Davidon80

Life in the picturesque suburbs of Japan in full view of Mount Fuji. The show provides us with a glimpse of life in the hotel overlooking Mount Fuji, specifically the reception staff with their daily interactions and observations as they while away the time.

The show is not shy about being a slice of life drama. They are long scenes of dialogue with the main characters eating and gossiping with one another, sometimes it leads to a plot point, other times it is giving us a window into their lives and the small but not always insignificant details of rural Japan. Ohh, also we find out by the end of the first episode that one of the characters is an alien, but ironically he was born in Japan, looks Japanese and interacts as any Japanese character would, he does have special powers that come into play every so often.

This is the main thrust of the show, the idyllic Japanese scenery, the naturalist dialogue that weaves in and out of the scenes, then there is an alien who behaves as naturally as everyone else, except that he is an alien. It is funny, the premise is intriguing, it does also mean many scenes are long and dialogue heavy, mostly of the ladies enjoying a little Japanese meal whilst gossiping. Often it is the most mundane tasks that we are watching the ladies getting involved in, or regaling one another about, or having a stream of consciousness monologue about. The naturalist dialogue is very well written with the most minutiae of details, and often they will have a pay off.

The pacing is charming at times, with these insane tangents into these mini rabbit holes. It can be very addictive as you do want to see where these tangents end up, but for those who are not enamored by rural Japanese settings and quaint Japanese traditions of etiquette, it may seem slow, inane and damn right annoying at times.

The trailer for Roof Man would have you thinking you were watching a high jinx adventure on a par with Home Alone. The trailer really heightens the comedic elements to the point where the actual serious side of the story is lost completely.

Throughout the movie I was expecting the big laughs to arrive, with some high jinx caused by the implausible script, but the movie plays it straight for most of the time, with Tatum adding the light reliefs.

The story is engaging, Tatum is a strong leading man and gives the role the balance of comedic and pathos required. He is a sympathetic character, we do see believe that he is a Gentlemen Thief, who would probably feel bad about hurting an innocent bystander in a robbery. But, the movie is a little stuck between absurdity and realism, the story is true, and they movie shows us the actual characters at the end speaking to the camera, and this contextualizes everything we have seen, but perhaps this would have benefitted from being more comedic and ramping up the comedy instead of wringing out the drama.