Za majikku awâ (2008)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

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

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

Directed by
Kôki Mitani

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Kôki Mitani		writer

Original Music by
Kiyoko Ogino

Cinematography by
Hideo Yamamoto

Film Editing by
Soichi Ueno

Production Design by
Yohei Taneda

Costume Design by
Ikuko Utsunomiya

Makeup Department
Etsuko Egawa	....	special makeup effects artist

Sound Department
Tetsuo Segawa	....	sound

Visual Effects by
Tetsuo Ohya	....	visual effects producer

Production Companies

• Cine Bazar
• Fuji Television Network
• Toho Company

Distributors

• Filmware International (2008) (Taiwan) (theatrical)
• Toho Company (2008) (Japan) (theatrical)
• EDKO Film (2008) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Fuji Television Network (2008) (Japan) (TV)

Other Companies

• Dolby Laboratories  sound mix
• Imagica  film processing
• Kitakyushu Film Commission  film commission
• Kodak Japan  film stock supplied by
• Sanwa Cine Equipment  camera equipment supplied by
• Toho Studios  sound stages

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.