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Messengers (1999)POSTED BY JASON FETTERS, June 15, 2014 Share
In the same spirit as 80’s comedies such as Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer, and Revenge of the Nerds, comes one with a Japanese twist. In the above mentioned flicks, all three star loveable losers who overcome impossible odds and are forced to engage in a physical challenge to be able to defeat their stronger and more aggressive opponents.
Such is the case with Director Yasuo Baba in Messengers (1999,) an unappreciated romantic comedy gem drenched in 80’s comedic goodness that deserves to reach a wider audience.
In Messengers, former Georgia Coffee hottie, Naoko Iijima, who lives the good pampered life with her handsome businessman boy toy. She drinks bottled water, while reading fashion magazines on her exercise bike, as she plans her new clothing line. She has it all, looks, talent, and a great body, along with her snobbish attitude.
One day her whole world collapses as her assets are frozen, when her company goes bankrupt and her fashion store is quickly closed. The bank rushes in taking jewelry right off of her and they are about to take her flashy red sportscar, as Naoko beats the bankers to it and peels out of the parking garage. Driving like a mad woman, Naoko hits a bicycle carrier; she is now at the injured man’s mercy. The injured man is Hiroyuki Yabe part of an extremely popular Japanese comedy team called 99. Naoko is handcuffed and escorted off to jail. She is taken by the police to the local hospital where Yabe is recovering. He tells her that he will not press charges and he is only worried that his business will suffer so he asks Naoko to please take over his bike carrier job until he is fully recovered.
She is forced to agree or spent more time in jail. For a business woman who got to the top of the fashion world, she is having so much trouble, riding a bike and delivering mail. She is up early and spends a grueling day out in the hot sun, trying to adjust to riding a bike for hours and hours, something that her 30-minutes a day exercise bike didn’t prepare her for. She has a demanding boss, played by J-pop idol singer, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, who is a member of the extremely popular boy band, Smap. He has no concept of the fashion world. All he knows is that his business is suffering and he needs to get his new cute helper up to speed.
Naoko is giving it all she has but riding a bike all day is just not the career she is accustomed to. She gets into several arguments with Tsuyoshi, and eventually over time, both see the positive qualities in each other.
To make matters worse, a rival carrier service that uses scooters and motorcycles is taking business away from Tsuyoshi in a classic conflict of new vs. old. Finally it reaches the boiling point and it becomes a race between bicycles and motorcycles, with both competing for a big company that both carriers need just to survive. While all these is going on Tsuyoshi has romantic feeling for Naoko, which further complicate matters. Naoko is wooed back to the fashion world by her ruthless boyfriend who is only using her to get an account. Can the bike carriers beat the motorcyclists? Will Naoko return to the hopeless in love Tsuyoshi and help out? Who will win this high stakes competition? You just have to watch the movie to find out.
Messengers is a laugh out loud comedy with a heavy touch of the 80’s that will satisfy fans of 80’s comedies and movie lovers everywhere who want to be entertained and demand to see something good.
Available on DVD in Japanese with English Subtitles.
Don’t mess the hilarious rap with most of the cast joining in during the end credits.
Highly Recommended
5 out of 5 Stars
"The Asian Aperture" is ©2014 by Jason Fetters. All contents of Crazed Fanboy are ©2014 by Nolan B. Canova and Terence Nuzum.
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