The Miracles of the Namiya General Store (2017)

The stories do  not end, they become seeds for the next, proving once again that good  deeds create ripples in the quiet pond of human experience ... This is  just one of the many lessons that "Namiya Zakkaten no Kiseki" propose,  sometimes you do not see the effect of your good deeds  because you do not have an omniscient view, and sometimes the  far-reaching effects may just astound you. The feel of place and time is strong, and the 1980s are well portrayed. Nostalgia is in full bloom. One of the joys of the film is the fascinating art of the written word. In  short there is a lot of blue-eyed nostalgia in "Namiya", especially for  the way things happened in 1980, when the country was not yet harmed by  wealth and things were more relaxed. Even in Tokyo, there  were hardly any convenience stores and housewives routinely bought in  neighborhood establishments like Namiya General.

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This movie is quite something else. It didn’t really follow the book’s timeline 100% but still, this movie is beautiful. The use of different timeline is awesomely executed in this movie to the point that it is not confusing at all. And you can’t even predict its storyline at all.

There are past that belongs to Mr Namiya and the future that belongs to Atsuya and his friends. And in between there are also other characters in another different timeline. The future will interfere with the past and in the end everyone is connected to each other. Sounds confusing? No, the director did a great job not to confuse the viewer, he followed the event properly.

I will say that Toshiyuki Nishida is the main actor here, without him nothing will happened. He did his role perfectly up until the end. Yamada is an angry young man here, I always think he is a great actor, even in this movie. Both of them didn’t share any scene together, but the link between them will be explained more as we go further into the movie.  Special shoutout to Kento Hayashi. His acting improved greatly in this movie. The woman beside me was crying so hard on his scene to the point that I too, get goosebumps.

The cinematography is beautiful, it didn’t use much sound or song except in a few scenes. There are no definite climax in this movie but the storyline is so clear, it keeps you wanted to know the real mystery behind everything. It is not the detective kind of movie, it is just people trying to make sense of what is going on. In the process, they learnt something very important in their lives which is relatable to us all. I really like the message this movie tried to convey. Recommended.

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