready to step out of the light and into the grey areas, using untried medicines, questionable methods and dangerous surgery procedures, something that Kenmochi refuses to do…

...and it’s here the Black Market Doctors step in.

Once the Covert team has researched their potential client, they appear before him at night, clad in garish theatrical costumes, meant to convey mystery as well as to hide their true identities, and offer the deal of their services. It is through this exchange that the decide if  the patient is deemed worthwhile to save, or, callously, left to suffer their fates!

Of course, this kind of underground medical operations are clearly unkosher and highly illegal, thus they have caught the eye of a crack team of Police Investigators set on identifying them and bringing them to justice!

Led by Ryoichi Sakura (Kenichi Yajima) and including Todo (Takuma Sugawara),Kasu (Ryoya Yoshida), Kikukawa (Yuki Katayama), and Kuzu (Koki Kawamoto), their main purpose is to hunt down the renegade doctors!

Try as they might, however, they cannot cath hold of the elusive team, and once the deal is secretly brokered between the Undercover Team and the patient, the most skillful and almost futuristic operation goes underway, with QUEEN  and ACE performing the most tricky and RISKY of methods...all to save the client and send him onto a full recovery!

Get Ready! set up an interesting dynamic for the show, pitting these three distinct teams, i.e. the Hospital Crew, the Black Market Doctors, and the Police Detective team, all against each other and desperate to win for their own best interests! The Hospital wants the Renegade team shut down and pressures the Cops into doing their job, in the meanwhile the Black Marker Docs are silently doing their thing…A very unpredictable show where I have no IDEA where it’s going!!

Oh, there’s also this side storyline involving Hazama’s “real” job as a patissier of a fancy pastry shop, where every day a spunky schoolgirl comes to try out his baked goods. 

Her name is Mianmo Shimazaki (Ami Touma), and at this point we don’t really know her deal. Is this supposed to be an important part of the story or just a cute interlude? 

Guess we’ll have to wait and see! 

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com