"Cinecon e Ikou!" drama: Episode five 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? 

Previous recaps

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

Mini preview of this fifth episode: Video

 

 Another pair of recaps for today and that still doesn't even bring us to the halfway point of this series. An episode is only ~24 minutes in length but still surprised there's so many of them. Am currently recapping three dramas and these days posts for them get so many more views than they did years ago. What's stunning is that of the three this drama has been the most popular one, even over the series starring such a fave Nogi member of everyone.

 Hope many of you checked out Kii's last post which was for the 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list, she finished in the 18th position. Granted she hasn't done all that much the past five years but 2022 has been much busier, however that post was so enjoyable to do as it was like a trip down memory lane with so many older pics and how I wish she could have finished higher. We haven't see as much of her character Kaori the last two shows but the others need some screen time too. Added in a new character above who is Yume, we first met her in this episode. She's a PT cleaner and is she replacing Akane who we didn't see in this show?

 Business at the Cinema Inn in the city of Mirai is worse than I thought, Kanna above is complaining about the lack of customers. In the top screenshot is the ticket taker/usher/handyman Matsumaru telling Shibui how there was only one movie goer at the showing of a film that just ended. The pair start off almost every show having a 2-3 minute rap about movies and such where we do learn some interesting tidbits about films. Mainly from Shibui who is such a film fanatic and he told his mate how he would love to be the only person viewing a film as he could have his choice of seats and there would be no one to interrupt the movie. But in a crowded theater you're jam packed and a major problem is where do you put your drinks and food? More was discussed about that and those opening segments have become much better as we go along.

 For the second time Matsumaru is the focus of an episode and up until now no one knew his 'secret'. That's of him having a girlfriend and she's about to celebrate a birthday but there could be a major problem. Matsumaru failed to tell anyone he needed the night off so he could go out with his girl Mie and some pics of her will be coming up. First he asked Tomomi in the third screenshot, she refused to take his shift along with Kanna. In that fourth screenshot above is Yume and she was introduced this episode, will she be a regular character? Yume is a part time cleaner and she too wouldn't take Matsumaru's shift as she has a date for she's on the rebound from breaking up with her boyfriend who was an IT person, so she claimed. Matsumaru had a bright idea, if no customer was in the theater to view a movie does that mean he could leave early? That's the question he asked the main manager Mizusawa above, right below is his partial answer.

 What Mizusawa says does make sense, even if just one paying customer shows up the entire film would be run for them. However there is a time limit on when you can enter a theater which is thirty minutes after the start of a film. So if there's no one there after half an hour the film can shut down and more than anything else that's what Matsumaru is praying for, no customers! It could happen for there was only one person at a film the prior day and it looks like that total may not even be reached for the next showing of "Boys in a Box and Stray Cat Honey", talk about an odd title. Matsumaru is counting the minutes, 26....27...28... 29... and then wouldn't you know it, a man appears out of nowhere to view the film! Needless to Matsumaru was irate and did all he could do discourage this man from seeing the film. He said how bad it was, it was meant for teens and even gave away the ending. But there was no stopping this middle aged man who said he bought the ticket and has every right to view the film, it then got to the point where Matsumaru and the man were wrestling on the ground!

 Eventually the two managers Kaori and Mizusawa arrived to break the scrap up but don't think the man ever got to view the film. Matsumaru got quite a tongue lashing from Kaori and she was totally in the right with how he mistreated that customer which there were no excuses for. Had Matsumaru gone up to Mizusawa and explained why he needed to leave early this would have never happened. Mizusawa seems like a decent guy and sure he would have given his worker the time off to celebrate his girlfriend's birthday. So that celebration got changed to the following day but Matsumaru also had to work then too but this time had a not so solid plan! He invited his girl Mie to the theater and told her everything was on him though Matsumaru would be working while she was viewing a movie, she happens to be a big film buff. Of course there were a few snags in that plan with the biggest being that Matsumaru told Mie he was the co-manager of the cineplex! You can see him above with a jacket on, Matsumaru had taken away the one Shibui was wearing to make himself look important but it was about two sizes too small!

 That's Mie right above and though Shibui knew of Matsumaru's plan saying he was the co-manager he never told Mizusawa about his ruse. So when the real manager met Mie Mizusawa was coming so close to keep saying Matsumaru was their best part time worker but never got to finish the sentences, somehow she never caught on to what Matsumaru's real position was. But Mie was there when Matsumaru had to defuse a potential violent scene though in the end was helped out by Mizusawa. Earlier mentioned that the new cleaner Yume had just broken up with her boyfriend whose name is Joichiro. He made an appearance at the theater and demanded to see Yume who wasn't working at the time. Joichiro wanted to see the schedule then which wasn't allowed, this man was so irate and it seemed just a matter of time until a fight broke out!

 But first Mizusawa and then Matsumaru were able to talk sense into Joichiro who had bought a movie ticket and demanded to be allowed to view it. Yume had told everyone Joichiro was an IT man who was way up the ladder at his company which was far from the truth. Like Matsumaru he too was just a regular part time worker and if Joichiro told Yume the truth she would leave him which happened anyway! But the two got along very well and Joichiro was calmed down, enough where he was let into the theater. As he was entering he asked Matsumaru if he told his girlfriend the truth about working part time and we all know that he hadn't! Guess Mie didn't hear that part for she's still dating him in the next show though we never saw her and that concludes this recap. Next post is for the sixth episode and least we see a bit more of Kie but wish the pace of this drama would pick up a bit.