"Cinecon e Ikou!" drama: Episode one of thirteen(?) recap

 

 Air Dates: July 4th until September 26 on BS Matsutake Tokyo TV, Mondays at 10:30 pm

Also known as 'Let's go the Cinema Complex', subs are being done by GEO0975 at DA

Main Cast: Is there a location a drama hasn't been set in?! This one takes place at a Cinema Complex in the fictional city of Mirai. Looks to be a small complex but there are twelve theaters with the largest holding 510 movie fans. The cinema is part of the Tochiku Corporation which own many theaters in Japan. However the fans haven't flocking to this cinema which has some less than stellar employees, will some new blood shake up things? Will update the bios as we go along and an episode is 25 minutes in length.

Kii Kitano as Kaori Nakatsuka... The 'new blood' at this cinema which is located in a remote region. Kaori has been transferred from the home office in Tokyo and though she knows so much about the business end of theaters she doesn't know what it takes to operate one. She's a very strict young woman who was sent to bring in more customers and straighten out this bunch of daffy employees.

Dai Watanabe as Kenta Mizusawa.... The manger of the cinema complex and he may be the only employee I wouldn't call daffy. Mizusawa has been the manager for some years and is a huge film buff but he's not running a tight enough ship at the complex and was shocked when Kaori was sent to help him.

Tateto Serizawa as Kanji Shibui.... The assistant manager and also the oldest by far at the cinema. His main duty is to run the projections for the films and have things changed over the years. Shibui is quite scared of woman and can't even look Kaori in the eyes.

Nana Akuzawa as Tomomi Marukawa.... Runs the ticket and info booth, like every other part time employee she's a bit lazy and really has no interest in movies.

Shingo Nakayama as Kohei Matsumaru.... Male employee who is the usher but helps out doing many other assorted jobs.... when he has time from not talking to the other employees!

Risako Miki as Shiina Takemura.... Head of the concession stand but like everyone else doesn't have to work hard due to the lack of customers.

Sara Saito as Akane Umemoto.... Cleaner at the cinema who is a horrible worker, she spends most of her day on the phone!

Mini preview of this first episode: Preview

 Hadn't seen Kii in anything for almost five years but this now makes a pair of dramas in the last two months! The other was "Nanji no Na" which was so different from this show, that was a very intense drama while this is kind of laid back and goofy. Least for this first episode it was and am writing this up before viewing the next episode which airs tonight. This first show was good but was expecting a bit more, think a problem was we met all of the main cast so there was no main story to this first episode save for Kaori arriving for her first day of work at the cinema. So while it was a slowish beginning have a feeling the next show will be much better, the recap for that will be the next post.

 That's Kii as Kaori in those top two screenshots, she's heading to the Cinema Inn in the city of Mirai for her first day on the job as the new co-manager. In that first pic she's reading a few reviews of the Cinema Inn Complex which has twelve theaters, that's it in the second screenshot. Those reviews were scorching the complex to no end, with all of the negative reviews how is the place still in business? Luckily it's part of a chain so their losses can be made up by the other theaters, the HQ is in Tokyo while this fictional city of Mirai is quite far away. So Kaori has been sent to Mirai to become the co-manager of the complex and to straighten the situation out. But when you view the employees working there Kaori has her work cut out for her.

 There's one thing I may not mention often but it is a key tidbit. Which is how observant Kaori is, she notices and remembers everything! Could be the way an employee dresses, talks, their fingernails and really just everything about her surroundings. So before introducing herself Kaori stood away from the action and took notice of what was happening in the main lobby and entrance. Not much pleased her as all she saw were employees talking with each other or on their phones, wonder if Kaori wished she stayed in Tokyo?! Eventually she met the man in the third screenshot who is the manager of the complex, Mizusawa. He actually seems like a decent man who is capable of running the cinema by himself, if that's the case why has the place fallen on such hard times? The other man above is the assistant manager Shibui whose main job is running the films. These days there's no projectors and everything is operated by computers, there's twelve theaters at the complex.

 Like the main manager Mizusawa Shibui is also a film buff and does he know his trivia. However Shibui does have some odd problems, his worst one is being so petrified of women and he can't even look Kaori in the eyes! This is only the first episode so can't describe everyone fully quite yet. That's Kaori in the bottom screenshot, she had just returned from a tour of the cinema complex and began to go over their financial books, you can see what she thinks of the place in the pic!!!! It is a disaster and during that tour Kaori picked up on so many things that need improvements, as mentioned nothing escapes her eyes. That middle screenshot is a good example as she was noticing the concession woman Kanna preparing food yet it appeared she just had her fingernails painted!

 The ticket/info counter woman Tomomi doesn't appear to have much to do as Kaori learned that most tickets are sold on line and a customer can print out the ticket at a machine. This is a learning experience for me too as I haven't gone to a complex in too many years too count(!), seems these days you need to take out a second mortgage just to see a film! Once the tickets get printed they're handed to the ticket taker/usher Matsumaru, like all of the other part timers he could care less about films. So all in all we just ended up meeting seven regular employees at the cinema, eight now with Kaori and doesn't it seem it should take more than that to operate an all day movie complex?

 In that top screenshot on the right is Matsumaru, on the left is the cleaner Akane who is glued to the phone most of her shift. The pair had been called in because a regular customer complained his usual seat was dirty and he wants his money back but hopefully more than that. The manager Mizusawa did offer this very inflexible customer a free ticket which wasn't enough, actually it was too much to Kaori who said some unkind words to this jerk. But then what sent Kaori off her rocker was that Mizusawa then offered this man three free tickets(!) which he did accept, none of this would have happened if the staff had been doing their job.

 An episode is only 25 minutes in length and we're down to the final two. After that incident Kaori dragged Mizusawa off to the supply room which is the only place that's somewhat private. As you can see above Kaori really ripped into her new colleague and said the cineplex was a disaster which it truly is. Then again this was the first time Kaori had ever seen how a theater is actually run so she too will need to learn quite a bit. But the bottom line is that the cineplex is a mess due to the manager really not caring and even worse is his staff, how long will it take Kaori to right the ship? So that ends this first episode and after writing this up it was actually better than it seemed. Haven't viewed the second show yet as it hasn't been subbed but that's the following post and think this is the type of series which gets better as it goes along.