JFF 2022: Dreaming of the Meridian Arc review

 

The Japanese Film Festival is back! Actually it never left and went online after the pandemic started but I never bothered with online. The opening night movie is Nakai Kiichi's Dreaming of the Meridian Arc or Taiga e no Michi which is a more suitable and funny name.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

In Dreaming of the Meridian Arc, Nakai Kiichi works for Katori City where the famous Ino Tadataka who made the first accurate map of Japan lived and proposes they idea that they should get a taiga dorama made about Tadataka to increase tourism. Nakai Kiichi tries hard to get this famous screenwriter who has not written anything in 20 years to do the synopsis of the show but on the way they discover that Tadataka may not have actually made the map! The movie jumps back to the past to show what actually happened with the modern cast playing the characters in the time of Tadataka.

THE GOOD

+ Very good cast of Nakai Kiichi, Matsuyama Kenichi, Kitagawa Keiko and Nishimura Masahiko.

+ Matsuyama Kenichi was the source of most of the laughs

+ It is a feel good movie about people coming together to do an impossible task much like The Great Passage.

THE BAD

- The directing is very pedestrian. It feels more like a tv movie than a movie made for cinema. There isn't much budget despite the incredible cast but it makes it feel more like a movie paid for by Katori City about Katori city trying to get a taiga dorama up and running.

THE MEH

= Feels like a  weaker version of The Great Passage with more humour. 

SUMMARY

Dreaming of the Meridian Arc did its job. They were funny bits and touching bits and it made me think about visiting Kotori city to see Tadataka but it was more like a tv movie or 2 part tv dorama. Between meh and watchable. There's nothing to dislike about it.