Japanese movie Messengers synopsis and trailer

 Naomi Shimizu (Naoko Iijima) is a 29 year old career woman in charge of PR for the venerable Italian fashion house, 'Enrico Dandolo'. Under the umbrella of its trading partner (major Japanese trading company) 'Ataka Trading', Naomi's boyfriend, Hiroshi Okano (Tetsuya Bessho), is able to provide her with the enviable luxury lifestyle to which she is accustomed. 　　


  That is, until one day Enrico Dandolo unexpectedly declares bankruptcy. Okano flies abroad to deal with the crisis leaving Naomi at the mercy of his colleague, Ota (Shigemitsu Ogi). Ota repossesses her apartment, clothes, credit cards, cell phone, everything she has to credit the company balance sheet.
  Naomi flees her apartment with her one remaining asset, the red Alpha Romeo. However she carelessly collides with bicycle messenger Yokota (Hiroyuki Yabe). Yokota is severely hurt. He pleads with Naomi for her to fill in for him until he recovers at the delivery company 'Tokyo Express' he started with his college friend, Suzuki (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi). Under pressure from supervising traffic cop, Shimano (Yuzo Kayama) Naomi reluctantly agrees to this settlement. Accustomed to a life of luxury, the work of a bicycle messenger proves harder than Naomi's wildest imaginings. She finds herself soaked by the rain, exhausted by the many hills, chased by angry truck drivers only to receive not a word of thanks from the clients. This is compounded by Suzuki failing to have a single kind word for her. She is on the point of giving up the whole thing.
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  Augmented by Yumiko, the newly-retired policeman Shimano and Hattori, fired from his job on the motorbikes, Tokyo Express turns a new page. At this point, having secured the contract to franchise the massively popular 'Tim Grey' fashion line, Naomi's former boyfriend, Okano returns in triumph from New York and offers her the position of head of PR. However Naomi is confused by the wealth of emotion she feels towards both her new job and her colleague, Suzuki. When Suzuki fails to ask her not to go, she feels slighted and returns to her old world.


Meanwhile, Hosokawa succeeds in playing a dirty trick to force a re-match for the Ataka Trading account between his team of motorbikes and Tokyo Express. Crippled by the loss of Naomi, the Tokyo Express team have no choice but to head into the competition at great disadvantage. How on earth can they win?

  Of course they win in dramatic fashion, though quite a fluffy ending still doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the film. This is one that gets a solid recommendation from me, nice film to kick back with for 2 hours and just be entertained, big plus for the film is the solid cast, Naoko may be a beauty but she's also quite a talented actress, one that's also very funny as she proves in this film, worth a watch just for her. Rest of the cast does a real solid job too, especially Kotomi though Tsuyoshi's character was a bit too subdued. Check below for the cast list and a trailer, plus many screenshots in the next post, no classic but like I mentioned very entertaining, would give it a good rating of 8.5/10.

Year: 1999    Running time: 118 minutes     Director: Masashi Todayama

Cast:

Naoko Iijima as Naomi Shimizu
Tsuyoshi Kusanagi as Hironori Susuki
Hiroyuki Yabe as Shigekazu Yokota
Kotomi Kyono as Yumiko Abe
Tetsuya Bessho as Hiroshi Okano
Shinsuke Kyo as Takayuki Hoaokawa
Yuko Ito as Mamiko Maekawa