Libramedi
Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant
Inadvands
Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess
Ketrivie
It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Jamie Hoobanoff (kzg-52025)
I liked this film and I think it's a fun family comedy. The main actors are extreme but the exaggeration makes me smile, the story is really good, but it continues to make steady progress without going in a thousand directions. What I most enjoyed was the challenging roles because they need to be exaggerated, which were unusual and different and bring wonder to all of us. I believe it's fun to see how the filmmakers keep up with the times and introduce a subplot of big box stores taking customers away from mom and pop shops. I would love to see more films in the future featuring a female main character who makes men feel alive inside and outside. As such, I thoroughly recommend it.
aghaemi
Doraggusutoa Gâru a.k.a. Drugstore Girl in English is a simple, low-budget and light weight feature that has the feel and levity of a summer evening TV movie. One could imagine watching this on one of the broadcast stations of Tokyo one early humid and oppressive August evening in a cramped room with the door and windows wide open.The story begins with a chuckle in a bizarre situation that by all rights would not be funny. Keiko Obayashi (played by Rena Tanaka who is a new face to me) catches her boyfriend cheating on her in the funniest way possible and reacts as any edokko Tokyo girl would. She jumps on the first train at the station without looking, cries herself to sleep and only wakes up to find herself at the end of the line lost in an unfamiliar area. It turns out that - she and the viewers later find out - she has landed in the fictional Masao town and station a stone's throw away from Saitama. As she wanders the streets lost and forlorn she comes across a pharmacy whose grand opening is the next day and being a pharmacology student applies for a job. Unhappy with the new mega store, Hustle Drug, the incumbent pharmacy owner in the area and his friends plan a boycott and sabotage, which leads them to Keiko. Where the film seems like a tale of David and Goliath at first, somewhere in the middle it transforms into something else. The business aspect is not pursued and instead Keiko is depicted as a butterface with sexy legs and not only university smarts, but also experience and talent for Lacrosse of all things - although one sees several female Lacrosse players also walk by in Tenten. Hoping to gain a date with this smart and sassy girl the men mobilize to earn her affections to decidedly silly effect. Soon the entire town is transformed and the efforts of the men multiply to such an extent that the players are the focus of a TV news feature. Keiko is keen to gain revenge from her ex (who, in turn and as oddly, is being dropped by his two new sexy girlfriends because Keiko wants to pick up her belongings), the men cannot score a goal to get a date with the subject of their infatuation and the new business' obviously rich owner puts cash money towards sponsoring her would-be rivals and foes.This is a light, funny, shallow and exaggerated film perfect for killing a couple of hours. It somewhat surprisingly features Kimiko Yo (Departures, Café Lumiere, Ramen Girl, Suicide Club, etc.), Akira Emoto (Ichi, Zatoichi, Maborosi, etc.) and is scripted by Ping Pong writer Kankurô Kudô.
Desertman84
Drugstore Girl is a Japanese comedy film directed by the Japanese filmmaker Katsuhide Motoki.The story is about a young student who works in a convenience drug store, and five middle-aged men who gets attracted on her.The film is set in a rural town and features lacrosse prominently. The cast includes Rena Tanaka as Keiko Obayashi,young the student and Akira Emoto as Nabe-yan,the leader of the group of middle- age men.Drugstore Girl focuses on Keiko Obayashi,who is a third year chemistry student in Tokyo. After finding her boyfriend in the bathtub with another student, she takes a train out of Tokyo. She wakes up in rural Masao, where she soon finds a job working in a newly opened convenience drug store.Meanwhile, five middle-aged men who run local shops are worried about the competition from the new store, and plan to disrupt it. However, they all fall in love with Keiko as soon as they see her inside the store. After following her one day, Nabe-san discovers that she plays lacrosse at the university. The men decide to take up lacrosse in an effort to get a date with her. The film follows them as they practice in secret, are found out by Keiko who agrees to coach them, and finally play a match against a lacrosse team from America who are attracted by the Native American nickname of one of their players.The men are heavily defeated, but Geronimo becomes a hero when he scores the team's only point, and the film ends with him flying to America with the Americans.Drugstore Girl is total entertainment.Rena Tanaka manages to carry this movie with sort of an awkward script and makes it fun to watch.The movie starts with a big business vs small business theme only to make a detour when five middle-age men discover the beautiful drugstore girl Keiko Obayashi and they change their focus of attention to her.To prove their determination of getting a date,they even decide to play her favorite sport - lacrosse. The attraction maybe creepy and somewhat horrifying but Keiko does not mind as obviously the scriptwriter never kept her in danger from so-called "fatal" attraction these middle-aged men in the movie.She even forms a lacrosse team around them to get back at her ex.The movie tries to make the viewer amused but it can only manage to at a certain point.It does have some funny moments especially the lacrosse scenes but they don't manage to keep it very interesting all the time.Overall,I should say that this Japanese comedy was made for humor,amusement,attempt in humor and laughter and nothing more
regi0n2fan
Motoki Katsuhide's "Drugstore Girl" is a light, cute, and often pathetic comedic story of a beautiful young pharmacology student who turns a group of middle-aged men into raving, lecherous gits whilst starting a new life in a new town. Obayashi Keiko (Tanaka Rena) finds her live-in boyfriend cheating on her and subsequently bolts her apartment in Shinjuku, boarding the JR and basically disembarking at a random station. She ends up in the town of Masao on the outskirts of Tokyo-to and there she begins a new life (except for the fact that she has her pharmacology classes back in the city). Whimsically letting things fall into place, she lands a job at "Hustle Drug", a new Wal-Mart sort of super store which threatens to put the local mom & pop merchants out of business. A group of middle-aged men - consisting of three of the local merchants (druggist, baker and kombini owner), a monk and Keaton-esquire homeless man - initially plan to sabotage the grand opening of Hustle Drug, but one sight of the lovely Obayashi and the old boys quickly forget about their economic agenda. When their leader Nabeshima (Emoto Akira) discovers that Obayashi plays lacrosse, the old boys set out to learn this strange new sport, complete with fishing nets and protective gear made from cardboard boxes and bamboo. Their intent, of course, is to use this as an excuse to win her favour, but she cleverly (or obliviously) decides to train them in the sport, which popularizes it immediately throughout Masao and revives the stagnant bamboo handicraft industry by turning the local craftsmen into distinctly Japanese crosse makers (no lightweight Fiberglas or Polyamide laminates here). From there, the story becomes less about the drugstore and more about the newly-formed old boys lacrosse side, and the climactic match against a side made up of (presumably) American Indian players. A bit brief and somewhat underdeveloped in parts, the story capitalises on the recurring Japanese cinematic theme of the hopeless newbie underdog taking on the big guys by means of their undying competitive spirit and instant devotion to a sport that they have only recently discovered. It works for the most part, and the movie is a delight, particularly the opening scene when Obayashi catches her boyfriend Hitoshi cheating on her. Tanaka Rena ("Tokyo Marigold", "Gangu Shuriya", "Hatsukoi") is surprisingly animated in this comedic role, and Emoto Akira ("Shall We Dance?", "Unagi", "Waterboys") is annoying yet funny as the middle-aged bosouzoku-turned-druggist. The rest of the old boys are even more annoying if not downright stupid, but Tanaka Rena's splendid performance more than makes up for it.
