Miracles of Namiya General Store Movie Review
Original Title
:ナミヤ雑貨店の奇蹟 (Namiya Zakkaten no Kiseki )
Eng Tittle : Miracles of Namiya General Store
Released Date
: 23 September 2017
Director :
Ryuichi Hiroki
Writer : Keigo
Higashino, Hiroshi Saito
Cast : Yamada
Ryosuke, Njiro Murakami, Kanichiro, Toshiyuki Nishida, Machiko Ono.
Genre : Drama,
Fantasy
Country :
Japan
Poster pic source: http://namiya-movie.jp/ , https://www.amazon.co.jp
Appealing Plot
Let me introduce you nice movie
written with great plot and interesting story. It’s Namiya Zakkaten no Kiseki
or Miracles of Namiya General Store in English. I didn’t have much expectation
at first when I looked at the movie poster but well basically the poster kinda
have fantasy feeling on it which makes me little bit curious about its visual
effects. Yes the visual effect is the thing that I expected from this movie but in
the end I didn’t get much of it after watching this movie. Otherwise, I rather
bewitched by the the plot of it’s story, how the cases (that I thought they were different cases at first) connected smoothly in unexpected way.
Fist I want to tell about the
story. This movie has motivating story, about a young peer (Atsuya, Shota,
and Kohei) who lose their way in life and finally find their belief and
strength out after stays up one night in Namiya store. The story starts when they
want to protect the orphanage by doing something (they think) useful (but
actually thoughtless) because of misunderstanding (you’ll know that it’s only
misunderstanding in the end of story).
After that, they run away and hide at
old abandoned store called Namiya Zakkaten and something weird begin. A letter
comes from a tiny hole of the store door written in 1973. It is a letter from a
musician wanna be (Matsuoka) who dropped out from college to pursue his dream
as musician. He asks for an advice
whether he has to continue to follow his dream or stop dreaming and just
inherits a fish store from his father. Shota and Kohei has desire to reply the
letter and do it by writing something rude (by saying that he has no talent and
he should stop dreaming, LOL, such a bad adviser).
The boys realize something is not right and decide to get out of the store finding other places to hide but a magic happed so that they can only go back to Namiya Store no matter how much they try to escape. So they have no choice but continue hiding in Namiya Store.
But after hearing Matsuoka playing his song using harmonica they recognize immediately the song since the song matsuoka played is very popular but sang by other musician (Seri) in 2012 era. Atsuya suddenly going out of the store to meet Matsuoka in front of the store. But there is no one outside. The curiosity over whelms them and makes them to make a slight research by searching news about the song and the musician. They finally know that Matsuoka died after saved Seri’s little brother right after a little performance in an orphanage where Matsuoka’s little brother worked in. Even though they finds the truth, Atsuya and friends still don’t believe that the letter is somehow connected with people 32 years ago.
After that, another letter comes
again. A single mother (midori kawa/ green river) asks for an advice about how
to rise a children without a father figure beside. It happen when the owner of
namiya store collapses because of cancer (1980 era) and can’t reply the letter,
and the boy reply it instead (2012 era). It somehow confusing at first but
you’ll know it’s the interesting plot that make the story unpredictable. Mr.
Namiya then gets the news about the suicidal case related to the single mother
and her daughter. Mr. Namiya really disappointed with himself because he
couldn’t give an advice by replying her letter. The single mother’s daughter
(Mieko) can be saved and becomes Seri’s best friend later at the orphanage.
Years after the incident, Seri tells Mieko that it was an accident not a
suicidal so she don’t have to worry about her family issue. Actually Midorikawa
didn’t commit suicide but continued working hard to rise her daughter because
of the advice of the boys (yay finally you did it right guys! ^^), but in the
end an accident occurred and made it looked like a suicidal.
After read that suicidal news,
Mr. Namiya wants to get back to the store for the letters. Bunch of letters from
the future usually comes from midnight to dawn so he wants to take them with
him that day. He gets some nice reports from people he gave advices (from letter
from 32 years later that came to his era, 80s). He accompanied by a girl who
had died (Akiko). She was the founder of the orphanage but died in young age
because of bad condition of her heart.
A young woman starring Namiya
store looks like she wants to get an advice. Then Matsuoka who is going back tells
her to ask for an advice in Namiya if she has something to consult with. Then a
letter continue to come into the store, a letter from young woman asking for
advise whether she has to accept the offer to be a mistress of a businessman or
not because she is currently in the need of huge of money to pay back her
foster parents house. The boys give a great advice to decline the offer and
tell her to work hard, make saving, buy apartment and sell them back, be a golf
member, study economy and make her own business. The boys say that japan will
be in a great level at economy years later so investment in some business is
needed (I never thought that the boys able to give such an advise because at
first I thought that they’re just scums lol). She follows the advice and becomes
a successful woman. She even supports the orphanage where the the boys actually
from. The boys finally realized that the boss of the company (Harumi Tamura)
they robbed is a great helper for the orphanage and also a woman who had received
and followed their advice in the past.
In the end story Atsuya gets a
replied from Mr. Namiya from the blank letter he sent that night to prove that
they were connected to Mr. Namiya from 32 years ago or not. It is a warm message which makes Atsuya figures
his belief and life purpose, as well as his friends. And finally they give the
bag back to Harumi Tamura. What I like themost about the story is how the boys connected with people in 80s era through letters (while other movies offer time leaping, or using time machine, it's boring). They use nostalgic method of communication and fit it into modern people's taste.
Second, I want to review about
the cast. I have no doubt in Toshiyuki Nishida’s skill of acting since he is a
veteran in film industry, but I have for Ryosuke, Nijiro and Kanichiro. I’m afraid
of their acting skill at first. I have watched Ryosuke in some dramas, movie and
Nijiro in Anohana movie, I considered that their skill still need to be
improved despite the fact that they are popular enough to make them casted as a
main role of a movie. As expected from Johnnys Entertainment power, their
talents always get huge of popularity and usually gets a main role of a nice
story movie. May be he just need to train himself harder to reach higher level
if he serious to be an actor like what Ninomiya did. I’m not saying that the
boys acting is bad but it consider to be nice. Not that great but not that bad
either. I can say that Nijiro probably better than Ryosuke in this movie, just
by looked at their expression change, Nijiro’s the range of expression change
is wider than Ryosuke. Nijiro has a bitchy face expression normally (lol I
think it’s weird saying bitchy but I can’t find other words to express my
opinion, I’m sorry) so make a gentle expression like in this movie is quite
great.
I'm actually impressed by Rio Suzuki’s acting, she is talented young
actress who able to smoothly change her expression really fast. She played role
for Seri in young age in this movie. The only young actor in my mind who have
such skill is Hiroya Shimizu. He’s great and I adored his skill of acting.
Third is screen play and
cinematography. I can easily understand the flow of the story yet
unpredictable. Let’s just say that the scenes connection is quite hard to get
since it shows us different eras but the dialog really help us easy to
understand connection from each case. So you really have to listen to the
dialog carefully if you got at Japanese or read the subtitle well to get to
know the story flow. But its cinematography is not as excellent as the screenplay.
Possibly it’s hard to get captivating art in such intense and complicated scene
movement (since it tells different era). I at first expected to see great lighting effects from this movie
since it has a fantasy feels and nostalgic on the story (I expect it because of the poster
too actually lol), but I didn’t see impressive lighting effects there which can clearly define mood of each era, it rather blurry, so I to be honest little bit confused while distinguish the moods.
I conclude that the strong
point of Miracles of Namiya General Store is the story & plot so I rate
7.5/10 for this movie. That’s all my review hope you enjoy it and I’m really sorry
if I said something (you think) rude about the actors.
- Destiana
(the review above is written by me also all those screenshots pics above are took by myself, if you want to to make them as a reference please contact me first)
https://dorama.asia/miracles-namiya-general-store/
And here's the link for english subtitle
https://subscene.com/subtitles/miracles-of-the-namiya-general-store
Comments
Post a Comment