Midnight Diner

This is a nice little feel-good movie with the typical japanese charm. No big story, just everyday life, everyday people, authentic dialogues and yet it has a certain profundity to it.

Simple story, heartening at times, but overall felt a bit too chewy. His scar is not as in Tokyo stories, definitely didn't like that. Overall average.

The list of successful TV shows that choose to say goodbye with a final, full-length, movie is too long to include in this review. This is the goodby performance for the hit Japanese series MIDNIGHT DINER. MD was a pretty amazing show with a unique dramatic structure. A gentle and empathetic man known as Master runs a diner that opens at midnight and closes at dawn. It has a limited menu but in fact he will try to create any dish you could possibly ask for. The "regulars" are the equivalent of the "Greek Chorus" from the earlest development of dramatic arcs, the dinner is more a midnight church than a place to eat, and the food merely accentuates the stories of spiritual growth. (Recipes at the end each episode, not so in the movie.) Here the two hour run times does not work especially well for the older narrative structure and the 3 or 4 stores lack the impact of the best of the series. The food looks great, as usual. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

I watched a few episodes of the TV drama series (which is also based on the manga), which was somewhat watchable; it works as TV episodes/series... I had no idea they made a "movie" version of the drama series. I imagined the movie would be somewhat interesting... WRONG.

What an absolutely boring snorefest.

Sure, it has a grade-up "film look", but the story is like a cure for insomnia.

Who thought this would make a good movie idea??? It's practically just a regular TV episode/story that is just super dragged out.

The premise is not interesting at all.

Also if you haven't even seen the TV series and invested your time in the characters before, the movie will feel even more pointless and boring.

PASS.

NOT FOR EVERYONE

FOR ME I LOVE IT

It is about a restaurateur who only opens from midnight to 7:00 am, hence the name, the Midnight Diner. During these late night hours, numerous odd but charismatic characters come in with their problems.