Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (1997)
"Rajio no jikan" (original title)

A radio play is going to go on air at a Tokyo radio station. It is a weepy melodrama written by housewife Miyako, who is the winner of the competition run by the station. Suddenly, the ... See full summary »

Director:

Kôki Mitani

Writers:

Kôki Mitani (screenplay), Kôki Mitani (play),

Stars:

Toshiaki Karasawa, Kyôka Suzuki, Masahiko Nishimura

17 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Toshiaki Karasawa	...	Manabu Kudo, the director
Kyôka Suzuki	...	Miyako Suzuki, the writer
Masahiko Nishimura	...	Tatsuhiko Ushijima
Keiko Toda	...	Nokko Senbon
Jun Inoue	...	Hiromitsu Hirose
Toshiyuki Hosokawa	...	Hamamura Jo
Kaoru Okunuki	...	Sumiko Nagai
Zen Kajiwara	...	Harugoro Otaguro
Moro Morooka	...	Bucky, the writer
Yoshimasa Kondô	...	Shiro Suzuki, Miyako's Husband
Akira Fuse	...	Shuji Horinouchi
Shunji Fujimura	...	Mansaku Iori
Shirô Namiki	...	Suhuru Hosaka
Hiromasa Taguchi	...	Makoto Tatsumi, sound mixer
Yasukiyo Umeno	...	Furukawa

Storyline

A radio play is going to go on air at a Tokyo radio station. It is a weepy melodrama written by housewife Miyako, who is the winner of the competition run by the station. Suddenly, the hot-tempered lead actress Nokko decides she wants the name of her character to be Mary Jane and not Ritsuko. That leads to the chain of events which changes the play completely.

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Plot Keywords:

radio | actress | radio play | actor | chaos | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

8 November 1997 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$8,887 (USA) (10 September 1999)

Gross:

$11,507 (USA) (10 September 1999)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fuji Television Network, Premiere International, Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Toshiyuki Hosokawa introduces his character as Donald McDonald after seeing a McDonald's fast food bag. The reason for this is because Ronald McDonald is known as "Donald McDonald" in Japan.

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Connections

References Tampopo (1985)

User Reviews

what movies are meant to be

I bought the last available ticket to see Welcome Back, Mr McDonald this evening, having been unsuccessful at obtaining one for Love Letter. Maybe because I chanced upon this film, not having any expectations, I enjoyed it tremendously. Sure the film has some stock comic characters and stock comic situations and the premise (message?) may strike a chord in every struggling artiste's heart, but the grit with which this film is made is heartwarming. A novice playwright's maiden radio play gets torn to shreds by the powers that be as she hangs on, flailingly, to the emotion that she hopes to convey. A film that reminds us that our heart yearns for the underdog while our mind rationalises the behaviour of the seemingly tyrannical, this film reminds us of what movies are meant to be: an adventure where at the end you can't help but exclaim.