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 Masterful Juggling of Story Arcs in "One Day~Seiya no kara Sawagi "

A veritable ALL-STAR cast, headlined by Kazunari Ninomiya, Miki Nakatani and Takao Osawa, the new mystery/Suspense drama ONE DAY: SEIYA NO KARA SAWAGI follows three different people as their paths diverge and intersect after one fateful Christmas Eve where a man is brutally murdered at a popular gathering place in town.

There is local newscaster Kikyu Kurauchi (Nakatani), an intrepid reporter who is determined to investigate and expose the murder case- even as her news program is being threatened with replacement by a cooking show!

There is eccentric Tokio Tachiaoi (Osawa), a restaurant Chef whose Christmas plans are thwarted by a chance encounter with the murder suspect when a huge pot of demiglace gets knocked over during the altercation, throwing the restaurant’s plans and honor up in the air…

…and then there is the mysterious murder suspect himself, Seiji Suguroji (Ninomiya), a seemingly calm and collected man who wakes up in the plaza on the ground next to a dead man and no recollection of what has happened or how he got there!

Along with these three are people like Mansaku Mitsutani (Eguchi Yosuke), a hard-as-nails investigator who knows far more than he reveals- Upon arrival at the scene, he wrests the case away from main investigator Karen Karumiya (Wakana Matsumoto) though he is from an entirely different division…and may have ulterior motives for being there!

Mizuki Fuehana (Taishi Nagakawa) and Yuan Yahata (Anne Nakamura) are two components to the puzzle of whom we cannot be sure of where their alliances are. Both of them contact Suguroji in his attempts to evade the authorities, but are they there to help or hinder?

And finally, there is adorable Sako Tachiaoi (Riko Fukumoto), little sister of chef Tachiaoi and junior reporter for the same station which employs Kurauchi…and is in fact rumoured to replace her!

(Already fell in love with Riko as the irresistible RinRin in Trillion game, and here's yet another great role for her!)

 Other familiar faces we see are those of the likes of Shinya Kote, Yuki Sakurai, Kai Inowaki, Tomomi Maruyama, and even Koichi Sato! All of them are intertwined throughout the story...

From just the first episode, ONE DAY is VERY intriguing and I would LOVE to see how it all ties up! My only worry is: Will this all just come down to Corrupt Police/Politicians like ALL the other crime/suspense dramas end up?

Guess We'll have to watch and see......

PS: I was just marvelling to my friend about how many stars from my "Golden Age" of Jdrama watching are here: Osawa, Nakatani, Eguchi, Sato...all of whom were among my FIRST wave of actors and actresses I knew back in Mid 90's. Who knew they'd still be here headlining shows some 25+ years on!!!