When Hayabusa, a Japanese satellite sent to collect soil samples from a distant asteroid, returned safely to Earth in June 2010, many Japanese felt an excitement and pride more akin to a World Cup win than an event that, abroad, was a one-day news story to all but space geeks.
Why this should be so is the unspoken subject of Yukihiko Tsutsumi's "Hayabusa," one of three local films on the subject. (The biggest, a 3-D epic titled "Hayabusa: Haruka Naru Kikan" and starring Ken Watanabe, will hit theaters in February.)
An ungainly mix of tearjerking melodrama, manga-esque comedy and nerdy semi-documentary, "Hayabusa" isn't very good, but it does amply illustrate why so many folks here became fascinated with the satellite's epic seven-year journey.