Yeah, I’m just as lost as most of you are, but I trust Albert Lanier to explain it to me.
Albert... what’s SUNSET ON THIRD STREET, why did they make a second one, and what Spring Showcase?
SUNSET ON THIRD STREET SEQUEL ALWAYS UNINTERESTING
BY ALBERT LANIER
If film studios ran education programs and decided to use certain movies as defacto training films to show to people who had never seen movies before, they might consider screening the needlessly melodramatic ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET 2 which was screened on Friday, April 18 at the Regal Dole Cannery theatres in Honolulu as the opening night film of the Hawaii International Film Festival's 11th annual Spring Showcase.
The sequel to ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET a 2006 Japanese melodrama set in postwar Tokyo, ALWAYS 2 returns to the same cramped little urban neighborhood and features some of the same characters of the original including the sequel's main character Ryunosuke Chagawa, a struggling would-be novelist who is acting as guardian to young Junnosuke. A wealthy businessman is insistent on taking the young boy and seeing that he is properly educated but Chagawa makes a deal: if he wins the prestigious Akutagawa literary prize and the One Million Yen prize that goes with it, he gets to keep the kid. If not, he will be turned over to the business executive.
Also in attendance are the Suzuki family-Norifumi, Tomoe and Ippei along with their greasy monkey female mechanic Mutsuko. The family must take in young Ippei's second cousin, a young girl who is used to living well and must now live with relatives while her father goes off the find work after the collapse of his businesses.
There are also other subplots-Mutsuko sees a boy she knows from her old village, mother Tomoe meets up with a former boyfriend who served in the army during World War 2 and who she hasn't seen since then, father Norifumi debates about whether to attend his Army Unit reunion.
The end result is a hypersentimental motion picture that milks so much false and unworthy emotion that seems like a counterfeit yen note.
The direction by Takashi Yamasaki (who also co-wrote the film) tends toward the exaggeratedly simple and acting so is basic and indicative as to put the Delsarte method to shame.
The only performance that works is Shinichi Tsutsumi's turn as the Suzuki Paterfamilias. The actor brings an over-the-top intensity to his part which results in an often wildly funny performance.
ALWAYS 2 is essentially emotional puppetry-move a arm and leg here and you produce laughs, move the head and you provoke tears.
Madly melodramatic films like ALWAYS 2 are nothing more than overblown TV movies which have the heart of a ten year old and the brain of a 2 year old.
Next time, the HIFF programmers might want schedule a film with a brain for its opening night screening instead of one with the semblance of a heart.
