ryuganji: film news from japan

If you’re one of the deep-pocketed types who forked out for the Japanese DVD of “Kamome Diner”, you would have seen a short film called “Megane” (Glasses) on one of the extras discs. Now writer/director Ogigami Naoko (pictured left) has developed it into a feature in its own right, with her “Kamome” stars Kobayashi Satomi and Motai Masako back on board, as well as an impressive supporting cast that includes Ichikawa Mikako, Kase Ryo, Mitsuishi Ken and Yakushimaru Hiroko.

Shot on location in Yoronjima in southern Kagoshima, it’s an obvious but not altogether unwelcome attempt to capitalise on the current ’slow life’ boom and imitate the unexpected success of “Kamome Diner”. That film was only Ogigami’s third feature after debuting with well-received Pia Scholarship film “Yoshino’s Barber Shop” and following up with middling haiku comedy “Koi wa Go-Shichi-Go!”, but proved to be the sleeper hit of 2006. The chemistry between its low-wattage leads (Kobayashi and Motai previously starred together with Muroi Shigeru in the 1988-1991 hit TV series “Yappari Neko ga Suki”) and positive word of mouth among mature audiences took the middle-aged female buddy film from two cinemas to 150 nationwide, and a very tidy 500 million yen take at the box office. DVD sales were also brisk and cinemas have since been clamouring for Ogigami’s next effort, consequently gaining “Megane” an initial 100-screen release beginning from September 22nd.

Here’s a detailed (slightly spoilerific?) rundown of the story from the official homepage:

In early spring, a bespectacled woman disembarks from a propeller plane and walks determinedly along a beach, carrying only a small bag. To the men and women who are waiting to meet her, she bows deeply.

Coincidentally, another woman arrives at the airport: Taeko (Kobayashi). Dragging a huge trunk, she makes her way along the beach with only a rough hand-drawn map to rely on until she finally comes to a small, strangely familiar inn called ‘Hamada’.

She is greeted by the unadorned lodging’s proprietor Yuji (Mitsuishi) and his dog Koji. “You’ve got a talent,” he says to Taeko after she unerringly finds the inn, “a talent for being here.”

The next morning, Taeko awakes in her room to find a smiling, bespectacled woman standing at the foot of her bed: Sakura (Motai). “Good morning.” “Huh?” “It’s morning.”

From then on, nothing but odd things occur. Every morning on the beach, people perform ‘merci calisthenics’. Haruna (Ichikawa), a high school student, meanders aimlessly near the inn. A beaming Sakura sells shaved ice desserts to passersby. When Taeko says she wants to tour the town, everyone dubiously replies: “There’s nothing worth seeing ’round here”, “If you’re not going to take it easy, what the hell did you come here for?”

Finally, unable to bear the lackadaisicalness of the people around her any longer, Taeko makes up her mind to leave the Hamada for another inn, the Marine Palace. Morishita (Yakushimaru), the woman owner, gives her a grand welcome, but this isn’t the place Taeko is seeking either. She becomes lost down a country path and is at her wits end, until Sakura appears on a bicycle.

Taeko’s days at the Hamada begin anew. She becomes caught up in the pace of the local lifestyle and finds herself gradually giving herself to it. Then, a few days later, a young man named Yomogi (Kase) who calls Taeko “sensei” comes to the inn. He joins the other residents, and time seems to go by at an even more leisurely pace. However, everyone shares the same feeling that their time here isn’t going to last forever…

(source: Sports Hochi)