Za majikku awâ (2008)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Koki Mitani

Writer:

Koki Mitani (writer)

Release Date:

7 June 2008 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A hustler who gets in trouble with a gang boss in the port town of Sukago agrees to make good with the...

Awards:

11 nominations

Cast

Koichi Sato	...	Taiki Murata
Satoshi Tsumabuki	...	Bingo
Eri Fukatsu	...	Mari Takachiho
Haruka Ayase	...	Natsuko Shikama
Toshiyuki Nishida	...	Teshio
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yuki Amami	...	Woman in mourning dress
Kenji Anan	...	Nojima
Kazuyuki Asano	...	Dr Shimizu
Hyoei Enoki	...	Abesan
Keisuke Horibe	...	Bambi
Goro Ibuki	...	Takashi Shikama
Kon Ichikawa	...	Film director
Manjiro Ichimura	...	Sugawara
Teruyuki Kagawa	...	Jun
Zen Kajihara
Ichikawa Kamejirô
Toshiaki Karasawa	...	Abeshi
Fumiyo Kohinata	...	Kenjuro Hasegawa
Masahiro Komoto	...	Ota
Yoshimasa Kondo	...	Konno
Kiichi Nakai	...	Toru Iwata
Kyoka Suzuki	...	Sayoko
Shosuke Tanihara	...	Niko
Susumu Terajima	...	Hiromi Kurokawa
Yasufumi Terawaki	...	Wanchai Bhandarkar
Keiko Toda	...	Madame Ranko
Koji Yamamoto	...	Grumbling Man
Shinichi Yanagisawa	...	Makoto Takase

Also Known As:

The Magic Hour (International: English title)

Runtime:

Japan:136 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Hong Kong:IIA

Filming Locations:

Tokyo, Japan

Company:

Cine Bazar

Extraordinarily pleasant.

It's pretty easy to see why The Magic Hour went down so well with audiences in its native Japan. Ridiculously light-hearted, enough to put even Jeunet's Amelie to shame, with a sort-of all star cast that includes Haru no Yuki/Dororo star Satoshi Tsumabuki, delightful young up-and-comer Haruka Ayase (sadly given little to do here) former Monkey star Toshiyuki Nishida and perennial Kitano stooge Susumu Terajima amidst a host of other recognisable faces. It even has a cameo from Kon Ichikawa, sadly shortly before his death. The show really belongs, though, to Koichi Sato, verily hamming it up as, well, a very hammy actor...

This kind of self-reference permeates the film, occasionally to its detriment. Ayase's short monologue early on, for example, enouncing her feelings of being in a movie, is particularly grating. It's not the film's only problem; it suffers from a particularly weak female lead (in fact, all of the female roles are criminally underwritten), a total lack of logic or flow and a fairly bloated running time that the material doesn't really justify. Luckily, these concerns matter little in a film clearly intended solely to entertain - a feat which it accomplishes in abundance. Particular highlights include Sato's bizarre knife-licking antics during the first meeting between Murata/Togashi and Boss Teshio, the dialogue between Sato and Terajima about "where you're shooting from" and the sight gag early on involving cement shoes and painted toenails. As with any out-and-out comedy, the jokes are hit-and-miss, but it easily scores enough hits to warrant a viewing.

As throwaway as they come and not without its flaws, but ultimately satisfying nonetheless.