Koko ni irukoto
2001
Japan
Being Here
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Comments: Wonderfully sad story with bad acting from peripheral characters, but Machiko Kochi is great in the lead role. When everyone around her is acting ridiculous she acknowledges their bad acting and the script's weaknesses before moving on. This makes her doubly good. I can't stand Masato Sakai's pucker-faced acting so this was never going to work for me. If you like his work you will definitely enjoy this film.
Summary: Shino Aiba is finding her job as a copy editor in a big Tokyo ad agency less than satisfying. She still ranks low on the male-dominated agency hierarchy and is regularly dissed at meetings. She's also having an affair with a superior that said superior's wife has discovered. The wife gives her 500,000 yen in kiss-off money and the agency transfers her to the sales department in Osaka; which, for the Tokyo-bred, upward-bound Aiba, is a Siberian exile. She arrives looking blank and withdrawn and feeling more than a little pissed-off at the agency, Osaka, and the world at large. When a smiling new co-worker named Maeno suggests that she register for a week at the deluxe hotel the agency has found for her, her initial plan is to stay until every yen of the company's money is gone. After that? Sayonara, suckers! Going to the boat races, she tries to toss away her money on a no-hope bet and ends up with a ticket worth 10 million yen -- her escape hatch. However, she finds herself charmed by Osaka's earthy culture and by her equally earthy colleagues -- especially her associate Maeno. She then debates whether or not she will stay with the company or strike out on her own. |
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