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      The Stairway to the Distant Past

      1995 1h 41m Drama List
      Reviews 75% Audience Score 100+ Ratings Mike Hama is a private investigator who has been reduced to combing the mean streets of the Yokohama waterfront on a borrowed bicycle. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (1) Critics Reviews
      Sean Axmaker St@tic Multimedia Hayashi's jazzy style is at once both playful and serious, full of comic wit and lighthearted character comedy... Oct 6, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

      View All (6) audience reviews
      Audience Member strange mix of genres but I liked it Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member I was at the library, and I felt like getting a foreign film I would hate, so I picked up this number because I love convertibles and private detectives. And to my delighted surprise, this was not a foreign film that I hated. I enjoyed it immensely, in fact, and will probably have to see the other movies in the trilogy. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member This is the second movie in the Mike Hama Private Investigator Trilogy starring the Japanese actor most well-known to American audiences for his role in MYSTERY TRAIN. I saw the first one in the series and enjoyed it. It shares an attitude with TAMPOPO--metafictional awareness and parodypation in genre cliches. It was light,playful, and stylishly shot. Like Itami, though, these movies can lose footing on this slippery-slope and fall into the stridently stylized voice so common in Japanese narrative of all types. The second movie starts off well enough but veers off course early into tedious melodrama that is neither campy (despite at least two characters that could be in drag) nor po-mo before finally driving off the edge into a Japanese-style symbolic horror meets APOCALYPSE NOW, with all the ridiculous mystical mumbo-jumbo that would imply. In the end, I'd suggest giving the second movie in the series a miss. The difference between I and II isn't analogous to the difference between Itami's TAMPOPO and SUPERMARKET WOMAN, but I found the second movie substantially less entertaining and, frankly, hard to finish. I have yet to watch the third movie in the series but, despite the unpleasant horror-genre aftertaste left by II, I'll probably give it a shot sometime when I'm in the mood for a Japanese film, as the pickings for the last couple of decades are pretty thin. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member This is the second film in Director Kaizo Hayashi series of Mike Hama film's released by Kino Video, and unlike most sequels it is just as good if not better then the first movie The Most Terrible Time in My Life . These films have both some slap stick comedy and so real drama. this one has a little more drama. You will have to read English Subtitles. And hopefully the third film will pickup where this one let off. If you have not rented a Kino Video give them a try you will not regret World Cinema. 4 ½ stars. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Old , yet totally fun and interesting. Nice threads, funky car, and just ... I LIKED it. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Not quite as good as the original loses some magic due to addition of colour Great nonetheless Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis Mike Hama is a private investigator who has been reduced to combing the mean streets of the Yokohama waterfront on a borrowed bicycle.
      Director
      Kaizô Hayashi
      Screenwriter
      Kaizô Hayashi, Daisuke Tengan
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      Japanese
      Release Date (DVD)
      Jun 11, 2007
      Runtime
      1h 41m