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Reviews & Ratings for
 Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald More at IMDbPro »Rajio no jikan (original title)

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8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
thank you, Japan, for making us laugh, 18 June 2005
10/10
Author: Lee Eisenberg (eisenberg.lee@gmail.com) from Portland, Oregon, USA

Are one of those people who believes that Japan can only make movies about the Yakuza, or such topics? Then look no further than "Rajio no jikan" (called "Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald" in English)! A radio station in Tokyo is broadcasting a love story. It goes smoothly at first, but then they keep rewriting it. From there, their broadcast gets progressively crazier and crazier.

Boy! How they came up with that stuff is beyond me, but they did it. The English title comes from...well, I don't want to spoil that scene. The point is that you gotta see this movie if you can find it anywhere. It hearkens back to movies like "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming", with the way that something seemingly small branches out into total lunacy. Absolutely hilarious.

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8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
10/10 Japanese Comedy, 30 May 2000
10/10
Author: mainstay from Boulder, CO

Being a fan of Juzo Itami, I went to see "Welcome Back Mr. McDonald" (English title) expecting a dark comedy. I was pleasantly surprised. Though Mitani's film is much lighter than Itami's "Marusa no Onna" for example, I still was laughing out loud along with everyone else in the theatre over scenes like the Gameboy(tm)-playing security guard teaching frantic techies how to create the sound of a dam breaking over a mountain village with rice and a styrofoam cup. This is a cleverly filmed, intelligently written, and well-acted movie. I just wish recent films from Japan like "Rajio no Jikan", "Mononoke Hime" and "After Life" were given the credit they deserve in the United States.

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
A real hoot., 5 February 2000
8/10
Author: D.A. Gorson (dreamalert) from Denver, Colorado, USA

"Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald" in English. This account of a live radio drama gone awry has universal appeal, while also poking fun at contemporary Japanese culture. There are some wonderfully frantic comic scenes in it. Everything that can go wrong with a young writer's first drama script happens, which is how a love story about a Japanese girl saved by a fisherman turns into the tale of a Chicago trial lawyer rescued by an astronaut who's subsequently lost in space, etc. I give it eight ho's out of ten.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
what movies are meant to be, 6 September 1999
Author: Shourav Lahiri (shar-15) from Singapore

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.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
A great movie about radio., 19 December 2006
10/10
Author: ronsayles from Milwaukee, Wisconsin

This is the greatest movie about radio that I have ever had the pleasure of watching. It is the story of what can and does happen when changes are made to the script just before air time and while on the air. How the story gets wildly out of control and how sound effects are created, on the spot, by an ex-sound effects man who is now the security guard for the radio station. If you like radio as it once was, you will like this movie. It is a 1988 release with English subtitles, but don't let the fact that it has subtitles scare you away. They are in yellow and easy to read. As an added bonus one of the stars is Watanabe Ken who was nominated for a best supporting acting award for the movie "The Last Samurai."

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Best Japanese comedy since Itami, 8 December 1999
9/10
Author: Guy Mariner Tucker from United States

At a time when Japanese movies are becoming less and less imaginative and more and more standardized, THE RADIO HOUR stands as one of the happiest surprises from their industry in many years. Koki Mitani's script and direction are beautifully assured, and the actors, particularly the hilarious Jun Inoue as the cheerful, prankish Hiromitsu, couldn't be better. Mitani doesn't bother directly explaining anything to the audience; rather, he expertly shows a wide range of human behavior, each quirk of which leads to yet another bizarre twist in the ongoing live-broadcast drama. Fortunately, Mitani likes all his characters, and with marvelous economy, sees that we well understand why they behave the way they do. In fact as the story unfolds, one begins to see Mitani's story as something of an allegory for the filmmaking process, or the process of any endeavor, including the theater or the radio, that involves a broad number of collaborators. There's the actor who'll go along with anything, and the actor who won't; the actress who demands a star turn (but mainly because she feels underappreciated); the technicians who've seen it all before, and scramble to improvise; and, finally, the playwright herself, increasingly weirded out by what's becoming a perversion of everything she intended. But, finally, was what she intended any better than what what the rest of the team threw together? They needed her to get started; she needed them for the same reason.

Collaboration means interdependence, and if the audience is finally happy, as Mitani ultimately suggests, then what better outcome could there be? There is not a finer or more cheerful film to come out of Japan since the last works of Juzo Itami, and it is fitting that his widow, the great actress Nobuko Miyamoto, contributes a (nearly invisible) cameo, to one of the few Japanese films to emulate the spirit of her late husband's art. And like Itami's films, THE RADIO HOUR is that rare Japanese comedy that audiences anywhere can enjoy

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Watch this film, 15 September 2006
9/10
Author: larry-raynor from United States

"Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald" is funny, sweet, surprising, and laugh out loud funny. Character development is marvelous. The plot twists and turns in a delightful manner. Fast paced, yet connected. The characters are so well developed, it might well be better the second time around. The strength of the film is related to it's insightful view of how a group of individuals interact when time is precious. The film itself is a precious gem. The presentation is fresh, clear, and funny without attention to the "cute factor". I could certainly be labeled a "screwball comedy", but is much more than that. It is sensitive, it is gentle, it is so real.Grab the popcorn and your favorite squeeze, and have a ball.

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Great Movie!!, 16 November 2000
Author: snaffulafugus from PJ, Malaysia

Despite cliche slapstick scenes (which are little and tolerable), "Radio No Jikan" is a refreshing comedy for someone who is tired of mainstream cinema blockbusters. It had my sister and I in tears during the second half of the movie when things really turn chaotic. Unforgettable characters were the tiresome Bucky and the charismatic Mr. Horinouchi. I give it an 8 out of 10 !

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Clever and insightful, 1 August 2007
8/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The film begins as a rehearsal is ending. A radio play is to be put on only hours later and everyone is congratulating a housewife for the script--which was a winning entry in a script-writing contest. From all appearances, the final live radio show should be a "cake walk". However, a monkey wrench is thrown into the equation when a very temperamental actress asks for "just a few small changes in the script". Unfortunately, the changes aren't small, as they have a major cascading impact on the script. Plus, the other voice actors are jealous and want changes to be made as well. Soon the original simple tale of a lady who works into a pachinko parlor in Japan is morphed into a tale involving a lawyer and her astronaut boyfriend that it set in gangster-infested Chicago!! And with each "little" change, the original script becomes less and less evident. Additionally, each change seems to set off a cascade of script revisions. Again and again, impossibilities become realities in this wacky script--such as scenes involving the mountains in Chicago (it's actually one of the flattest major cities on Earth) and a boyfriend who has just been named "Donald McDonald"--thanks to inspiration one voice actor who happens to be eating McDonald's food!!

The film starts off pretty slowly and is only mildly funny at first--you need to stick with it. Over time, it starts to take off and become seriously funny--mostly thanks to a great ensemble cast and writing that somehow makes the entire cast quite endearing. In particular, the minor supporting characters were great--I particularly loved the cowboy trucker. A truly original film that is sure to please anyone who has a sense of humor. Good stuff.

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4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
DVD here at last!, 24 March 2003
Author: noirfilm from United States

I'm glad to see this movie is finally available in the US on DVD. I saw this years ago in a Los Angeles theater and have been looking for it on tape or DVD ever since. There was an expensive DVD version available in Japan and also an Asian VCD version with poorly-visible subtitles. The English sub-titles on the US DVD are large and clear. The movie has a nice ensemble cast and is very funny! There is a long tracking shot at the beginning which introduces most of the characters. The other reviews will give you more details.

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