"Cinecon e Ikou!" drama: Episode eleven of thirteen recap

 

 Air Dates: July 4th until September 26th 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.... Ex-cleaner at the cinema who was 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

Episode nine .... Episode ten

Mini preview of this eleventh episode: Video

 

 

 Final three recaps today for this series, am writing this up before the next two have aired so have no idea how this drama will end. But do know they better get a move on with the main story which is of saving the CineMine in Mirai from closing. There was very little mention of it made in this episode, the cineplex closing was the main story of the seventh show so thought it'd be more a focus but it hasn't turned out that way. So I'm slightly wondering if this show may somehow have a second season?! At thirteen episodes this was long but don't want to see a rushed finale so perhaps that's what could happen, I also could be way off base which is more likely and let's get on to this episode.

 For the second time in three episodes the main topic was a 'love story' but before we get into that we had our usual opening. That's off Shibui, on the left above, and Matsumaru, on the right, having a discussion about the world of movies. Matsumaru was talking about how the new film "The Blank Diary" had been getting some less than stellar reviews on social media and of course all of those people used an alias. The film buff Shibui told his mate using an alias has been common for directors over the years, when they don't want their name on a project they used the pseudonym Alan Smithee instead of their real name. That's often because the director knew the film would be a dud or it didn't turn out as well as planned so they didn't want their names in the credits. Did just read up about that which is a true story, have only seen one film with that name but bet there's many more than mentioned.

 This is a 'love story' again and the reason for that is because the CineMine will be holding their first ever CineMarriage! Not sure who came up with the idea but think it was the cinema's main manager Mizusawa who is really gung-ho about the project. It's advertised on the CineMine site and guess he was hoping many would apply for the unique event to drum up business, as it turned out only one person(?) may have applied. What the CineMarriage will be is of a man proposing to his girlfriend at a bogus fake screening. The man will tell his girlfriend he won tickets to a special screening but at the last minute will back out with the woman going to see the film by herself. But it's all part of an elaborate scheme where the man will make an appearance after the woman will have viewed a special video Mizusawa created. After the man's girlfriend has viewed it he'll appear and propose to her in the theater, sounds like something suited best for Valentine's Day but maybe Mizuzawa knows what he's doing.... or does he?

 Actually not sure of how many applied for this special event, perhaps many but just one was chosen and don't know how that could help CineMine's business. In the top screenshot above is the lucky(?) winner Yuma who is a bit of a klutz but also one who really cares about his girlfriend Mari, you can see her above too. The pair work at the same company, she started after Yuma and he fell in love at first site. The pair's first date was seeing a film at the CineMine so Yuma does have some sentimental reasons for wanting to propose to Mari there. After hearing that tale Mizusawa was even more eager about working on this project, the staff also were though at first all were a bit leery about it. First off was a short film Yuma would make with the staff about Mari and how much he loved her, that would be shown while she was sitting in the theater expecting to see a special screening.

 She would be in the theater all by herself and how would that make the CIneMine any money???? For once everything went according to plan, the video came out looking well, the staff and Yuma were excited and though a bit late arriving for the 'special screening' was Mari. So while everything was a breeze up until now the rest of the evening's plans went up in smoke! Because Yuma had to cancel at the last minute Mari thought she could bring another guest which she did, it was her father Tetsuya. Which shouldn't have been too major of a problem but it was a massive one as he wasn't aware that Mari and Yuma were dating! Tetsuya had raised Mari by himself as the mother died at an early age so he's very protective of his daughter. This video will have many photos of Mari growing up and also quite a few with Yuma, when her father sees this video he'll go through the roof! For now Yuma doesn't know the father is there and Mizusawa wants to keep it that way, his first plan of action is to push the screening back by thirty minutes and hope to get Mari alone in the theater for the video and Yuma's proposal. 

 Yuma was a bundle of nerves so there was no way Mizusawa could tell him about Mari's father being there. If his new plan fails then the event will just have to be cancelled as there's no way Mizusawa wants to see any customer at the cinema go away sad. But naturally there was a mix up or should I say several of them, no one notified Shibui who was in the projector room about to start the video about the change of plans. The CineMarriage was scheduled at 6:30 pm, when it hit that time Shibui began the video with Mari and her father in the audience, the only ones in the large theater. Needless to say she was stunned at what she was viewing, of course so wasn't he father Tetsuya! Rushing in to save the day was Mizusawa but it was too late as the video had finished and his apologies went nowhere. But it appears Shibui finally heard of the change of plans as he had told Yuma to go to theater eight and to keep practicing his proposal.

 So while Mizusawa was apologizing over and over an announcement came over the speakers which told everyone to head to Theater Eight. So arriving there was Mizusawa and his staff along with Mari and her father to witness a slightly embarrassing scene. Which was of Yuma practicing his proposal over and over, he had no idea he was being watched. After a few seconds the father Tetsyua had seen enough and stormed away, looked like Mizusawa's grand marriage idea was a disaster. However as the episode was ending Kaori had received an e-mail some months(?) later from Yuma and it's that above screenshot! Things did get resolved as the marriage eventually happened and it may not have taken place without Mizusawa's Cinemarriage, that was the final scene. But there was a very, very short one with about five minutes to go that only lasted half a minute. In that screenshot below is a new director at the Tochiku company which owns the cineplex. That man is Yoshida who really wants to see the cineplex closed down and had once worked with Mizusawa, why does he hate him so much? Yoshida had been talking to another director named Mizugochi who we've seen before and seems to like Kaori. He had called her right after that discussion and we never heard one word of what had been said, will that conversation be a key thing for the final two shows? That we'll soon see and the next pair of recaps are just below this one.