Always - Sunset on Third Street (2005)

Don't Believe the Hype

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I have watched Always - Sunset on Third Boulevard three times and it remains a wonderful movie experience. It gets better with each viewing like a well cooked broth. It is funny and touching at the right time. The pacing of the movie and some scenes felt like they came out of the manga, although it has so much more to offer. The cinematography and music help set a nostalgic feel of what it might have been like in 1950s Tokyo. It is full of spirit and energy where the country is on an accelerated path in rebuilding and redefining itself. There is hint of the Meiji Restoration, where the denizens of Tokyo enthusiastically absorb Western cultures, from pro-wrestling to Coca-Cola. And the building of Tokyo Tower, itself a smaller replica of The Eiffel, symbolizes the emergence of post-WW II Japan - a dichotomy of Eastern identity that embraces Western advancements.The product design and CGIs were top notch for its time, and I love how they use the different stages of Tokyo Tower's construction and the seasonal changes to mark the individual story arcs' progression.The movie embraces its manga roots with sincerity: all the characters' quirks and social slapsticks remain intact. Horikita Maki's Mutsuko is simply adorable as the country girl (check out that rural dialect) trying to make it in a big city. The uncommon romance between the gorgeous host girl Hiromi and the oddball writer Ryunosuke. Plus many more delightful details make Always, not only a funny snapshot of behavioral comedy, but also a touching ode to a bygone era.How can you not love a movie filled with this much heart?

In 1974, manga writer Ryohei Saigan created a comic called "San Chome no Yuhi" ("Sunset on Third Street"). The comic revolved around the day-to-day adventures in a Tokyo neighborhood in the period of 1955-1964. The manga is now one of the longest-running comics in Japan, and created an animated series and a trilogy of live-action films, of which this is the first film. The film works best as a period piece. No expense was spared to recreate the era of 1958 Japan. The people of Japan are most proud of that era: it was after World War 2, when they had been broken and defeated; like a slow-burning phoenix, with hard work, ambitious dreams and their own indomitable will, they rise up to stand tall and proud. The film is filled with this spirit: whatever tragedies they may suffer, they will never give up but keep pushing onwards, filled with the hope of things getting better. The story and acting is good and solid. The great appeal of this film are its universal and optimistic cast; these are characters you feel you know your whole life: the man of the house who works to feed his family, the kindhearted housewife, the smart but innocent children, and so many others. This film gives a little more detail and background to the whole cast, while the next two films has two main families to focus on (which rather takes away from the ensemble story).The only real flaw with this film is that it's too intimate and anthological for a motion picture: it works better in a serial format, like a comic or a TV show (which it already was). Also unless you have an interest/knowledge of Japanese culture, it's not really anything interesting (I myself came across this only because of the reputation of the manga it was based on). The film ends with a sunset on the residents of Third Street, which both signifies the end of an experience and the promise of a new day and new experiences. That is, pretty much, the core of a slice of life work: it's all in a day's work, compiling of both the usual and unusual, the magical and the mundane, but always a day full of incident and adventure.

My wife and I saw this little gem of a film last night at a Japanese festival in Montreal and loved it. That being said I want to comment on the negative reviews about the film.I find the comments veer towards the overly glib and formulaic. The film does not meet this or that film model. It did not accurately represent the the reality of post war Japan (most reviewers are not qualified to knowledgeably opine on that reality). And the most ludicrous of them all; it tried to make me feel too good, etc.Come on people, stop deconstructing; some times a cigar is just a cigar. The story is the story, the acting the acting. Get your heads out of film class and just have a good time if that is where this film leads you. Otherwise, stop trying to keep others from having a good time.

This is a very touching and well-made film, but someone sprinkled it with a little too much fairy dust. I was with it every step of the way, handkerchief in hand for the clockwork gushes that punctuate virtually every dramatic segment with almost pornographic regularity. But this is not a very honest picture of life in Tokyo in 1958, in spite of the insistence that the construction of the city (the bigger picture of society, economy, etc represented by the gradual erecting of Tokyo Tower in the background) is of a piece with the micro-narratives of small individuals going about life on an inconsequential block somewhere in the urban sprawl. Still, whatever project this Disney-esquire nostalgia is serving, I can't discount the film's magic too much. I'm one to prefer a little dark cynicism over what strikes me as a kind of Tinkerbell fraudulence, but I have to admit that this movie is pretty good at what it does.