Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald

Are one of those people who believes that Japan can only make movies about the Yakuza, or such topics? Then look no further than "Rajio no jikan" (called "Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald" in English)! A radio station in Tokyo is broadcasting a love story. It goes smoothly at first, but then they keep rewriting it. From there, their broadcast gets progressively crazier and crazier.

Boy! How they came up with that stuff is beyond me, but they did it. The English title comes from...well, I don't want to spoil that scene. The point is that you gotta see this movie if you can find it anywhere. It hearkens back to movies like "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming", with the way that something seemingly small branches out into total lunacy. Absolutely hilarious.

"Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald" is funny, sweet, surprising, and laugh out loud funny. Character development is marvelous. The plot twists and turns in a delightful manner. Fast paced, yet connected. The characters are so well developed, it might well be better the second time around. The strength of the film is related to it's insightful view of how a group of individuals interact when time is precious. The film itself is a precious gem. The presentation is fresh, clear, and funny without attention to the "cute factor". I could certainly be labeled a "screwball comedy", but is much more than that. It is sensitive, it is gentle, it is so real.Grab the popcorn and your favorite squeeze, and have a ball.

A brilliant comedy from Japan about a radio station going live with an original drama written by Miyako, a housewife, who entered a contest the station gave. She is played superbly by the plainly dressed but pretty Kyoko Suzuki. From the beginning, the madness starts. Her screenplay keeps getting tweaked to the point where it is unrecognizable and the last second script changes keep the tension up. Throughout, the characters are so rich: The temperamental actress Nokko (Keiko Toda), the too appeasing producer, the opinionated engineer, the suffering manager of Nokko, Miyako's husband who thinks the screenplay is about him, and so on. Its screwball comedy at its best, frantic, unrelenting and, at times, hilarious. I would not usually give a 10 to a movie such as this, but this one not only keeps your interest, it gets better and better. Even Ken Wattanabe is here, playing a trucker who, while driving his big rig, tunes into the melodrama and is moved by it all. Writer/Director Koki Mitani does a superb job of keeping the pacing perfect in this film. You have to see it, it is really terrific.

Despite cliche slapstick scenes (which are little and tolerable), "Radio No Jikan" is a refreshing comedy for someone who is tired of mainstream cinema blockbusters. It had my sister and I in tears during the second half of the movie when things really turn chaotic. Unforgettable characters were the tiresome Bucky and the charismatic Mr. Horinouchi. I give it an 8 out of 10 !

I bought the last available ticket to see Welcome Back, Mr McDonald this evening, having been unsuccessful at obtaining one for Love Letter. Maybe because I chanced upon this film, not having any expectations, I enjoyed it tremendously. Sure the film has some stock comic characters and stock comic situations and the premise (message?) may strike a chord in every struggling artiste's heart, but the grit with which this film is made is heartwarming. A novice playwright's maiden radio play gets torn to shreds by the powers that be as she hangs on, flailingly, to the emotion that she hopes to convey. A film that reminds us that our heart yearns for the underdog while our mind rationalises the behaviour of the seemingly tyrannical, this film reminds us of what movies are meant to be: an adventure where at the end you can't help but exclaim.