Shota is a lazy piece of crap. You probably know the type if you don’t know the guy – young adult living in his parents’ basement, plans on getting a band together but doesn’t really sing or play and instrument (which … helps), and talks a big game without ever having game. That’s our hero. Thanks, movie.
Maybe we will warm up to him.
In the 1970s, Koza, Okinawa, was still dealing with the US occupation post WWII. Part of the adjustments Koza made to accommodate the occupying soldiers included locals forming American-style rock bands not unlike “Impact,” the one seen in today’s film. It just so happens that Shota’s grandfather, Haru, was heart and soul of occupied rock ‘n’ roll, so you’d think maybe Shota would have some talent, right?
Fifty years later [read: present day], old man Haru is hit by a truck and dies and his ghost comes back and haunts Shota. The haunting lasts under thirty seconds at which point ghost-of-Haru forces a switch: he gets to be present-day Shota (which the movie doesn’t really show us), and Shota gets to be Shota-aged Haru back in the 1970s as frontman and lead singer for Impact.
The switch 
alternates between mildly fun and overly serious. Impact made an impact in several non-music ways. One of the film’s big problems is that Shota is no musician. The Marty McFly routine works fine until he’s actually required to play music, at which point whatever fun the film was having disappears entirely.
Another big problem with this film is inability to find a consistent tone. Miracle City Koza will flip without warning between far too frivolous and far too serious. The film’s best scene involves a potential race-based hate-crime intervention, which –while well done- seemed wildly out-of-place and perhaps better suited for a different film.
Miracle City Koza is no Back to the Future, nor Big, nor even Face/Off. It’s not a terrible film, but I feel like it needed a few script rewrites and a different editor to get it right. Sorry Haru and Haru’s ghost; for me, Impact did not make an impact.
There once was a band called Impact
Notoriety they unfairly lacked
‘Til a time traveler came
To reinvent their name
And now? They’re just known for no tact
Not Rated, 119 Minutes
Director: Kazuhiro Taira
Writer: ???
Genre: Body switch
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Citizens of Koza, maybe?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Fans of occupation
