All Is Fair in Love and Radio Station
In a recording studio of a Tokyo radio station at midnight, just an hour before the live airing of a drama, shy housewife Miyako Suzuki (Kyoka Suzuki) finds herself in panic when her first autobiographical script is demanded to be rewritten by an egocentric radio drama star,
Nokko (Keio Toda.)
Nokko demands the character's name changed from Rituko to Mary Jane, consequently changing her background from a housewife to a gang specialist lawyer and moving the setting from a Japanese fishermen town to a courthouse in Chicago.
One change leads to another. A story of a plain Japanese suburbia housewife's melodramatic love affair with a fisherman is rewritten to be a romantic spectacle between a beautiful lawyer and a handsome astronaut. Later, the series of changes writes the spaceman, Mr. McDonald out of the script.
The recording room is chaotic as a chain of changes are being made during the airing. Miyako, tired of getting pushed around by egocentric actors, director, and producer, locks everyone out of and herself in the recording studio demanding a happily ever after ending. The tension amounts on the set, and everyone is put to challenge to bring Mr. McDonalds to the story.
Rajio No Jikan brings the best of the screenplay writer/ director Koki Mitani's screenplay and casting. While Mitani's other sitcom screenplays are set in much out-of the-daily-life locations and mildly entertaining, it works best in the setting of a small recording studio, bringing closer attention to the dialogs and characters' dilemma.
The script is so well-written that it almost seems re-makeable; however, Mitani's brilliant casting makes the film extraordinarily humorous.
The equally talented and highly skilled actors are carefully chosen, and they work as an orchestra without one actor stealing the camera with great presence.
This cheerfully optimistic movie is entertaining and ideally suitable for families with young adults. Though egotistical, likable characters getting around restrictions on the changed script is guaranteed to keep you laughing throughout the film.
July 12, 2010
