Za majikku awâ (2008)

Director:

Kôki Mitani

Writer:

Kôki 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

Kôichi Satô	...	Taiki Murata
Satoshi Tsumabuki	...	Bingo
Eri Fukatsu	...	Mari Takachiho
Haruka Ayase	...	Natsuko Shikama
Toshiyuki Nishida	...	Teshio
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yûki 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 Kondô	...	Konno
Kiichi Nakai	...	Toru Iwata
Kyoka Suzuki	...	Sayoko
Shosuke Tanihara	...	Niko
Susumu Terajima	...	Hiromi Kurokawa
Yasufumi Terawaki	...	Wanchai Bhandarkar
Keiko Toda	...	Madame Ranko
Kôji 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

The magic hour of sunset before the night

Koki Mitani is a director that film critics tend to treasure. Although he hardly deviates away from his warm-hearted and good natured settings, his style is often chaotic but can somehow make all the sense of the world.

The Magic Hour keeps up with this tradition, bringing in many veterans of actors that he has used previously (even if small minor roles), and it really shows how talented Mitani can be not only as a director but as a writer. Blessed from being bred from theatre, his plots move sufficiently at an excellent pace to the point where sometimes you want to freeze time just to appreciate how well tied together a movie can become.

Subtle humour that creates bellyaches from laughter is his greatest weapon and he uses it profoundly in this movie. I felt that all of the actors put their best performances into it, and it seemed like they genuinely had a lot of fun by "camping" it up at times.

If anyone wants to watch a Japanese comedy that isn't over the top then look no further.