38th Mouthful: Movies

Thursday, September 11, 2025 / At a bar in Kameari Shopping Street

"9/11 is trending on X again this year, even though it was AI," Wataru said, scrolling through his smartphone while drinking a Red Eye.

Apparently, this bar uses Clamato for their tomato juice, which seems a bit cool to Wataru, who is still a student.

Next to him, Yusei was drinking a Bloody Mary. Yusei is also a Clamato believer.

In this bar they visit occasionally, both of them are experiencing the adult world little by little.

"Wataru, what kind of movie sequels do you like?"
When Yusei asked abruptly, Wataru looked up immediately.
"I guess Gladiator I and II. Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible is hard to pass up, too. I like 007 as well. Daniel Craig is cool. Bayside Shakedown is also good, but I'm not a fan of spin-offs."

Yusei chuckled while rolling his glass with his fingertips.
"I thought you were going to start talking about Detective Conan, Conan Doyle, or Agatha Christie stuff."

"No way, what am I, an elementary school kid who watches anime every week?"
Wataru burst out laughing.

"Your taste in movies is surprisingly macho. You're more of a 'fistfight' guy than a 'mystery-solving' guy."

"It's not just about the fighting; I like it when there's a proper 'mission' involved."

"That's like a philosophy spoken through muscles."
Yusei said it with a straight face, then started shaking his shoulders in quiet laughter, perhaps finding it funny himself.

Wataru took another sip of his Red Eye. He continued, lowering his voice slightly.
"But you know, with Keigo Higashino movies, you can sometimes tell the 'answer' just by who's in them."

"For example?"

"If Masaharu Fukuyama is in it, it's Galileo, and if Takuya Kimura and Masami Nagasawa are in it, it's the Masquerade series. The Black Showman also stars Masaharu Fukuyama. The casting determines the 'range of correct answers' for the audience."

"That means the movie has shifted from 'mystery-solving' to 'validation.' The audience just wants to 'check their answers.'"

"Exactly. But that's what makes them popular. Because people want to post on social media saying 'Fukuyama is the best' or 'Masami Nagasawa's acting is amazing!'"

"The reviews stop at 'character critiques.' But conversely, in theater, it's not the actors but the 'temperature of the lines' that gets evaluated."

"That's what's good about theater. The audience can take home the 'questions left behind' for themselves."

"...Yeah, but the customers who come to our izakaya aren't thinking about things like that while they drink. We don't even get tourists, let alone foreigners."

"For starters, the toilets are the Japanese squat style."

The two of them burst out laughing and tilted their glasses again. Outside was the night breeze. The jazz in the bar didn't stop. Even without answers, as long as the questions were there, it seemed their conversation would continue for a while longer.