Always san-chôme no yûhi (2005)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Takashi Yamazaki

Writers:

Ryôhei Saigan (comic)
Takashi Yamazaki (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

5 November 2005 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Family

Plot:

Leaving her provincial home, teenage Mutsuko arrives in Tokyo by train to take a job in a major automotive...

Plot Keywords:

First Part | Hyphen In Title | Tokyo Japan | Punctuation In Title | Based On Comic

Awards:

29 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Maki Horikita	...	Mutsuko Hoshino
Hidetaka Yoshioka	...	Ryunosuke Chagawa
Shin'ichi Tsutsumi	...	Norifumi Suzuki
Koyuki	...	Hiromi Ishizaki
Hiroko Yakushimaru	...	Tomoe Suzuki
Kazuki Koshimizu	...	Ippei Suzuki
Kenta Suga	...	Junnosuke Furuyuki
Masaya Takahashi	...	Saburo
Kaga Mochimaru	...	Yûichirô
Toru Masuoka	...	The Theatre Manager
Takashi Matsuo	...	The Realtor
Hiroshi Kamido	...	The Postman
Hiroshi Kanbe	...	The Postman
Magy	...	The Butcher
Yôichi Nukumizu	...	The Bicycle Shopkeeper

Also Known As:

Always - Sunset on Third Street (International: English title)

Runtime:

Japan:133 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:All | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan

Company:

DENTSU Music And Entertainment

Trivia:

The "Chagawa Ryunosuke" character is named after real-life author Akutagawa Ryunosuke. The Kanji characters of both names are nearly identical.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: Just before opening title, Ippei spins the propeller of his toy plane clockwise. When he releases the plane, the propeller is spinning clockwise. The propeller was powered by an elastic band - releasing it would cause the propeller to spin counter-clockwise. The error was noticed in post production but couldn't be fixed without re-shooting the entire continuous one-shot or re-doing the CGI. They decided to leave it in hoping no one would notice (though they revealed the goof in the director's commentary).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Alldays: Ni-chôme no asahi (2008)

Soundtrack:

ALWAYS

Most wonderful film

this is the best film i've seen. it emotes and moves you. Idealistic and simplistic (how can you avoid them in a two-hour media) but still captures the essence of Tokyo pre-economic boom and Japan's march toward materialism. Hope, innocence, inter-dependence, both individually and societally, are wonderfully captured in this film. Acting for the roles of Ippei, Tomoe, Roku, and Junnosuke are superb. The background music is excellent. Memorable scenes: Ippei and friends flying airplane, Roku and Ippei meeting for the first time and exchanging greetings in Roku's Tohoku dialect, Ippei noticing Roku crying in her room the first night at the Suzuki's and Ippei asks, "What happened? Do you have a stomach-ache?" Ah, the innocence lost. Where have you gone?