"Cinecon e Ikou!" drama: Episode eight 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(e) 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!

Asumi Kuon as Yume Hongo.... New woman introduced in the fifth episode who is a PT cleaner, replacing the above one? It appears so as Akane hasn't been seen since.

Previous recaps

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three .... Episode four

Episode five .... Episode six

Mini preview of this eighth episode: Video

 

 Thought that last episode was the best to date as the struggles of the Mirai Cine Inn was the main focus. Was hoping that theme would continue on into this show which didn't happen, sure the series may end off with us learning why the new Tochiku exec. Yoshida really wants to see Mizusawa fail at his job. Sure you read the above recap so no need to go into the details of what happened in that show, as is the norm for this drama it began off with a mini chat between Matsumaru, on the left, and Shibui, on the right, who are in the top three screenshots. The pair always discuss various things about what takes place in movies or at a theater. These scenes have been enjoyable and have learned a few tidbits about the industry. The pair in this show were talking about continuity and how it's very important in films. A movie scene may not be able to be finished or different parts are added together to make one large scene, that's where continuity comes in.

 There's usually a person whose role is off being a continuity editor and their job is to make sure actors are dressed the same, hair style is the same, it's night or day, etc. In so many films there's been many errors of continuity that have been missed and the third screenshot is an example of that. Back in the third episode(?) the new assistant manager Kaori had suggested to the main manager Mizusawa that the cinema have some sort of special screenings, perhaps an oldie festival during weekdays when it's the slowest? Special events aren't usually allowed at the cinemas owned by the Tochiku company but Mizusawa had made a request for one, it was approved and perhaps management was glad to see Mizusawa attempting to improve business which is the lowest of the chain. Mizusawa made the announcement to the staff and save for Shibui none had ever heard of the films, during that time the fireball Kaori lit into another pair of employees. Can't say she was reamed by Mizusawa but he did have a mini talk with Kaori about the way she talks with others which is often harsh, wonder if that's a reason she was sent to Mirai from the Tochiku HQ?

 The cineplex really struggles during the weekdays and most of the attendees are older people who are retired. So this film festival featured very old films from the 1960's to the eighties, most were from America and very few of the staff had heard of any of these movies. The other assistant manager and film projectionist Shibui is a huge film buff and can tell you almost every trivial fact about a film from the last eighty years. You'd think Shibui would really have been excited about the festival but it was the opposite, he actually left early one day to see a brand new film at a competing cinema! It doesn't take much to draw the ire of Kaori who couldn't believe what Shibui was doing, she ordered Mizusawa to have a stern talk with this man. Shibui though quickly turned the tables on his boss and told Mizusawa to think of this as 'work' as he'll check out what other cinemas are doing right or wrong, wasn't much Mizusawa could say so off to a rival cinema went Shibui!

 However his plans blew up quickly as the movie he wanted to attend had sold out. With having the early evening off he called his mates to go out somewhere but every single person was busy. There was an underlying theme to this episode called (personal)Freedom which mainly was about Shibui. He's forty in age and has never been married which he says has been by choice, to me he's had no alternative! Since the first show Shibui has been so scared of Kaori but of no other woman, had wondered why? In this show was able to deduce he's got such a crush on Kaori which has gone unnoticed and sure that will be a romance never to get off the launching pad! After a few days this festival is going so well and perhaps more of them should be scheduled for the future. No problems to date but there was a minor one with an elderly man named Takashima who is right above, he wanted to see one of the festival films with his wife but couldn't recall the title or anything else about it!

 To be honest this scene with the older man lasted way too long and would have liked to see more of what took place at the festival. You could tell there was something a bit off with this man Takashima, the feeling I got was that he has a bit of dementia which ended up being the case. He just couldn't remember anything about the film he wanted to see, was it a western, in black and white, a foreign film, etc. Mizusawa was at his wits end and eventually had to call Shibui back to the office for help. There's no movie that has been shown at the cineplex that Shibui had never seen, took him a bit of time but finally the title of the film was discovered. Now the question was where is Takashima's wife, has she been waiting this whole time?! That's what he told the others and shortly after a very young woman entered the office asking for him, she was fifty years younger and was Takashima's wife?!

 No, that wasn't the case as this woman Saki was his granddaughter and she needs to constantly watch over him. She told the others Takashima's wife had died five years ago and with his dementia getting much worse he couldn't even recall she had passed away. Shibui seemed to understand what this older gentleman was going through and being alone all those years has paid off for Shibui who had a nice heart to heart talk with the man which ended this episode. Another fine show which would have been a bit better save for that final scene which did last at least eight minutes. Five more episodes to go and will be back in two weeks with the next pair of recaps. Then will take three weeks off and have the recaps for the final trio of episodes.