Midnight Diner is a film about a late night diner (izakaya) open from midnight till morning with only four items on the menu. Is it worth a visit?
If you thought Midnight Diner was going to be another food porn movie, this time about the delicacies and delights of izakayas (Japanese bars), you would be about 10% correct. While they do manage to make a fried egg look quite sexy, the food only acts as the glue that holds the pieces of the film together. This is mainly a story about people from different walks of life whose lives are able to intersect thanks to the familiar setting of the small diner.
You might also think that the owner of this small Japanese bar, known only as Master (Kaoru Kobayashi), would receive all sorts of odd characters as well due to the bar’s late hours of operation. However, while some of his regular customers are slightly eccentric, they are actually quite normal people with normal problems.
The story unfolds over three distinct parts, each part titled as a different dish. 1) Napolitan (Japanese spaghetti with ketchup over fried egg) – is a story of a sad woman who is eager to collect the money owed to her from a relationship gone sour, 2) Yam Rice – centers around a homeless girl who happens to have some cooking skills of her own, 3) Curry Rice – we learn of a man who lost his wife from the earthquake near Fukushima in 2011.
Each story is relatively engaging and performances from the large cast were quite good. However, the middle story of the homeless girl (Mikako Tabe) was far better than the other two. She was the most interesting character and her story-line developed the strongest connection to the bar. After her story was over, it was difficult to once again emotionally invest in the characters of the final story in the film. This caused the movie to feel somewhat long and I could feel others around me in the theater getting a bit antsy towards the end.
Midnight Diner benefits from its sense of mood established by the intimate setting of the bar. With capacity maxing out at around 9 customers, the table is a U-shaped bar with the master and his kitchen in the middle. Customers are often enjoying hot or cold sake over a beautifully prepared simple dish. A popular order is a Japanese style fried egg or a Vienna sausages plate sliced to look like baby octopuses. There is a warm vibe throughout the film, especially when inside the bar and customers are sharing their stories. This makes for an overall comfortable viewing experience.
Overall, Midnight Diner is a satisfying drama that manages to create some nice moments throughout. The film was based on a Japanese manga of the same name (Shinya Shokudo) and has also been developed into a TV series that has several seasons in Japan with the Master played by the same actor, Kaoru Kobayashi. It looks like the episodes premiered at 1 AM, which is pretty cool as that’s the same time the fictional bar opens. There is also a new TV series developed and set to air in Korea this summer and is titled 심야식당 (Shimya Shikdang).
Based on the episodic concept of the manga, I believe Midnight Diner ultimately works better as a TV program. Rent. This film can be mildly enjoyed by everyone, but more so between the hours of 1 AM and 7 AM.
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