Tokyo Cowboy

Rated PG • Theaters

Savvy Japanese businessman Hideki Sakai (Arata Lura) travels to Montana to turn a struggling cattle ranch into a hub for raising some of the best beef in the world: Japanese Wagyu. Despite it being illegal to raise Wagyu stateside to send them back to Japan, Hideki feels certain that he can pull it off. He has a PowerPoint presentation, after all.

His confidence is shattered when his Wagyu expert gets concussed after falling from a mechanical bronco, leaving Hideki to revamp the cattle ranch on his own. But Hideki is out of touch with Western culture and the nuances of the English language, making him the laughingstock of the Montana cowhands. For example, in the Japanese version of his presentation, his company’s logo is translated as, “Let’s eat, people.” When he gives the same presentation to an American audience, he forgets to include the comma.

Peg (Robin Weigert), the rough-and-tumble ranch manager, doesn’t take a shine to Hideki’s outlandish plan, mainly because there’s no way that raising Wagyu would be sustainable. Wagyu feeds on corn, and planting corn doesn’t seem like an option for the ranch’s rocky soil.

Time is running out, and Hideki’s boss Keiko (Ayako Fujitani), who also happens to be his fiancée, needs better numbers from the ranch and pronto. Otherwise, she’ll have no choice but to hand it off to developers.

Only Javier (Goya Robles), an ex-rodeo rider and the ranch’s jack of no specific trade, is willing to teach Hideki the ropes. Cue the cowboy training montage.

Behind the drama about the failing cattle business, there’s the story about Hideki and Keiko’s relationship. Hideki is obsessed with his work and makes the assumption that Keiko is too. Because of his skewed priorities, Hideki risks losing the relationship and breaking Keiko’s trust.

Due to the somewhat predictable storyline, the plot strikes a Hallmark-esque tone, but the overall film offers a bit more gravity than other family-friendly flicks. The path to forgiveness isn’t straightforward, so the positive ending doesn’t come across as wholly unrealistic.

Tokyo Cowboy is rated PG for a bit of mild language and depictions of drunkenness. Hideki and Keiko swim in a hot spring, presumably naked, but the camera doesn’t show anything below the shoulders.

Hideki and Keiko have great chemistry, which is more pronounced when compared with how canned some of the other characters seem. Since many of the characters are wooden stereotypes, one wonders why the cowhands don’t carry harmonicas and spit chewing tobacco. The soundtrack would probably benefit from fewer solos on the synthesizer, but even the music can’t ruin the vibrant wide shots of the Big Sky Country.