"Cinecon e Ikou!" drama: Episode seven 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 seventh episode: Video

 

We're now past the halfway point of this series which keeps plodding along, I've enjoyed it but wish the main theme would begin to come into play. Which it may soon and will discuss that at the end. That theme was of the Cine Inn's struggles and how have they managed to stay open? The new assistant manager Kaori was sent there from the main HQ to light a fire under the main manager Mizusawa and his staff but we haven't seen enough of that. But with only six shows to go it appears the the struggles of Cine Inn will become the prime focus and let's get on to this recap, once again though we didn't see enough of Kie.

 Up until now 100% of the action has taken place at the cineplex. But in this show the manager Mizusawa was in Tokyo for a meeting with all of the other franchise managers. So will talk about him in the second half of the recap and discuss what took place at the cineplex in Mirai in this first half. The norm to an episode is of it starting out with the assistant manager Shibiu and the all around part time worker Matsumaru rapping about the going-ons at a cinema. This time around Matsumaru had been looking for a cellphone a customer lost which he found. The talk revolved around how easy it is to lose a phone watching a film as during it you slowly slide down the seat and before you know it the phone has popped out of your pocket. The discussion also turned to how staff at certain cinemas 'spy' on the movie viewers and that made Shibui quite uncomfortable, not sure why.

 But he's uncomfortable about many things, the biggest one appears to be his new co-manager Kaori! Still don't know why but he can't even look her in the eyes and tries to avoid her at all costs. What's odd about that is Shibui doesn't seem to have a problem with the other female employees. With Mizusawa in Tokyo many of the staff thought it'd be a grand time to kick back for a change, perhaps they could all take a two hour break and watch a film together?! Not so fast was Kaori's response above and wish we were seeing more of her stern side, though a newbie she has the same rank as Shibui. Of all the employees the most dependable one is Kanna who is in the fourth screenshot, she runs the concession stand. Her mates didn't know much about Kanna but in this show she blurted how what a fan she was of the comedian Morimoto Cider who for the most part is an unknown but not to Kanna. She spotted him at the cinema and why would be be there taking in a movie? She didn't know but Kanna couldn't stop gushing about the man but is Cider something more than a comedian?

 While Kanna was getting help from her colleagues finding out which theater Cider went into when an officer appeared. He told the staff a woman's purse had just been snatched and the odds are likely he's hiding out in one of the theaters. He had a sketch of the suspect who looked so similar to Cider, no way is he a thief exclaimed Kanna! So the hunt was on for this man and Kaori came so close to closing down the cinema for the safety of the movie viewers. The rest of the staff was against that and it never happened which is a good thing as the Cine Inn can't afford to lose any more customers! Eventually Cider was found by Matsumaru who tried to drag the man back to the main office. Right at that moment he received a call that the real culprit was found and as Kanna had exclaimed there's no way Cider could be a thief! So that potential situation came to a peaceful conclusion and during that time Kaori had tried calling Mizusawa sixteen times for his advice. 

 But she received no responses as Mizusawa was in his manager's meeting at the Tochiku HQ in Tokyo. Don't think it's a huge chain, perhaps there's twenty cinemas and the one in Mirai is the smallest and brings in the least amount of money by far. In the fourth screenshot above Mizusawa is arriving at the Tochiku HQ when he ran into an old mate named Yoshida. Not just an ex-coworker but Mizusawa's boss when they both worked at the cinema in Shinjuku. Mizusawa can't stand this man as you can see above, it's easy to see why as Yoshida is such an arrogant man and to top it off he's now been promoted to the executive team, that's going to cause Mizusawa some major headaches in the future. Fairly sure that'll happen but haven't watched the next episode yet.

 The two executive directors running this meeting seemed like decent men. They've been around for a while and know how to treat their 'front line men' and the key way is not to put them down in front of others. The pair discussed how the Tochiku cinemas are doing and various other subjects which we didn't see. As a whole the chain of cinemas saw an increase of 10% in revenue for the first half of the year though the Mirai cineplex was so far behind everyone else. And the new mid level executive Yoshida made sure everyone knew that as he took control of the meeting which didn't please his superiors. He put his old mate Mizusawa on the spot and asked how in the world can a cinema do so badly? To that Mizusawa had no concrete answers, after seeing him in action for six episodes he's come across as a man so adept at dealing with customers and is a problem solver. However he doesn't seem to have a lot of talent for the business side of things which is why Kaori was sent there. As mentioned the exec. directors know how to treat their employees but that's not the case with Yoshida who continued to harass Mizusawa in front of the other managers.

 Mizusawa didn't use it as an excuse but think Mirai is the smallest city where Tochiku has a cinema so of course they'll have the fewest movie goers. Finally Yoshida laid down an ultimatum which is if there's no marked improvement in revenue over the next few months the lease for the Mirai cinema may not be renewed for 2023! With that the directors adjourned the meeting and a worried Mizusawa rushed back to Mirai to possibly solve that purse snatching incident. As the show ended Yoshida was talking with a director named Mizoguchi who was wondering what kind of grudge does he have against Mizusawa, that is something I'm curious about too. This Mizhoguchi appears to be a director who is fair and did ask about Kaori who of course is now Mizusawa's assistant manager. Seems like many from the Tochiku HQ recall her, is that good or bad news for Kaori? That ends this recap and the following post has the one for the eighth episode which doesn't air for three more days, really have gotten far in front with all three drams I'm viewing. The biggest plus to this episode was that the main story of the Mirai cinema's struggles should become more of the focus and how they need to improve business soon or else!