Kagemusha (Japan, 1980) – 3,5/5
Kurosawa’s 3 hour epic is slightly too long. And a bit too short as well. The build up could use some tightening – removing some scenes altogether - while the second half would benefit from extra 30 minutes. The story comes to a conclusion before the main character’s potential development has been completed. It may be intentional, but most of the time Kurosawa’s camera is an outsider. Tatsuya Nakadai’s terrific acting, however, would allow a far more intimate portrait (admimittedly that type of cinema was only mastered 20 years later). Small complaints aside, Kagemusha is an impressive film full of enjoyable long scenes.
Violence Jack: Evil Town (Japan, 1988) – 2,5/5
Anarchy rules in an underground society that came to be when an eath quake destroyed the city above and trapped unlucky people a few hundred metres below the surface. They are now divided into three uneven groups - men, women, and gang members - all fighting for survival, until a giant knife man Violence Jack appears and decides to take sides. This second part in the notorious OVA trio entertains but doesn’t offer anything exceptionally memorable. BBFC, once again over-doing their duty at protecting people from harmful cartoons, removed 25 seconds from the pre-cut version that was already missing nearly 4 minutes of footage.
K-20: Legend of the Mask (Japan, 2008) – 3/5
While Hollywood is eager to remake every successful Asian movie, this Japanese superhero film is in debt to American comic books adventures. Set in alternate Japan where class differences have kept rising since the 19th century and WWII never took place, the film follows a circus artist (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who is framed by a famous masked thief K-20. Now he must clean his name by capturing the real villain, and that can only be done by mastering the arts of disguise and acrobatics. K-20 kicks off with one of the best opening shots in recent memory; gyro-copters flying above half-futuristic 1940’s metropolis. This shot, like most computer effects in the film, is far above Japan’s usual cgi standars. K-20 borrows elements from Sky Captain and the Word of Tomorrow, V for Vendetta, and Spiderman, and does it fairly successfully. Despite some unnecessary violence there’s a good amount of old school adventure feel in it. The film does come a bit short in term of production values though; while it doesn’t look cheap, it also doesn’t look visually as stylish as one would wish. There could be more action, and the ending could be more better. It’s also sad to see Takako Matsu – the star of Shunji Iwai’s pitch perfect masterpiece April Story (1998) – give such a bad performance in the leading female role. Takeshi Kaneshiro on the other hand is his usual self – if you’ve liked him before, you’ll like him here too. If not, then not. A sequel with improved production values would not be a bad idea at all, as the concept is good and has more potential than was reached this time.
one of the best. I feel a re-watch comin on.
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