Hoshikuzu no Machi (2020)

Well. It's a story.

This creaking but light movie tells the story of an aging male singing group, Hello Knights, and their tepid adventure in a country town where they encounter Ai, a young woman who wants to be singer and is interested in joining the group because she thinks there's a chance that her father is in it.

Non plays Ai in her first film role after being black-listed by the agency system in Japan after she left her agency following her excellent and much beloved role as Aki in 2013's Amachan. Other than looking gorgeous in 60's styles for the group of enka singers, she's perfectly adequate in a role that is as underwritten as all the rest.

I guess the film was intended to rely on a nostalgia for 60s trot ballads to drive the story, and, indeed, the scenes of petty, internecine conflicts between the band members and Ai's mildly quixotic attempts to join the group are all framed by serviceable performances of songs of that era.

It's mostly harmless, and I did not fall asleep.

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