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Star
Reformer |
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Kou Shibasaki and Yuji Oda in Star Reformer.
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AKA: |
Kencho
no Hoshi |
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AKA: |
The
Prefectural Star |
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Year: |
2006 |
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Director: |
Hiroshi
Nishitani |
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Writer: |
Shinsuke
Sato (based on a novel by Nozomi Katsura) |
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Cast: |
Yuji
Oda, Kou Shibasaki, Koji Ishizaka, Hisashi Igawa, Gaku
Yamada, Bengal, Mahiru Konno, Toru Masuoka, Jin Nakayama,
Setsutan Oh, Kaoru Okunuki, Wakako Sakai, Kunanosuke
Sasaki, Toshihiro Wada, Kenichi Yajima, Sayaka Yamaguchi |
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The
Skinny: |
This
small-scale Japanese comedy-drama works thanks to its
stars and its swipes at the status quo. It would also
work better as a television drama than an overlong feature
film. |
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Review
by
Kevin Ma: |
In
Japan, bureaucracy rules the government. Deals are made
on personal connections, benefits are waived due to
technicalities, and politicians talk in false polite
tongues. That's the world depicted in Star Reformer,
a dramedy that pits two major Japanese stars against
each other in a battle of...work values? Yuji Oda (of
the Bayside Shakedown series) plays Nomura, a
heartless and ambitious mid-level bureaucrat working
at a nameless prefectural government office. He has
mastered the art of bureaucracy - he wrote an entire
manual on how to write official letters, and he even
refuses to help a homeless man on the technicality that
the homeless can't prove their residency in the prefecture.
Thanks to his hard work, Nomura is on the way to the
top, and believes that he will be heading up an expensive
government-sponsored local retirement resort project
since he's engaged to the daughter of the construction
company's president. In his attempt to get on a major
politician's good side, he innocently suggests that
the controversial resort project should be built with
the "citizen's know-how" to fend off anti-development
interest groups.
Of course, no comments are
ever innocent, as his advice causes the government to
implement a project in which bureaucrats are sent to
work in local businesses in order to gain perspective
from "the real world." Needless to say, Nomura is chosen
as one of the participants. Sent to a run-down local
supermarket, the star from the prefectural office is
forced to work under Ninomiya (Kou Shibasaki from The
Sinking of Japan), a young tough-as-nails veteran
part-timer who bosses people around like the supermarket's
manager since the real manager doesn't actually do any
managing. Naturally, Ninomiya is the opposite of Nomura
- her first priority is making the customers happy,
and she runs the store by being good on her feet, not
by memorizing manuals and fire codes. Quickly mocked
by store workers as "Mr. Prefecture," Nomura is determined
to secure his place in the resort project, so he unsuccessfully
tries to outdo the status quo in his own way. However,
his suggestions for reforms are rejected, and his attempt
to make quality expensive lunchboxes in order to distance
himself from some of the supermarket's shadier practices
fails miserably.
By Nomura's initial failures,
one might expect this film to take a hard antagonistic
position against bureaucracy, as its absurdities are
pointed out again and again throughout the film. However,
when the film gets the point where everything comes
crashing down for both protagonists, Star Reformer
actually suggests that some kind of compromise can be
reached between ideals and practicality. It's fairly
obvious that the filmmakers don't want to make a biting
commentary on the system, especially considering that
the climax involves Nomura giving a noble public speech
about government accountability in front of his colleagues.
Most of Star Reformer remains a gentle, audience-friendly
jab at the system rather a sharp stab. However, its
surprisingly pessimistic conclusion, which thankfully
undoes any false note the aforementioned speech might
ring, clearly shows whose side the filmmakers are on.
Its somewhat gentle nature
might explain why Star Reformer might make a
better television drama. It features two stars that
have successful careers on television, a setting ripe
for building supporting characters and subplots, swipes
at the system to make people think, a time limit for
the narrative (the personnel exchange program lasts
six months), and even character conflicts that might
build into romantic entanglements that would build the
show's emotional core. In the film, most of those aspects
are somewhat underdeveloped because of its focus on
Nomura and Ninomiya. A prolonged television drama would
flesh out established characters and hinted situations
(such as the "undesirable workers" being put in the
kitchen) to the point where the supermarket can be more
than just a setting for a movie pitch. Then again, Japanese
viewers might not want to tune in for 11 weeks of their
local supermarkets and governments failing their jobs
miserably. After seeing what the supermarket kitchen
does during food preparation ("Fishes taste better fried
twice"), I will never look at Japanese supermarket food
the same way again.
Still, Star Reformer
should not be undermined as a solid piece of cinema,
either. Directed by television veteran Hiroshi Nishitani,
the film is confidently directed without much visual
flair. It's a wise choice, considering that the film
is trying to sell characters and situations, not dazzling
camera tricks. On the other hand, Nishitani's television
style shows when handling the film's emotional core.
Star Reformer is at its most engaging when dealing
with Nomura and his gradual involvement with running
the supermarket, and Nishitani manages to build a consistent
pace. But then the filmmakers spend much of the second
act showing the characters crumbling, thus setting up
their redemption in the third act. In trying to make
the audience care about the characters, Nishitani drags
out each revelation and character downfall as if he
was still directing a drama. At 130 minutes, Star
Reformer needs to make a choice as to whether the
film is about principles or heart. Perhaps it was due
to audience demand, or perhaps it was due to the assumption
that they could pull it off, but Nishitani and screenwriter
Shinsuke Sato failed to make that choice.
Fortunately, Star Reformer
also chooses to rely heavily on its main attraction:
the stars. After decades of playing the Japanese white-collar
worker, Yuji Oda has perfected the role of Japan's favorite
salaryman. Blending a bit of arrogance with the typical
Japanese office worker brand of passiveness, Oda pulls
off the demanding role of Nomura without much difficulty;
he even manages to make Nomura somewhat likable when
the script fails to do so. Meanwhile, Kou Shibasaki
is naturally likable, as the filmmakers not only portray
her as a hard worker, but also a responsible guardian
to her younger brother. Nevertheless, Shibasaki adds
to her undemanding role by adding a hint of youthfulness
that lies beneath her tough exterior. However, that
also makes the age difference between Oda and Shibasaki
all the more glaring, taking away much of the chemistry
needed to build their romance. Of course, the film would
not work at all if not for the stars' respective performances,
and they both deliver the goods. Even if Star Reformer
doesn't manage to effectively teach a lesson about bureaucracy
or how to make a film seem more cinematic than television,
it can at least make a point about the importance of
stars in contemporary cinema. (Kevin Ma 2007) |
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Availability: |
DVD (Hong Kong)
Region 0 NTSC (marked as Region 3)
Kam & Ronson
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Japanese Language Track
Dolby Digital 5.1
Removable Chinese and English Subtitles |
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