Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (1997)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

People are voting emotionally.

Nice effects though.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Ever thought it must be great to direct or write or be a crew member on a show? Think it's a snap? Think again...Everything that can go wrong, does: it's NOISES OFF on the radio in Japanese. Watch for the least likely rescuer to save the day!

Despite cliche slapstick scenes (which are little and tolerable), "Radio No Jikan" is a refreshing comedy for someone who is tired of mainstream cinema blockbusters. It had my sister and I in tears during the second half of the movie when things really turn chaotic. Unforgettable characters were the tiresome Bucky and the charismatic Mr. Horinouchi. I give it an 8 out of 10 !

Being a fan of Juzo Itami, I went to see "Welcome Back Mr. McDonald" (English title) expecting a dark comedy. I was pleasantly surprised. Though Mitani's film is much lighter than Itami's "Marusa no Onna" for example, I still was laughing out loud along with everyone else in the theatre over scenes like the Gameboy(tm)-playing security guard teaching frantic techies how to create the sound of a dam breaking over a mountain village with rice and a styrofoam cup. This is a cleverly filmed, intelligently written, and well-acted movie. I just wish recent films from Japan like "Rajio no Jikan", "Mononoke Hime" and "After Life" were given the credit they deserve in the United States.

At a time when Japanese movies are becoming less and less imaginative and more and more standardized, THE RADIO HOUR stands as one of the happiest surprises from their industry in many years. Koki Mitani's script and direction are beautifully assured, and the actors, particularly the hilarious Jun Inoue as the cheerful, prankish Hiromitsu, couldn't be better. Mitani doesn't bother directly explaining anything to the audience; rather, he expertly shows a wide range of human behavior, each quirk of which leads to yet another bizarre twist in the ongoing live-broadcast drama. Fortunately, Mitani likes all his characters, and with marvelous economy, sees that we well understand why they behave the way they do. In fact as the story unfolds, one begins to see Mitani's story as something of an allegory for the filmmaking process, or the process of any endeavor, including the theater or the radio, that involves a broad number of collaborators. There's the actor who'll go along with anything, and the actor who won't; the actress who demands a star turn (but mainly because she feels underappreciated); the technicians who've seen it all before, and scramble to improvise; and, finally, the playwright herself, increasingly weirded out by what's becoming a perversion of everything she intended. But, finally, was what she intended any better than what what the rest of the team threw together? They needed her to get started; she needed them for the same reason.Collaboration means interdependence, and if the audience is finally happy, as Mitani ultimately suggests, then what better outcome could there be? There is not a finer or more cheerful film to come out of Japan since the last works of Juzo Itami, and it is fitting that his widow, the great actress Nobuko Miyamoto, contributes a (nearly invisible) cameo, to one of the few Japanese films to emulate the spirit of her late husband's art. And like Itami's films, THE RADIO HOUR is that rare Japanese comedy that audiences anywhere can enjoy