"Cinecon e Ikou!" drama: Episode nine 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  .... Episode seven .... Episode eight

Mini preview of this ninth episode: Video

 

 Getting there with this series, three more episodes to go after the pair of recaps for today. This is a long drama, very rarely do you see them have thirteen episodes these days. So after these posts will be taking close to a three week break as I'll have the final three recaps on the same day and am hoping for a strong ending. This was a solid episode as finally the main story of whether this cineplex will remain open was discussed and would think that'll be the main story for the final three shows. For the first time in six episodes this didn't begin off with the pair of Shibui and Matsumaru discussing going to the movies and how they're made, that was always an enjoyable first 2-3 minutes.

 To me the top episode to date was the seventh, in that show the CineMine manager Mizusawa had taken a trip to Tokyo for a manager's meeting. During it there was some discussion on whether his cineplex would remain open as they draw so few customers and probably don't make a profit, there wasn't any talk of that in the eighth episode. But one director at that meeting seemed to want to give Mizusawa and his staff more time to work on things, his name was Mizoguchi who is in the top two screenshots. He paid the newish assistant manager Kaori a visit down in the city of Mirai, he had remembered her when she worked at the main office. During their brief scene Mizoguchi blurted out the possible impending doom of Kaori's cinema, she knew exactly zero about that! But even if the cinema goes under Mizoguchi, who is now head of the overall production department, has promised Kaori she can come work with him.

 Kaori can be a fireball and was she lit up when she returned to the CineMine offices. Her fury was of course directed towards the manager Mizusawa and why didn't be tell her or the staff about the cinema possibly closing? Mizusawa can be a bit of a timid man and hates to hurt the feelings of others, he just had no clue on how to tell his staff about the possible closure. There's no sure fire way to improve business over night, cutting staff won't help which was discussed nor is there any chance of having another film festival that was successful in the last episode. For now Mizusawa and Kaori have decided to place the customer's needs first and will have morning greetings for those who attend the first screenings of the day. There were a few other things to make a movie goer's visit much more pleasant but in the end run things like that won't increase the amount of people who come to the cinema.

 At least one huge positive has come out of this crisis which is that the staff are really going all out to save the cinema. For most shows seemed most didn't enjoy working there or even movies, most staff were only there because the work was so easy due to the lack of movie goers! An episode lasts about 24 minutes, the final fourteen were devoted to one main story which involved Mizusawa. In that first screenshot above one morning a woman entered to see a film, within one second Mizusawa knew who it was even after not seeing her for close to seventeen years. Her name is Mizuki and the pair had gone to high school together, perhaps even college for a while. Up until now we hadn't seen Mizusawa so enthused about anything, you could tell right off the bat he had such a crush on Mizuki at one time but had never revealed his feelings to her, am wondering if he's ever had a steady girlfriend?

 Even after not seeing each other for so many years the pair hit off great from the first second. We did learn a few things about Mizusawa's past during these scenes, one was about his father. He had owned a cinema in Mirai and didn't know until now that's where Mizusawa is originally from. The father thought his son would take over the business after college which never happened, since Mizusawa returned to Mirai two years ago to run the CineMine he's had so little contact with his father and the rest of his family. Which hasn't seemed to bother Mizusawa who at one time had also made small, independent films. Mizuki had appeared in his first one which he made in high school, since her reappearance Mizusawa may have begun to wonder why didn't he pursue her harder? Which may not matter as Mizuki is now back in his life and it was easy for the staff to see that their manager was in seventh heaven though how much longer will that last?

 This drama is the same length as most others I recap but for some reason really have to stretch these posts out much more. Don't know if Mizuki had paid the cinema prior visits but for close to two weeks she appeared daily at the cinema to view a film, of course Mizusawa wondered if she wasn't coming to see him! That wasn't the case and every day Mizusawa would be waiting the the entrance for Mizuki, one fateful day she dropped a huge bombshell saying it would be her last time at the cinema!!!! Of course Mizusawa was crushed and also very curious about what was going on, he suggested they have a chat in an empty theater as it was the only place to have privacy. Observing them going into the theater were a few of the staff who had no clue what was really happening. They presumed Mizusawa was going to propose to Mizuki and as you can see above had a celebration awaiting him..

 

 That party needs to be put on hold, perhaps forever! So during their chat Mizuki didn't beat around the bush and came right out with why this was her last visit to the cinema. The following week she would be moving to England where her boyfriend's job had transferred him, shortly after they were going to get married! The reason Mizuki had been visiting the cinema was that there would be no chance to view Japanese films in England so went on a final binge as she is a huge film fan. Naturally Mizusawa was devastated with the news and don't think Mizuki had any clue he had such romantic feelings for her, you did have to feel a bit bad for him. So shortly after Mizuki bid her old friend a final farewell and think it'll be the last time Mizusawa sees his first crush, overly crushed is how he looked when he went to that mini celebration which ended this episode. This was one of the better shows to date and the next post is the recap for the tenth episode which I haven't viewed yet.