MovieChat Forums > Always san-chôme no yûhi (2005) Discussion > Worst movie ever. Let me explain why.

Worst movie ever. Let me explain why.


Just saw this movie with one of my classes at an annual film festival which is running right now in my town. I have a huge respect for the japanese movie scene but this one was, to put it briefly, maybe the worst movie I've ever seen.
The first aspect which strucked me (like a lightning) was the actors and how extremely bad their acting performance were. Shinichi Tsutsumi did an unforgettably great appearance in the drama'Good Luck' but spoils his talent in this haughty role that he is playing; nuff said about the scene were he gets mad and letting his family (which all overplayed their asses off with the embarrasing yelling) bar the way like he was a raging bull or something. This was an expression that belongs in the comics; I started to laugh, not for the fact that it was funny but for the ocation of the sillyness that this hole movie radiates.
The hole plot is a classic but slavically followed mess where a problem is planted and in the end bombastically solved with the an accompaniment of these hollywood strings. I can't believe that the audience really fell for this sentimental and banal movie. 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back in return!

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Amen! You pretty much covered it.

The thing that struck me the most though was the reactions of the audience. As I was sitting there trying to give the movie the chance that any movie deserves i got very suprised when i heard loud laughter coming from all around me. I looked around and then back at the screen to see what this great punchline that i must have missed could have been. This happened throughtout the entire movie, somehow the people in the audience managed to see past the horrid acting and the thin story and actually seemed to enjoy the "jokes" of the film.

Example: At christmas when the people of the village are all saying "Merry Christmas" to each other, people burst into laughter. This confused me because, let us ignore the fact that movies making fun of how asian people pronounce english words is been abused, its not funny anymore! The fact that the japanese in this film didn't even pronounce "Merry Christmas" in a humorous way is even stranger.

It made 2 hours feel like 5.

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You could easily see where the "jokes" were planted. It were ment to be that familiar and intimate kind of jokes where you laugh because you feeling good about the events. I love "feel-good" movies, but when it's all filled without substance, natural feelings and impulsive emotions it just generates a synthetical and unreal view that just disgust me.
One of the last scenes is a typically example of this where the homeless kid returns to the author. He escapes from a stereotypic evil villain (as seen in his father who doesn't accept his pencil! His only love!!!1). The author freaks out in order of the constantly recurring overacting.

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The movie was very simply built, where you get one negative event that puts the audience on their toes and then five minutes later the problem is solved and the audience is given a feeling of relief. You can too easily predict how the director was thinking.
A good movie keeps you on your toes for the entire movie and building up an excitement. At the end you must find out how it is solved, and perhaps there is a suprise ending. There was absolutely no suprise about the ending in this movie!
I was mostly sitting waiting for this movie to end, because none of the characters or any of the hundred little mini-plots made any inpact at all on me.

I cant get it into my head that this movie won like 12 japanese answer to the Oscars!

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IMHO, it seems to me that you dislike it because it's just not your kind of movie. If you love suspense and surprise endings you should instead rent some Hitchcock masterpieces. That'll surely do you good.

Moreover, I think that you guys didn't like it because you do not understand what it's all about. The acting, the atmosphere and the plot were intentionally laid out that way because the whole movie itself was adapted from a series of comic books with the same name. I mean, what would you expect to see? A complex, huge plot twist or some De Niro-ish acting? You'll have to understand the context before placing such judgements.

I think that the main reason why it was so popular among Asian audience was that we feel so much "connected" to the characters and society depicted. We feel that in such a delicate and subtle way that I don't think Westerners would be able to understand.

BTW, I don't think that the "merry christmas" part was ever meant to be a joke. I mean, it's just so silly and immature to be laughing at that.

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Your argument isn't pertinent at all, you can use such an argument on every sucky movie there is.

"Gigli isn't bad at all! To all you guys who hates it, it isn't just your type of movie!"

You can see that this statement doesn't make any sense. The movie was awful because of the worthless acting performance, the prosaic story and the empty and boring character portrayals and that's not a matter of taste, it's a fact. If people still enjoy this, then it's a matter of bad taste in movies.

I could understand a little why the japanese audience enyoed it. It's a well-made interpretation of the post-war Tokyo. The Tokyo Tower is a national symbole of technology and future hope and the movie is revolving around the birth of the tower and what it represents.

Although, I think that the movie is concentrating to much of creating that feeling and in the end it just gets too sentimental and soppy.

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You maybe missed that this movie is made for japanese, and even though i even felt that the exaggerations may be too much for me to handle, then you need to be in touch with japanese popular culture and nostalgy to know that the movie actually touches something about the japanese spirit.
And it is a matter of taste, since this isnt a cheap b movie. And whether people like it or not, japanese in general love sentimental movies. Most japanese i have spoken to, have absolutely no interest in the "highly artistic" movies that otherwise comes from Japan.

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[deleted]

"This happened throughtout the entire movie, somehow the people in the audience managed to see past the horrid acting and the thin story and actually seemed to enjoy the "jokes" of the film."

Man, it's gotta suck when you're the only one cool enough to hate the movie you're all watching.

So it's not a deep movie-it's still a pleasant way to spend a few hours...unless you're a pretentious wanna-be movie critic.

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Interesting reading since this was one of the best movies I've seen. Most interesting to find out what people possibly could remark on!

may I comment just a bit! The scene where he gets mad isn't really out of proportion, it just shows his temper (I myself had japanese bosses just like that) and besides japanese can be like that (although exaggerated), especially men in position (cannot lose face etc.). But I can understand that is not realistic to non-japanese. That brings me to the rest, people laughing where others think that jokes are planted. I'm japanese and seeing it with my mother we laughed at different places than the rest of the crowd (we live and saw it in Sweden completely swedish ). So perhaps where most people think that jokes are planted they're actually not. One must understand japanese culture and society to recognize things, especially back then.

But sorry you didn't enjoy it as much as I did!

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"...about the scene were he gets mad and letting his family (which all overplayed their asses off with the embarrasing yelling) bar the way like he was a raging bull or something. This was an expression that belongs in the comics; I started to laugh, not for the fact that it was funny but for the ocation of the sillyness that this hole movie radiates."

Actually, this movie is based on a popular manga comic (which I haven't read).

So it shouldn't be surprising that that scene was a bit over the top - it was purposely supposed to be that way.

That scene might have been a popular scene from the comic.



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I'm Japanese and this movie is very popular because of those "exacurrations" which don't seem to be your cup of tea. this movie looks like a film from good-old days itself. as you see the opening scene is the old design of Toho company, and at this moment Japanese audience go back to the old days. exacurrated acting also resembles the "ninjo films" from this period and people remembers the most energetic era of Japan.

when I saw the movie with my grandparents, who cryed at the scene where many 15-year olds are getting into the train, I thought this is deffinitely a film for Japanese. I even wondered if audience from other country can understand most of the story because this film is made from memories of Japanese people. we don't care if the story describes the reality. I really understand why this film got so many prises. it won them because it provided us of the opportunity to remember the past and to cry, and to be healed. if you know how stressful and unpromising Japan now is, you'll see why people love this film so much.

and I don't know why the audience laughed at "merry christmas". in Japan it's not meant to be laughed. I wonder why.

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yup, I agree... if anybody laughed at "merry christmas", or even thought that it was supposed to be a joke or something.... then they know nothing about Japan.

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[deleted]

Actually, while it was basically a good movie recalling an era in Japan that many Japanese remember fondly, there were a few instances of bad acting. So, some of the armchair critics here have somewhat of a point. But, only a few performances deserve their scorn.

The auto shop owners temper outbursts were a little cartoonish, and over the top. But, It was only a couple of the outbursts that were a problem. Overall, he was OK. The real problem was the actor portraying the wannabe novelist. He was just awful. He was beyond awful. Ham doesn't describe his over-emoting, gesticulating performance. This guy doesn't just chew dried octopus, he chews scenery.

But, other than that, the acting performances were fine. The children especially stand out. And, the reason many Japanese audiences found scenes funny that you cheese-eating white folks didn't get is because they related directly to Japanese cultural history for which you have no reference. (Just like they might not understand a joke about having a Mexican gardener, for instance.)

So, it was not the worst movie ever, nor was it the best. It was just an enjoyable movie about the coming of age of a post-war nation, marred only by the performances of one or two actors. I recommend it be watched with a Japanese person who can explain some of the happenings that are specific to Japanese culture, such as the mass hirings of graduating students every Spring.

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I am an Asian,but not Japanese.I can appreciate this movie.
IMHO,this movie is kind of like <Forrest Gump>.

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Yeah every movie is "worst movie ever".

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by sebastian_carlberg » Tue Jan 30 2007 09:49:10
IMDb member since August 2005
Just saw this movie with one of my classes at an annual film festival which is running right now in my town. I have a huge respect for the japanese movie scene but this one was, to put it briefly, maybe the worst movie I've ever seen.
The first aspect which strucked me (like a lightning) was the actors and how extremely bad their acting performance were. Shinichi Tsutsumi did an unforgettably great appearance in the drama'Good Luck' but spoils his talent in this haughty role that he is playing; nuff said about the scene were he gets mad and letting his family (which all overplayed their asses off with the embarrasing yelling) bar the way like he was a raging bull or something. This was an expression that belongs in the comics; I started to laugh, not for the fact that it was funny but for the ocation of the sillyness that this hole movie radiates.
The hole plot is a classic but slavically followed mess where a problem is planted and in the end bombastically solved with the an accompaniment of these hollywood strings. I can't believe that the audience really fell for this sentimental and banal movie. 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back in return!

Well, the thing that strikes me is that the acting is over the top, but the scenery and set design is first rate. The production values are exceptionally high. From the costumes to the props to the sets to the lighting and shot design.

But, as you observed, like a lot of high energy Japanese cinema, it is somewhat predictable and over the top where the performances are concerned. It's like were shoved into 1950's Japan with a big neon arrow sign saying "1950's Japan here!"

The other thign is that there are a huge number of special effects shots here. From the train station to the exterior street shots, to everything outside Third Street, and even third Street isn't spared.

But, with all that said, it is a character study and slice of history. There's no real plot to keep us moving forward, other than the girl bike repair and auto repair thing, but it's so weak that we really don't care about it.

To me this film is wonderfully shot, but there's just no story here, just some minor subplots that I think the director hoped would weave a tapestry for the audience to keep us riveted.

Well, it's not happening because there's no anticipation of what the characters are striving for.

Well, I took a chance on it, got my Region 2 DVD from Thailand, and the visuals of the film are outstanding, but it needs a stronger story and plot.

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