Hello guys,
I’m not dead or disappeared 8). Recently I got very few spare time to update this page. Please forgive me, I hope to make better in the future. Thanks to all friends that continuously supported me.
I watched a good jmovie, so I’m here again to give you a short advice.
It is titled “県庁の星” (Kenchou no Hoshi) or “The Star of Prefecture Government” or “Star Reformer”. It’s a 2006 movie starring Oda Yuji and Shibasaki Kou, plus other actor/actress on small parts which I remember to have seen in other Japanese productions.
It’s a closeup look to the Japanese politics, specifically to politics at the prefecture level, where corruption is omnipresent and unavoidable. In the Japanese world bureaucracy rules the government. That’s the world painted in this movie, a nice comedy that faces two major Japanese stars against each other in a battle of “work values”.
Nomura (Oda Yuji) is a heartless and ambitious mid-level young bureaucrat working at a nameless prefecture government office with a prominent career behind him. Thanks to his hard work, Nomura is on the way to the top and he is marrying the beautiful daughter of a rich and influential businessman. At that very moment the government involve him in a project where bureaucrats are sent to work in local businesses in order to observe the real world (and even serve it). For a period of 6 months.
He starts to work under Ninomiya (Shibasaki Kou), a young but veteran part-timer who manage the supermarket’s people since the real manager doesn’t do it. Ninomiya is different from Nomura. Her first priority is making the customers happy, and she manages the store in order to achieve this purpose. She does not follow the complicated instruction manuals or strict schemes.
Due to his “elite” character Nomura clashes immediately with all local employees. At the end the entire supermarket staff thinks that the new guy must be keep out from daily-work, as much as possible.
Can they really works together to save the department store ?
The movie suggests that a compromise can be reached between ideals and practicality. Oda Yuji plays perfectly the role of Japan’s favorite salary man, blending a bit of arrogance with the typical Japanese office worker. Shibasaki Kou is naturally likable, adding to her undemanding role a hint of youthfulness.
If you have some spare time to watch it you will not be disappointed.
By the way, don’t expect a movie in Hollywood style, but in Japanese style 
