The Miracles of the Namiya General Store (2017)

Tre ladruncoli improvvisati, dopo un furto, decidono di nascondersi in un vecchio negozio abbandonato. Durante la notte, viene recapitata una lettera, indirizzata all’emporio "Namiya", con una richiesta di aiuto. Infatti, il vecchio proprietario era solito dispensare consigli di vita tramite delle lettere. I tre ragazzi ne leggono il contenuto e decidono di rispondere. In questo scambio epistolare, i giovani capiscono che in quella notte sta avvenendo un miracolo: le lettere, che giungono sempre più numerose, vengono dal passato, e quando loro rispondono, e le imbucano nella cassetta del latte che funge da cassetta postale, tornano nell’anno da cui giungono.
Un intreccio di storie, tra passato e presente che cambierà il destino non solo dei mittenti delle lettere, ma anche dei giovani tre, che ascoltando gli altri e dispensando loro consigli, capiranno qual è la giusta strada da percorrere.

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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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