#koki mitani

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[gorogorogorogorogorogoro]

shingo katori & koki mitani

[johnnyraine]

Top Shows I Watched in 2023 (not of)

SPOILERS!

7. Loki (Season 2) - 6.5/10

I don't have much to say about Loki other than I loved the final episode, Natalie Holt deserves some kind of award for her music and it makes me cry.

6. One Piece (Live Action) - 6.5/10

As everyone has already said, this should not have worked. I didn't have much faith in it, but I chose to watch it anyway. And I'm glad I did.

Though there were moments of stiff acting and/or line delivery, I still like it overall.

Though I still liked Roger's anime death more than here.

5. My Beautiful Man/Utsukushii kare (Season 2) - 7/10

I don't remember much considering I watched this months ago. But I do recall wanting and waiting for this for a WHILE. I was not disappointed and Utsukushii Kare stands as my favorite BL series. Minato's Laundromat would've been on the list, but it failed me, Utsukushii Kare hasn't. So yeah.

4. Jack O' Frost (2023) - 6/10

I have issues with the whole "an MC has amnesia" plot and considering this has happened 3 times in the same year is crazy to me.

But do recall I Fucking LOVE the music! OOOOHHHH, Shit! I love it. As soon as "Winter Days" started playing during episode 2 or 3, I immediately started looking for the soundtrack.

I also have yet another celebrity crush in Kyoya Honda.

3. Taira no Kiyomori - 8/10

This is unfair given the fact I started this last year and left for a month, making me finish this in January or February. But I still finished in 2023, so it counts!

As per my previous review, I was fucking bored with the first 6 to 9 episodes. After them, however, I loved this show. I love the music, I love the characters, and I like some of the comedy. There are so many great moments that I absolutely love.

Despite knowing how it ended, historically, I was still upset at the characters' deaths.

2. More Than Words (2022) - 6/10

I heard this was a Japanese BL, my favorite type of BL, and I guess. But as others have said, it's mostly about the relationship between Makio and Mieko. Though perhaps not for the second part of the story...

Anyway, I loved this show. It fucked me up, but I did stay up all night till 12 or 1 am to finish it, and I couldn't stop thinking about it for a month. So yeah, despite the score, I am putting it up here.

1. Kamakura dono no 13 nin/13 Lords of the Shogun - 7/10

HERE COMES THE MAIN MAN HIMSELF, KŌKI MITANI!

The main man himself, the man who wrote my favorite Taiga Drama, SANADA MARU! No wonder I was fucking addicted to this show. For first time in A WHILE I watched and finished this entire show in a week.

I was drawn into this show by the fucking neck. I just was.

I remember seeing You Oizumi as Minamoto no Yoritomo and thinking, "Nah." I couldn't get behind him, I simply didn't see it at first. Then he died and literally episodes later, I was missing this man.

All my favorite characters died. ALL! And since I don't know much about the Heian nor Kamakura period, I was taken out. Fucking Kazusa, dead; Minamoto no Yoshinaka, I knew this was so it's my fault, but dead; fucking Wada Yoshimori, I fucking loved him, and I didn't know it! DEAD!

They killed my pathetic twink, Minamoto no Sanetomo. And he was gay! FUCK! I was heavily upset.

And the fact that it ends with Yoshitoko's death via his sister not giving him his medicine and watching him die! Gods dammmmmnnn!

Kōki Mitani you heavenly fucker! Ah!

I also love the music, one of my favorites Taiga drama themes.

Now, that wasn't all I watched, but simply all I felt should be on the list. I refuse to put ten shows up here if I don't care enough for them.

Here's to another year.

[bambamramfan]

I set my Letterboxd Top 4 as movies I love that I guarantee you haven't seen all of. 2 art house horror, 2 comedies, 2 foreign, 2 by first time directors. Click through to see the reviews why. https://letterboxd.com/bambamramfan/

[dromerace]

Suite Dreams, Koki Mitani, 2006.

[shihlun]

Koki Mitani

- Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald

1997

Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald 1997 ‘ラヂオの時間’ Directed by Koki Mitani

[kraniumet]

good tv:

great tv:

[405blazeitt]

the funny thing about running into a video that mentions that a bug's life was inspired by seven samurai is that i've also been watching the mitani koki drama series ai kotoba wa yuuki, which was inspired by seven samurai and... a bug's life...

[motionjames]

let me shill you japanese columbo

Do you like Columbo? Do you like police procedurals starring grumbly, slightly eccentric ossans? Do you believe in the power of shoujo manga?! Well, do I have the show for you!

Introducing....Furuhata Ninzaburō!

Written by genius playwright Koki Mitani and starring the extremely charismatic jidaigeki star Masakazu Tamura, Furuhata Ninzaburo is a detective drama directly inspired by Columbo (not to be confused with...Shinano no Columbo, which yes, exists). Its got the murders, its got the mystery, its got an unreasonably good theme song, and there's middle aged man with the mannerisms you love to see. The formula usually goes as follows:

Furuhata-san stands in the dark void, talking about riding bicycles or something or another to setup the theme of the story.

You see the baddie do the murder and try to cover it up. Yesiree, you see the murder-- because the fun comes from watching it all unravel!

Furuhata-san appears (possibly struggling with a vending machine, or bicycling with some half-price daikon) and catches a whiff of something funny ahead of time.

Cue the game of psychological cat-n-mouse as Furuhata-san slowly deconstructs the whole thing.

Furuhata-san looks directly into the camera like it's the office to ask the audience what the final piece of the mystery is (this is briefly addressed)

The killer spirals ace attorney style as the audience screams GOT THE BITCH! and Furuhata-san escorts them off screen to purgatory... or, you know, prison.

Yup, it's pretty standard fair detective drama stuff, but the writer Mitani is able to construct some seriously compelling, twisty mysteries that keep you on the edge of your seat. By the end of first season, the direction finds its style and you'll get plenty of jaw-dropping musical cues and camera cuts that make you feel like you're full immersed in some deluxe, spicy juicy awesome mystery fiction action!

Okay... but who is the man of the hour? A good mystery needs a good detective, and there is hardly anyone as wonderful to watch as the black-clad oyajisan.

Tamura aces the role of Furuhata. It's just too good. As he's based off of Columbo he's of course a disarmingly scrungly genius with terrible posture and a grumbling-mumbling way or speaking, but he was plenty of other traits to set him apart. He's a fan of shoujo manga; he's an excellent chef but only knows how to prepare three mismatched dishes; he loves konbinis but is cursed by vending machines; he's terrible at baseball and is totally unsportmanlike; he is often seen on his beloved bike CELINE (since he was in the area anyhow)... I could go on, but the character is well realized and so fun to watch. His head tilts, forehead taps, and drawn out ええと。。。are perfectly captured, and all do a great job at annoying his victims. A stand out trait of Columbo is his unique relationship to the culprits; he's described as being very buddy-buddy or even respectful, using his friendly ho-hum manner to weedle his way to the truth. Furuhata-san is similar, but more... salty? Bitchy? The man frequently makes underhanded remarks towards the culprit or acts offensively relaxed until he find a contradiction in their words, in which he will then pursue to the ends of the earth. It gives a kind of "c'mon, can't you do better?" attitude reminiscent of a disappointed teacher.

But even with all his sass (which he has in spades), Furuhata-san will always sit down with the killer and offer a smile and a bit of light conversation before the credits roll. The killers are usually afforded a bit of dignity. Most famously a radio show host tells the detective "the funniest joke there ever was"-- but as a small revenge, she refuses to tell him the punchline. Credits roll, theme plays, it's just another day on the job.

Oh, there's also Imaizumi. Imaizumi is a big dummy and always falls for the red herrings the killers leave behind. Because of this, Furuhata-san is relentlessly mean to him and slaps him on the forehead as punishment. He forces the guy to do menial tasks and be victim to his many tests. Imaizumi, however, is just happy to be here. His special skills include knitting, flower arrangement, not reading the room, and having hemorrhoids.

Okay, now have some Furuhata-san crying and reading shoujo manga.

Truly the guy of all time.

You're probably totally in love with this show because I've described it so beautifully, right? Right? So you wanna watch it, riiiiight? Well lucky for you it's all totally subbed on internet archive!

Watch this awesome show ENGLISH SUBBED and FOR FREE you won't regret it! This link is so full of oyajisans! Please! Join me in Japanese crime fiction hell!

(Personally speaking, the first episode pilot thingy is a bit slow and does not represent the rest of the show very well, I would suggest skipping to the second episode "The Kabuki Murder" to get a real taste and then maybe return to the previous one later. Just my thoughts!)

Also, there was a really awesome remix of the main theme made for DDR. Here's that, but with Haruka Amami from the idolm@ster dancing over it.

Ah yes.... I have spilled my love... I suppose I should go now. Please enjoy this wonderful show, and remember: Don't you ever fuck up ever or else Furuhata-san WILL get you and you WILL go to super hell! Bye!

[shirtlessjohnnysidols]

Matsuda Genta

2024.09.14 Geinōjin ga honki de kangaeta! Dokkiri GP

2024.09.14 Mitani Koki wa dokkiri ga sukijanai SP

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week (#187):

Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (1997) is a random Japanese screwball comedy that I never heard of, and have no idea how it popped on my radar. A late night radio drama is transmitted live in a studio, and none of the voice actors is happy about the script, so they start amending it. It was so absurd and chaotic - and so funny! After laughing out loud non stop the second half of this crazy ride, it won me over. 8/10.

Later on I discovered this video essay about director Koki Mitani, calling him 'The best Japanese filmmaker you've never heard of'. I'm going to catch his other movies, f'sure f'sure.

🍿

3 by Australian stop-motion animator Adam Elliot:

🍿 "PPS. Did you know that turtles can breath through their anuses?"

Mary and Max is like a weirdly adult Wallace and Gromit, a dark and tragic clay figure story, voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette. It's my most wonderful surprising discovery of the week! Two damaged and unfortunate souls connect by becoming pen pals; a lonely Australian 8-year-old girl with an ugly birthmark on her forehead, and an obese Jewish New Yorker with Asperger's. It encompasses 20 years of outlandish long-distance emotions which ends with the acknowledgement of friendship. Absolutely magical. 10/10.

🍿 "Life is like a cigarette. Smoke it to the butt."

His 2003 Oscar winner Harvie Krumpet is another dark biography of an unfortunate character. He is born in a village in Poland to a mad woman, and suffers throughout his life with a long list of calamities, Tourette's, magnetized skull, asthma, Alzheimer's as well as generally very bad luck. It's really odd. It also involves nudism, depression, vegetarianism, and birth defects - and still ends on a oddly-positive note!

🍿 Ernie Biscuit (2015), another "differently-able" story about a "divergent" type of an unusual protagonist: A deaf, lonely Parisian taxidermist who escapes to Venice with his duck but ends up in Australia.

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The wind will carry us, my 8th drama by Iranian Abbas Kiarostami. An "engineer" comes to a distant Kurdish village, but the story, whatever it is, is not very clear, and is never fully-explained. Apparently, he's not an engineer, but a journalist, and he comes to witness the burial rituals of a very old woman. Meanwhile, she doesn't die, and he just hangs around, waiting. This is not only "Slow cinema", but also "Simple cinema", and this "primitive" village doesn't offer many clues. The roosters crow, the radio plays songs in the distant, the shepherd boy walks his goats...

🍿

2 with Simone Signoret:

🍿 Army of shadows, my 6th bleak film by J-P Melville, following a group of French resistance fighters. It's a formal, introspective and restrained picture of hopelessness, fear and destiny, and you know from the depressing look of it that none of them will survive. "Still, they persisted".

🍿 The Shortest Day (1963), my first film by Italian Sergio Corbucci, and the first with the popular comedian duo 'Franco and Ciccio' (Screenshot Above). A forgettable broad comedy about a couple of numskulls who are recruited by mistake and sent to fight in the trenches of the first World War [Like Treat Williams was in the musical 'Hair!].

This film was only memorable because it had over 50 cameos of famous stars of the day, who appeared in it (for free), some of them only for few seconds worth.

🍿

Christy Hall's superb directorial debut Daddio (2024). It's a 2-person conversation inside a NYC night cab, like a movable 'Dinner with Andre'. Talkative and foul-mouthed Sean Penn is the taxi driver and armchair psychologist and he knows how to engages passenger Dakota Johnson in an impromptu therapy session. Meanwhile, she opens up more and more and discloses personal and painful "truths" until the predictable 'reveal'. It's stagey but emotionally satisfying. 8/10. [*Female Director*]

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They shot the piano player (2023) is a Spanish animated drama about the real-life disappearance of Brazilian Bossa Nova pianist Tenório Jr. in 1976. It is hand drawn in a uniquely colorful style, and the music obviously is superb (For example, here's The trailer). But the framing devise of American journalist Jeff Goldblum, who discovers the story of and travels south to talk to musicians and family members, distracts from the emotional impact that could have been achieved. It ends up spending much time about the American-financed 'Operation Condor', which turned nearly all of South America into a cabal of murderous right-wing dictatorships, with thousands murdered and 'disappeared'.

(I saw it in the original Portuguese - with Arabic subtitles! - so I missed many details of the story.) 7/10.

🍿

2 with Icelandic Egill Ólafsson:

🍿 Touch, my 4th emotional film directed by Baltasar Kormákur. Ólafsson is an old man with a very early onset Alzheimer, who has to put his affairs in order. So he shuts down his restaurant, and embarks on finding his long-lost love from 50+ years ago. It brings him back to London where he had learnt to cook at a Japanese restaurant, and then to Hiroshima, where he finally meets his old lover.

🍿 Children of nature was the only Icelandic film nominated for an Oscar (in 1991). Interestingly, it also tells a story of an old man at the end of his life, who dares to do one crazy thing before the curtain falls. A man finds himself in a retirement home, where meets an old girlfriend. They decide to steal a Jeep and drive back to die in the place of their youth. 8/10.

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I enjoyed the original 'That's entertainment' very much, and promised myself to watch the sequel (there were two). Like 99% of all sequels,That's Entertainment, Part 2 is a copy of a much lower quality. Still, it includes dozens and dozens of clips from old MGM classics, many of which I haven't seen before (Young Bob Fosse in tight tights tap-dancing with Ann Miller in 'Kiss me Kate', human pogo stick Bobbie Van...) It felt though like somebody just threw together a 2-hour YouTube compilation of excellent highlights.

🍿

"My name? Enema Bag Jones!..."

The wrong guy is my first Dave Foley goofy, low-brow comedy (1997). It opens with a faux-Saul Bass and James Bond title sequence, and the first 10 minutes are cringeyly stupid! But then it shifts into a idiotic Hitchcock satire -an exceedingly funny and moronic Hitchcock satire - with joke after really idiotic joke that made me laugh out loud. He plays an over-the-top moron, and Jennifer Tilly plays a dumb narcoleptic farm girl and they do it so straight, it was a big surprise. 4/10.

🍿  

"Two Tati’s":

🍿 School for postmen (1947), Jacques Tati's first film. A perfect gem of comedic genius, which he expanded 2 years later into his first feature, 'Jour de fête'. Absolutely masterful. 10/10. Re-watch ♻️.

🍿 House Specialty ('Dégustation Maison, 1978) is a lovely short directed by Tati's daughter, Sophie Tatischeff, in the same village where he filmed 'Jour de fête' 30 years earlier. A day in the life of a little patisserie where all the pastries are loaded with liqueur. I just loved it! [*Female Director*]

🍿  

Through an eclectic reviewer on Letterboxd, I discovered Hamburger America, a so-so documentary about "different kinds" of burgers. (In 71 years I never ate a hamburger, and I will probably not have one in the next 71 years. But I love food, and I also cooked professionally for 10 years. Still I really cannot understand the concept of a burger, chopped beef, a bun, a slice of tomato, lettuce, and some mayonnaise. How did that ever become so iconic?)

🍿  

Another bunch of (mostly early-career) shorts:

🍿 Hypnotizing the Hypnotist (1911) was just a 1-reeler about hypnotism, a popular topic of the time. With Florence Turner, one of the early "stars" of the screen.

🍿 The Madness of Dr. Tube (1915), my first by Abel Gance. A (literal 'Egghead') mad-scientist discovers a cocaine-like powder, which causes those who are sprayed with it to experience hallucinogenic visions as if their bodies - and minds - are distorted, like in a crazed mirror house. The restored copy is exceptionally clear! (I didn't realize that Gance made movies up until 1967.)

🍿 Over the fence, Harold Lloyd's very first outing (1917), a debut of his 'Glasses' character. A cute baseball comedy that maintained its zest.

🍿  À propos de Nice, (1930), Jean Vigo's first documentary. It opens as an impressionistic time capsule, of the sights and people, with lots of overhead shots, upper class folks walking down the promenade, the carnival, casinos, and fancy cars. But then it turns into a surrealistic metaphor, with a sitting woman losing her cloths, feet losing their shoes, open manhole shot from below, and a man turns into a crocodile. An experimental tour.

🍿 The wagoner ("Borom Sarret", 1963), my first terrific film by Senegalese director Sembène Ousmane - possibly the first African film made by an African. A powerful and sad story about a poor man in Dakar trying to earn a meager living as a cart driver. 9/10.

🍿 Foutaises ("Things I like, things I hate"), is another of my frequent and beloved re-watches ♻️. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's very first film (1989), a condensed black and white precursor to Amélie. 8 minutes of perfection.

🍿 Like the Tati film above, the 2013 short Whiplash was the original proof of concept on which Damien Chazelle based his feature film debut the following year. And like the later Whiplash, the abusive psychopath J.K. Simmons holds zero appeal for me. Technically, this 18-min. short is as effective as the later one. 🍿  Linklater: On Cinema and Time (2013) is a visual essay that Kogonada made to accompany a philosophical BFI article he wrote about time and memory. I like Kogonada very much, but this reminds me why I didn’t care for ‘Before Sunrise’.

🍿 "Look at all that wasted space". In Negative Space a boy bonds with his traveling businessman dad by packing his suitcase. Oscar nominated in 2017. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. [*Female Director*]

🍿 In Kiss of the Rabbit God (2019) a young waiter at an ordinary Chinese restaurant falls in love with a gorgeous, ethereal, neon-haired deity from the 18th century. A gay sexual hook-up in the back of the kitchen between two young guys, one of whom is an ancient God.

🍿 "Lean into loneliness and know you're not alone in it".

How to be at home, (2020) a Canadian instruction manual of how to deal with Covid social isolation, based on a poem by Tanya Davis. (Via). [*Female Director*]

🍿  Tall, dark and handsome (2023), my 3rd film by Sam Baron and the third starring 'Big Ears' Amit Shah. An Indian guy dating a white British woman (They're even expecting a baby together), becomes insecure when he discovers that she had dated several other Indian guys before him. Heartbreaking ending. 8/10.

🍿  

And finally: Timelapse of the Future: A Journey to the End of Time (2019) is a highly speculative documentary made by an astronomer about the end of "Time". Because I have no knowledge about the subject, it may or may not be scientifically plausible, as it talks about events that will happen trillions and trillions years into the future, but it mentions red and white dwarfs, pulsars, degenerate matters, Hawkins radiation, Black Hole Era, dark energy, entropy and unstable protons. All the while it plays various scenarios with creepy stock music, Kubrick's Stargate, and psychedelic graphics. Mmmmm....

Spoiler Alert: The universe will end in the year one googol.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here).

[questintheskies]

Masami never disappoints in her role choices! All about Suomi is gonna be hilarious!

Suomi, the wife of a wealthy man, suddenly disappears. After learning of Suomi's disappearance, five men who loved her assemble at her husband's mansion. However, everyone's image of Suomi is completely different from the other, both in terms of appearance and personality. What exactly is Suomi's true identity? A story set in a single mansion, a Mitani Koki quintessential suspense comedy begins!

[shiningwizard]

Welcome Back Mr. McDonald (Mitani Koki, 1997)

Textbook, precise, dynamic set 'em up and watch 'em fall comedy, but my come away was that it could have been better. There are some holes and wild jumps here. But really it's the paragon of what it is and it feels wrong to have been able to give pause and concentrate on the specifics on such a wild ride. Shame on me. Some great cameos.

[nonribbon]

The reason why the famous dialogue of the movie "Sakanoko" starring Non became more convincing and won the "16th Juzo Itami Award"

The movie "Sakanoko" starring Non was released in September 2022. The movie is based on the autobiography "Sakana Kun's One Fish One Meeting" ~Mai Nichi Crazy Life!~", which depicts the half life of Sakana Kun, and Non plays Mi-bo (later Sakana Kun) well. The film premiered on NHK E-TV on July 20.

Four days later, on the 24th, the 16th Juzo Itami Prize was announced, and Non won the award. The award was established in 2008 to commemorate the achievements of Mr./Ms. Itami, who worked in various fields such as film director, essayist, actor, designer, and illustrator. Past recipients include Tamori, Shigesato Itoi, Akira Ikegami, Lily Frankie, Gen Hoshino, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Kankuro Miyato, and Koki Mitani.

This time, Non is "an actor, musician, film director, artist... The award has been decided for creative activities that continue to challenge free expression by overcoming difficulties," the selection committee led by director Masayuki Suo announced. What I would like you to pay attention to here is the phrase "overcoming difficulties and continuing to challenge free expression."

Mibo, who plays Noh in the movie "Sakanoko", has been worried by her father, Jiro (Hiroki Miyake), that she is "a little different from the children around her" because she loves fish too much since she was a child. However, her mother, Michiko (Haruka Igawa), accepts everything about Mibo and supports her with all her strength for being a "fish lover". Of course, the friends around me also love Mi-bo.

Momo (Natsuho), who disappears because she thinks of Mi-bo, who loves fish, and Hiyo (Yuya Yanagira), who cares more about her friend Mi-bo than her lover, are the best examples, and I can't help but envy Mi-bo who has such a friend.

It's hard to get a job and it's his high school friends who give a helping boat to Mibo, who is struggling = the president (Hayato Isomura) and Momiyama (Amane Okayama). Thanks to the two of them, Mi-bo seizes the opportunity to become the "Sakana Kun" that everyone knows, and at the end of the movie, Mi-bo appears on the TV station where Hiyo works and smiles, saying, "I don't like it." It will become a complete "Sakana Kun".

Non described winning the Juzo Itami Prize as "like a dream." Along with his words of gratitude, he said, "Until now, I have been working what I want to do, and once again I have been reminded that I should stick to it, and it has given me tremendous courage," and concluded, "I will devote myself to this award and take on challenges." I think "Sakanoko" can be said to be an autobiographical film of Non, but what do you think?

(Ima Moriyama)

[tahnjun]

Welcome Back Mr. McDonald (1997) - Koki Mitani

[yoshratempel]

現代文の翻訳おもしろそう。今般の書き手は私。

The music that was playing when I came back to my room after going to the convenience store in the evening. It was by David Grubbs. I see, it's ambient music as an idea.

The music that is mixed into everyday life is coming out of the speakers, blurring the line between reality and reality.

It's like the warning signs at the end of TV dramas that I used to watch with interest as a child, saying "This story is fiction." It's like that, precariously shaking people who are on the line between reality and fiction.

Reality, fiction, reality, fiction, reality, fiction, reality, fiction.

It feels like Tamori or Koki Mitani might appear on the screen.

原文はFBの自分の投稿

夕方コンビニに出掛けて部屋に戻ってきたときに流れていた音楽

。David Grubbs。なるほど理念としてのアンビエント・

ミュージックのように普段の生活に混じる音楽がスピーカーから流れていて現実との境界線を曖昧にしている。

TVドラマの最後に書いてある子供の頃興味深く観ていた「この物語はフィクションです」という注意書き。あれみたいに現実と創作とが境界線上にいる人間を危うく揺らしている。

現実、虚構、現実、虚構、現実、虚構、現実、虚構。

なんだかタモリや三谷幸喜が画面上に現れてきそうな空気感である。