There are very few movies that can be called a timeless classic from Japan, or any where else in the world. If Kurosawa's Seven Samurai was the timeless classic from the '50s, this certainly deserves the title from the '60s.
Daisaku Kita (Yujiro Ishihara) is a heart throb idol. He's multi-talented star who has his own radio show, and TV appearances. He has a girlfriend/manager Noriko (Ruriko Asaoka). They have an agreement not to be intimate with each other, but are constantly walking the thin line. One day his friend and associate Ichiro (Hiroyuki Nagato) brings advertisement from news paper seeking for a driver to deliver the owner's jeep to Kyushu. The advertisement stipulates that no delivery fee will be paid to the driver. Curious, Daisaku and Ichiro goes to visit the owner of the Jeep. The owner turns out to be Yoshiko (Izumi Ashikawa) - fiancé of a doctor in an isolated village in Kyushu. The jeep is in much need at his medical facility where transportation is unavailable. Daisaku agrees to deliver the jeep despite the fact that he already has scheduled appearances on TV. Noriko tries to stop him, but his mind is made up. Ichiro seizes the opportunity and creates a documentary of Daisuke's delivery. Noriko is busy trying to put spin control on the scandalous behavior of Daisaku, but isn't succeeding.
The good of this movie is in its first half. Like Breakfast at Tiffanies predicted the coming of party set lifestyle of the '60s in United States, this movie predicts at how Japan's culture will become in the '70s. Lifestyle Daisuke lives is surprisingly contemporary, and even in the 21st century, with few changes in the furniture, his lifestyle is like those of the people living in modern day Japan. In this sense, like so many of other Yujiro Ishihara's movies, the movie predicts future cultural development of Japan.
I'm surprised to realize that they already had color television broadcast when this movie was released in Japan.
Ruriko Asaoka is captured at the height of her beauty, and her role as Noriko was so popular that it created two other spin off movies featuring her role.
A worthwhile social artifact to watch from the early '60s Japan.
