"Cinecon e Ikou!" drama: Episode twelve 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.... 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 twelfth episode: Video

 

 In most shows the opening scene has been with Shibui and Matsumaru discussing various things about the world of movies. Their scene didn't take place until the five or so minute mark but will mention them first as it's become a sort of tradition! Matsumaru is the younger worker and he was telling Shibui how he kept falling asleep the previous night watching a film at home. Which happens with Shibui too and often the case is because the theater is so comfortable or the temperature is too high. Matsumaru did admit to falling asleep more often when he watches a Western film with subtitles and wouldn't think that would be the case as subs makes me concentrate more. Ended off the last recap talking about a call Kaori had received from Mizoguchi who is a director at Tochiku, they own the Mirai CineMine and many others. We had no clue what the call was about but Kaori was so preoccupied with what the man had to say, did it have anything to do with the cineplex closing down?

 Yes it did and sadly it appears the Mirai CineMine may only be open for another month or so. However Kaori does have a supporter in Mizoguchi and he was one of the persons who interviewed her when she applied to Tochiku. Eventually Kaori worked at the main HQ but during the interview she had mentioned her dream was to produce films, Mizoguchi was impressed with that dream and never forgot her. He's now the main director of the Production Department, with the CineMine on life support would Kaori want to fulfill her wish and come work for him? 'What to do?' is now Kaori's dilemma, she's grown so attached to the Mirai cinema and wants to see it saved but on the other hand she does want to work on films. She won't have long to decide as Mizoguchi needs an answer in a week, the episode ended before the week was up so will her answer be in the next show? Above is also a new director at Tochiku named Yoshida who we've seen briefly before. He once worked with the CineMine manager Mizusawa and really hates him, Yoshida would love to see his old colleague fail at his job. He even asked Kaori to spy for him which she rebuffed.

 It was back to the cineplex for Kaori who was very curious about how the cinema was actually doing. She dug out the financial books from the previous year and was comparing them to how the cinema was doing in 2022, that's Mizusawa silently observing her above. He had heard rumors of someone from the Tochiku HQ spying on the cinema, he let the other staff know that too. So when Mizusawa saw Kaori gong through the books his first thought she was the spy, he wasn't far off!!!! Going through the ledgers Kaori did notice how bad business was, she and the staff have worked so hard to make the cinema a success but perhaps as she says above the place has no chance. It took a while but finally Kaori was able to convince Mizusawa she was no informer for Yoshida and did tell her boss she had been approached by Yoshida to truly be a spy! 

 We didn't hear the whole story but Mizusawa did explain a few details of when he worked under Yoshida at the Shinjuku CineMine. Yoshida had a few personal incidents at the cinema which were frowned upon by the Tochiku company, surprised then that he became a manager. Don't know if it's so but perhaps Yoshida is thinking Mizusawa is the employee who squealed on him at the Shinjuku cinema and since then has been out for blood?! So now all is well between Kaori and Mizusawa but the main problem persists, do they have any chance from preventing the Mirai CineMine from closing down? So while there was no spy two of the staff appeared to have caught one. That's the 'team' of Shibui and Matsumaru, perhaps they deserve their own comedy show?! A customer had come into the cinema and hadn't purchased a ticket but was very curious about so many things at the cinema, to the pair this older man has to be the spy sent by Tochiku! The man is below in a few screenshots and like many other things it turned out to be a case of your imagination running wild like Mizusawa did to Kaori.

 So thinking this older man was a spy he soon was overly pampered by Shibui and Matsumaru. They gave him some of the cinema's deluxe food and even said they would allow him to see a film on the house! The pair thought by pampering him this man would return to HQ saying the cineplex deserves another chance but naturally this man didn't turn out to be a spy. The man turned out to none other than.... Mizusawa's estranged father!!!! His name is Shigeru and had owned his own cinema in Mirai, no clue if it's still open. But when Mizusawa returned back to his hometown two years ago Shigeru presumed his son would take over the business which didn't happen. Since then Mizusawa has had very little contact with his family, didn't take a screenshot of it but Mizusawa eventually made it to the room his father was in, that ended the show and will the pair be reunited?

 Semi cliffhanger going into the final episode. In the eleventh show the cinema had held a special event called CineMarriage where they tried to get a boyfriend to ask his girl to marry him. That was just a so-so success story as the proposal didn't happen for another two months and not at the cinema. However the now married couple would haven't gotten hitched if it weren't for Mizusawa and his staff. The husband Matsumoto has a very popular blog and on it he did a post where he sang the praises of the CineMine which so many viewers read. Including one the of the Tochiku directors and as you can see above for now the cinema's closure has been out on hold.... but for how long? Mizusawa heard that news just after he told Kaori perhaps she should take up that film production offer, now what will her decision be? That concludes this recap and the next post is for the final episode which I haven't viewed yet to keep the suspense up! But sure the main story will be about the cinema's future and have a feeling it'll be a happy ending!