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Takashi Yamazaki's Always -- Sunset on Third Street isn't particularly innovative when it comes to plot or characterization, but it is an effective melodrama, and in its affectionate and intricate recreation of postwar Tokyo, it's a technological marvel. Of course, its sepia-toned vision is romanticized, with even the churlish, arrogant candy shop owner/poet Chagawa (Hidetaka Yoshioka), introduced urgently filling out losing raffle tickets with the words "No Luck" for the local children, eventually coming around to the power of love and sacrifice. His storyline has a good deal of emotional resonance, and it's far more carefully developed than that of Mutsuko (Maki Horikita), the country girl who comes to the city to find her fortune, and initially has problems with the Suzuki family at their auto repair shop. There might be a touch of Ozu in the milieu, but Yamazaki is not really about subtlety and restraint. He's a bit of a fantasist, his palette and sense of whimsy (as illustrated in the scene in which Mutsuko insults Suzuki (Shin'ichi Tsutsumi) and he turns Hulk-like, screaming and smashing down doors as he comes after her) remind one more of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. He isn't as inventive as Jeunet, and the neighborhood tapestry he weaves has a few holes in it, but the movie still works on that "gut" level, as Yamazaki pushes all the right buttons with crowd-pleasing aplomb.