JapanNewbie

Movie: My Secret Cache

Posted on 30. May, 2009 @ 6:27 am by harvey in Media Views: 449

I recently saw the movie My Secret Cache (ひみつの花園).

To be frank, this was an extremely campy comedy with a completely ridiculous plot. The main character Sakiko, played by Naomi Nishida, is a girl who since childhood has only been able to get excited about money. When guys ask her out on a date, she checks to see if they are going to pay (それって、おごりですか？ sore tte, ogori desu ka?), and if they are she asks them to call off the date and give her the money that would have been spent on her instead. Ouch!

As a young adult she gets a job at a bank (because she can get paid for counting money there) where she is unfortunate enough to get mixed up in a bank robbery. After the dust settles it turns out that she is the only living person who knows where the loot (the secret cache) the robbers failed to get away with is buried.

Without giving away too much of the plot, I can say that the rest of the movie has her getting involved in all sorts of activities for the sole purpose of getting her hands on that cash.

The whole thing is really silly… But you know what… It’s still fun. If you’re looking for yet another Japanese movie to watch to keep your language skills from wasting away, you might want to check this one out. It’s no masterpiece, but it has its moments. The comedy is really campy and slapstick… Very Japanese. The scenes could be taken straight out of a manga or anime. You know the type.

By the way, Naomi Nishida later was in other movies like Happiness of the Katakuri’s, Swing Girls, and Densha Otoko. She lead a very successful acting career and has a huge following. This was one of her earliest films.

Quirky crazy Japanese comedy. Gotta love it.

Actually, this movie has really great reviews. I didn’t find it spectacular though… A fun watch yes, but not amazing. Has anyone else seen this? What did you think? Maybe I wasn’t in the right state of mind when I watched it…

P.S. In case you’re wondering about the Kansai-ben iPhone Application, the application has been approved by Apple, but I’m still waiting for them to approve my contracts. If you Google “iTunes connect contract pending” you’ll come up with tons of threads of people complaining about how long the process takes. I’ve been waiting about 2 weeks now… So I guess I can patiently wait another 2 or 3 weeks before my head explodes. Once the contracts are approved the app will magically appear in the iTunes store, so keep your eyes peeled!

- Harvey

Tags: japan, japanese, movies