Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2012

As Johnny Depp, among others, will tell you, a massively popular film franchise can do wonders for your career. Filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki was a mid-level director when he took on the first Always: Sanchome no Yuhi (Always: Sunset on 3rd Street) in 2005. This feel-good nostalgic yarn for Showa-era Japan (specifically the ’50s and early ’60s) has racked up box office hauls of ¥3.5 billion for the first installment and ¥4.56 billion for the second (in 2007). Now an A-list director in the Japanese film biz, Yamazaki had another major success with the action thriller Uchu Senkan Yamato (Space Battleship Yamato) in 2010. The current Always (set in 1964, obviously) uses the 3-D gimmick, which adds little to the film and is utilized in aerial shots only rarely.

The franchise centers on a shitamachi neighborhood in Tokyo that has characters like the failed cartoonist Ryunosuke (Hidetaka Yoshioka) and his love, a former barista, Hiromi (Koyuki). The focal point of this story is Mutsuko (the lovely Maki Horikita), who has worked in the Suzuki auto repair shop since high school. Now a young woman, she is ready to marry, but is her beau serious or a philandering louse? The subplot concerns Ryunosuke’s adopted son Junnosuke (Kenta Suga) who wants to be a cartoonist, much to his dad’s chagrin. The soap opera-like saga will please those who like the genre and puzzle those who don’t.

English title: Always: Sunset on 3rd Street ’64; 144 min