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!

Burn The House Down: “Mitarai ke, Enjou Suru”

Kyoka Suzuki and Mei Nagano face off in  “Mitarai ke, Enjou Suru”

A soft spoken and mild mannered young woman named Shizuka Yamauchi (Mei Nagano) seeks employment at the home of a rich and succesful woman model and online influencer named Makiko Mitarai (Kyoka Suzuki).

Though she is known as an impeccable woman of good taste and style, Mitarai is in actuality a messy and disorganized person, so she is need of someone who can clean her house, decorate tastefully, and cook meals, all covertly as to keep her image intact.

Yamauchi is excellent at what she does, and the house is put in perfect order. Though still standoffish towards Yamauchi, she is impressed with what she has done with the place, and  Mitarai agrees to hire her officially! 

But what Mitarai doesn’t know is that this Yamauchi has a hidden agenda for getting hired as the housekeeper. 

Yamauchi’s real name is Anzu Murata, and 13 years ago, she lived on this very property with her own family; Father Osamu (Mitsuhiro Oikawa), Mother Satsuki (Michiko Kichise) and little sister Yuzu (Yuri Tsunematsu), until a huge house fire destroyed their home and tore her family apart. Father shortly after divorced Mother, leaving her and the two daughters to struggle for themselves.

At the time of the fire,  little Anzu (young Anzu played by Tamaki Shiratori) spotted Makiko Mitarai among the onlookers… with a VERY satisfied smile on her face, as if all her wishes had suddenly come true! Because of this, she had always suspected Mitarai had something to do with the fire...

...and when Makiko went on to MARRY Anzu’s FATHER to start her OWN family with him (and all his wealth), her suspicions only grew. CLEARLY there is more to this woman than she lets on!

In the meantime, mother Satsuki becomes afflicted with a severe case of traumatic amnesia, where she cannot remember anything of the past and has shut down. Weak and confused, she must be regaled to a bed in a hospital, with her daughters looking over her.

Now as an adult and with 13 years of anonymity between them, Anzu plans to infiltrate the home base of her number one suspect in the ruination of her family: Makiko Mitarai herself.

Along with her little sister Yuzu and the computer skills of her friend (Kie Kitano) the resident "computer expert" of the drama), they hope to find clues and proof of Mitarai’s involvement of the house fire, as well as finding the truth of just WHAT actually happened all those years ago….

Belwo: Anzu trying to get close to Mitarai’s shut-in older son Kiichi (Asuka Kudo)...

….while little sister Yuzu uses her feminine wiles to get close to the younger son Shinji (Taishi Nakagawa). Seemingly friendly and cheerful, their only ture mission is to get as MUCH information out of them that they can- to bring Makiko Mitarai to jsutice!

A dark and brooding psychological revenge drama, yet I cannot help but think that not everything is what it seems at face value- in the coming episodes I fully expect people assumed to be friends turn out to be foes and even the ones painted as the pure evil ones turn out to be on the good side. In any case, I'm excited to see what develops!!!

 “Mitarai ke, Enjou Suru” is yet another NETFLIX exclusive J-drama (along with the Tomoya Nakamura drama "Hayabusa Shobodan") that I'm really loving this current season...looks like they are ramping up to become a great source of intriguing new shows!!!

Posted by zdorama@zdoramaagain.blogspot.com