Midnight Diner (2014) Poster

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8/10
In the dark hours where everything's so alive.
Reno-Rangan14 April 2016
Based on the manga series of the same name. A movie about a chef, foods and his small restaurant that opens at midnight till the dawn. There are random scenes with fresh characters all along, but it also centres on a set of few particular characters to stabilise the development. Whatsoever the tale sticks around the restaurant and reveals every happenings, no matter what characters they are.

A very fun, realistic, calm narration, with cool characters. Anyone slurping their food around me really annoys, but that's the way of pleasurably consuming food among the east Asians, especially that makes me my mouth-watering. So I suggest you better have some snacks with, at least you will have something with you while watching this delicious movie.

Initially I did not know whose story it was, but a chef began to narrate his story by telling about his tiny restaurant located somewhere in the middle of partially both residential and commercial areas. And his unique customers with their stories that definitely gets our attention. In the meantime a young female character was introduced who is going to be a prime focus for the rest of the film that told alternately with other small happenings around.

"Don't let your tears enter the stew pot. Tears is salt after all. It will change the taste."

I'm not sure whether it was the great performances or the writing and direction that brought a soul to it, but overall it was so simple and very likable film that looks like kind of everything worked so finely. Of course the cultural influence was a big impact. The society, its people with their state of mind and lifestyle - totally moving. Other than the whaling, I don't see the reasons to I hate this beautiful country and its people. I think that's why I loved this film like usual and it is one of my favourite film industry.

Impressive, how the customers respect their chef by calling him master. I have seen the actor who played that important role in the movie 'Quill'. He was excellent in this with his casual effort. There's no way to predict anything from the movie. It would be like you go and sit in a small restaurant near you for a whole day, interacting with every customer who gets in with their story of the day with all kinds of moods, that's how watching this film feels like with surprises.

Those who read the original manga and those who saw the television series might have reason to compare with this to bring some positive and negative points, but as I'm not familiar with other material, I ended with very happy for this.

The runtime really scared me, but once sat for it, I spent those two hours without any trouble. This kind of storytelling really suits for television to split into plenty of episodes, but the movie was equally amazing and can be compared to any top movies related to 'food, chef and restaurant' themes. This was a great drama with fine humours. I want to suggest it and I surely do, especially for those who love drama films with a moderate pace.

8/10
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7/10
Cute movie
mister_bateman9 June 2020
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.
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9/10
Love all of them
wallettface8 September 2020
The wonderful thing about Netflix is we can travel the world in our armchairs. This is beautiful ,sensitive insite into Japanese culture. Addicted . Moving. Warm.
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10/10
JAPANESE ( A+ Movie) My Ratings 9.5 /10
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.
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9/10
Japanese slice of life
poinla3714 July 2020
I love food, I love Japanese movies. What else? Don't expect much, though (story-wise), there's no deep plot or anything likewise, it's just everyday life.

Also, don't pay attention to pinokiyo review, he's mixing up the timeline, this movie was made before the TV serie, so there's no point giving a bad rate thinking this movie was based on the TV serie!
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2/10
Popular TV Series Movie Version... Not worth making a movie over. Just why?
pinokiyo11 March 2017
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.
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5/10
Not like the episodes but nice
drkavitha_k30 July 2021
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.
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