Kenchô no hoshi (2006) User Reviews

Too long, but good

[caffeinequeen18 · 7/10 · 15 March 2020]

Definitely does not need to be two hours long, and the set up at the beginning was a little confusing. However, once the supermarket parts kick in, I found this quite an enjoyable and sweet movie.

Along comes a drama that changes everything..........

[gabeaubrey-1 · 24 June 2008]

Satoshi Nomura, a top-level bureaucrat of a prefecture government, has passion for his career. One day, he applied for and was hired by the fixed-term personnel exchange training between public and private businesses. This personnel exchange training is part of some big prefecture project. This project is very big, so success of this personnel exchange training will probably determine his career. 7 or 8 members of this personnel exchange training went to different workplaces. Nomura went to a supermarket called "Mantendo". But Mantendo had many problems and was in danger of closing. His bureaucratic training wasn't useful in the smaller, private company and he didn't have a very good relationship with his co-workers, especially Aki Ninomiya who was a younger part-time worker, who also happened to be his trainer. As if that wasn't enough, during his troubles at Mantendo, he lost his position in the prefecture project and was dumped by his fiancé. Things were looking pretty bad for him. Just then, Ninomiya invited Nomura to go to department store together for some field study market research, but he thought it was a date. There, he found many things that he had never thought of and was changing his mind and his terrible situation.

It had been a long time since I had seen a drama with acting this intense, yet believable. The only complaint I have about this movie is the sometimes droning musical score that did very little to add to the suspense at times. But overall, this movie stands out above the other Asian dramas I've seen as one with real heart and a clearly devoted cast.