Wood Job! Kamusari nânâ nichijô

The between city and country life is one that is recognisable and popular not just in Japanese cinema but probably the world over, and it's always good material for a comedy. In Shinobu Yaguchi's Wood Job! a soft city boy finds himself out in the sticks with a lot of country hicks and is forced to endure much embarrassment and raise much hilarity as he learns to toughen up and get in touch with the real world. You can't go wrong with that for comedy, and Wood Job! certainly makes the most of this situation.

Having failed his university entrance exams and subsequently been dumped by his girlfriend, Yuki Hirano settles for enrolling at "Green Camp", lured by the image of an attractive girl on the cover of a brochure. Little does he realise that not only does being a Trainee Forester involve a lot of hard work in places infected with snakes, bugs and leeches, but you can't even get a mobile phone signal way out there in the middle of nowhere. The people out here talk kind of funny too.

Wood Job! doesn't miss a trick as far as fish-out-of-water comedy goes, but it's slickly made and often laugh out loud funny, and yes, 'wood' has similar connotations in Japan it seems. The romantic situations however are a little limp, no matter how big the tree used at the village festival, but the real love encounter here is the one Hirano and the audience enjoy with the beautiful heartland of Japan itself.

Okay, so I was ready to watch a comedy by master Shinobu Yaguchi, famous for his amazing Swing Girls movie but instead I got a sort of coming-of-age feel-good movie about finding one's own roots.

Don't get me wrong, there are fun and silly moments throughout the movie with fun characters- as is usual in a Shinobu Yaguchi movie but this time the tone is a bit more realistic that gives way for emotional and affecting moments to take the center stage in this movie.

The plot is quite simple, a scoundrel city boy decides to work and train in forestry on a whim (decided by his attraction to a girl on a poster, very silly!) and the movie is set around this whole training year where he learns a lot of life lessons including Japanese folklore and the beauty of working for nature.

The movie is shot beautifully, the nature shots stand out the most obviously- I wish this movie would've been made around the beginning of the 00s for that gorgeous scrappy feeling that his older movies have but otherwise it's great!

The actors are fun and play both seriously and comedically with the standout being ruggedly handsome Hideaki Ito as Yoki- however the characters aren't very well-developed that's one of the negatives, a few sub-plots involving the villagers don't get resolved and the movie has a bit of a fakeout during the beginning where we get introduced to Yukis (the main character) classmates only for them to appear at the tail-end of the movie.

A bit of a negative is that it's perhaps a bit too long? It could've used for more efficient storytelling as in his past movies but otherwise it's good- the 1hr 56 mins of runtime still passed by without a hitch!

More than the surrounding plot I find the depictions of Japanese myth and traditions to be really emotional in this movie- it definitely ties it together in a wonderful kind of way.

I'd say this is not his best movie but it's definitely worth a watch- even if the elements of his older movies aren't quite present you can still find something great about his newer films! Check it out!

This is my first movie review, not just only in IMDb but really the first. Normally I do not read movie reviews. So, please bear with me, my wording may look weird for you who read a lot of reviews.

I feel like this is one of the great movies you should not miss. I saw it got 7.7 points from IMDb which I think it is too low. I have to write something about it.

The movie is categorized as comedy. However, it is not like LOL movies, it will just keep you smile. I got "feel good" while I was watching the movie.

Actors, all of them, are perfect. I really want to see them in personal and tell them that they are perfect in this movies. If you are not familiar with Japanese culture and something like forest spirit, you may feel weird while watching, which actually there is nothing weird, Just keep in mind, it is just another culture.

The directer is quite detail. I never watch his movies before but I am going to be his fan for sure. The small pieces in the movie relates to other scenes pretty well, not too much, not too less, just pretty well.

I just want to take "thank you" for all of people in this movie. They have made a really good movie.

This is simply a great film! Fine acting, especially the children. It is educational and funny with drama, danger, romance, mysticism, and Shintoism. The film seems to capture what life in a remote mountain community might be like (and why you might want to try to live there for awhile - sign me up!). Fine photography. Score and titles are OK. Viewed at JICC J-Film event. WILLIAM FLANIGAN

Now, I'm not one to claim to be an expert on the forestry industry. But the depiction in this film almost made me want to get into it. Growing up out here in the rurals, this film feels oddly personal to me. Which might explain why I took a liking to it so much.

The characters feel human, with the way they all interact with each other. It gives off a very homely vibe. The kind that makes you want to go back to your hometown. Honestly, I think that's the part that got to me.

It's one of the nicest films I've seen and I think this might be one of my comfort movies now. Relatable, funny, and just enchanting in the natural beauty of the forest. If you're into that sort of thing. I recommend it.