Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2010

©2010『てぃだかんかん』製作委員会

Though many fine films have been set in Okinawa (Shohei Imamura’s 1968 effort Kamigami Fukaki Yokubo and Go Takamine’s Untamagiru from 1989 spring to mind), the recent trend has been towards poorly made movies that trade on the islands’ natural beauty—like last year’s wretched Minami no Shima no Furimun. Teidakankan doesn’t plummet to those depths, but it’s more than a little formulaic and hokey. Jovial but bumbling Kenji (Takashi Okamura) wants to marry town beauty Yuri (Yasuko Matsuyuki), but the ocean-loving dreamer must score a job first—his main talent seems to be getting punched in the face, usually by his own mother. Against all odds he starts a successful ocean-themed restaurant, which features an impressive aquarium that he decorates with coral from the local seabed. This leads him to realize the reefs around Okinawa are dying, and when he leads the fight to re-seed them, he becomes a local celebrity. The ecological theme is timely, but the film is so corny that the topic has no gravity. Barely watchable. English title: Sunshine Ahead. (119 min)