"Cinecon e Ikou!" drama: Episode two 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 second episode: Video

 

 Through two episodes have enjoyed this series and it is interesting if you're someone like me who is kind of clueless about cinema complexes. But will admit it is a bit slow moving which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, so far it has though wish the pace would pick up slightly. That last episode ended with the new co-manager Kaori really berating the long time manager Mizusawa, he's in many of the above screenshots. Kaori doesn't mince her words and does come on too strongly to others but in this instance that was needed. The Cinema Inn in Mirai is a disaster and there's too many reasons why that's so. Mizusawa is very knowledgeable about running a cinema but seems he's not forceful enough and the employees can do what they want. That's a big reason why the complex is like a Ghost Town most days and why Kaori has ben sent from HQ to straighten things out.

 But then again she's never worked at an actual theater and only knows them from looking at financial sheets so how much of a help will she be? Above with Mizusawa is his long time asst. manager Shibui, he's a film buff and his main duties are running the films. These days there's no projectors and the films are run by computers located in the main office. Shibui though is a bit lazy, he runs the movies well enough but don't ask him to do much more! He refused to train Kaori on some cinema subjects with the biggest reason being Shibui is so frightened of women! That above scene with Mizusawa took place just after 12:00 pm, he had forgotten that he had tickets for tonight's big Japan National Team soccer game. The match begins at 7:00 pm and Mizusawa needed to leave by five, could Shibui somehow do next week's employee schedule? The answer to that ended up being no and he's a prime example why this cinema complex is really struggling.

 Least Shibui somewhat redeemed himself when he was able to pacify an irate customer rep. That's the man above who is Nagata, Kaori had noticed him rearranging some movie flyers in the lobby and she knows how to take a person down a peg or two! But Nagata has been a long time representative for his film company and was quite upset at the thrashing he was given, so much he rushed to Mizusawa to complain. This is when Shibui somewhat redeemed himself and brought Nagata to the staff lunchroom where he was able to talk some sense into the man who soon left quite peacefully. But we did learn in that scene and also the first one of the show how the selection of what films shown is done. 

 During the week it's so slow during the day at the Cinema Inn, Kaori suggested to Mizusawa they do some sort of specials to bring a certain audience in. Such as having older films shown during the week and she bets many senior citizens would love to see the classics again. 'That's a terrific idea' mused her co-manager Mizusawa but one that he had thought of before too. The problem is this cinema complex is part of a chain so the main HQ decides which films get shown at their cinemas and they're always going to be a newer films which are much more popular. Their company Tochiku has many tie-ins with the film companies such as the one Nagata worked for so they're kind of forced to show the same films as every other cinema. Got me thinking that this is a cinema with twelve theaters, are there a dozen recent films that need to be shown all the time, especially during the very slow weekdays? 

 Though a slow paced show the time flies right by which is a good sign, we're down to the final five minutes of this 25 minute episode which was one long scene. Above you can see an older man who came to the cinema for a 3:00 pm show, it finished shortly before 5:00 pm and he asked to see the manager.. Of course that's Mizusawa and was he disappointed when he was called to the lobby. Remember that he had tickets to a big soccer game that night and he needed to leave right away. This older man's name is Shirozaki and he had many suggestions and complaints about the cinema. Such as the place could be cleaner, the employees a bit nicer, etc. but Mizusawa has heard this many times before, what's so different about this man? Well as it turns out Shirozaki is none other than the CEO of the Tochiku Corporation and is everyone's boss!!!!

 Needless to say that threw Mizusawa for a loop, Kaori too and she didn't know who he was after working at the main HQ for many years? Shirozaki wasn't mad at Mizusawa and his staff but was kind of disappointed that he and his staff weren't trying hard enough to keep the customers coming in. Shirozaki has been visiting all of the company's cinemas and have a feeling this may have been the worst run one!!! On that note the episode came to it's conclusion with the CEO leaving, will his visit spur the staff of the Cinema Inn to change their ways and make this a top notch complex? When I viewed both shows they were really just so-so though enjoyable but when I wrote these recaps the episodes were better than I thought. Doing these posts in a way is like watching an episode for the second time. Will be doing a pair of recaps at a time so the next ones will be in two weeks. So far so good, not an essential watch but if you're a Kii fan like me then its highly recommended! As usual plenty of screenshots to help you follow the action a bit better.