Real Onigokko (Japan, 2008) – 3/5
Tsubasa Sato (Takuya Ishida) wakes up in a parallel world where all people with the surname Sato are being hunted down and killed on the streets by ”monsters” – masked killers hired by the dictator emperor that rules the new, slightly futuristic and gothic Japan. Made with a modest budget but with plenty of imagination Real Onigokko is a refreshing action-horror-sci-fi hybrid. Although not exceptionally well photographed, there’s several visual stand out moments when the masked killers – equipped with trackers and wearing dark helmets with gloomy red eyes – chase the main character around Tokyo. Shuffle (1981) type of exhausting intensity is never quite reached, though. The main problems are those with the logic – which fails as many times as you bother to question it – and performances. Although not terribly acted, none of the cast members – Mitsuki Tanimura included, I’m afraid – make an impression.
A couple of screencaps
I might add that the night scenes look really beautiful in motion.
The sequel is, while dragged down by a dull story and stupid acting, a bit of a blast. The 10+ min action / panic escape scene around halfway is virtuoso action entertainment. Little wires, no cgi (exept in some outdoor backgrounds an such stuff), a lot of fast running and amateur parkour, no stupid ass Matrix shit. Ideal use of genre cliche (the film borrows from The Terminator, Aliens, Hardware etc.) that made the school girls behind me nearly rip off their seats from the ground as they were dodging the iron claws reaching for the hero on the screen. Great low budget popcorn entertainment that isn't so mainstream to taste plastic.
The Chasing World aka Real onigokko (2008) was an effective small budget thriller where Tsubasa Sato, blacklisted due to his surname, ran for his life in a parallel world. The chasers were masked criminals, hired to capture or execute all persons named Sato, in a deadly game played by the government. As the rules of parallel worlds go, when a person dies in one world, all clones in the others are immediately wiped out from the books of the living. The sequel reruns the same concept in such straightforward honesty that it’s difficult not to be impressed and amazed at the same time. The same game is now being played in yet another parallel world where an evil Shogun is targeting all poor Sato’s, leaving Tsubasa and his sister (Naoko Watanabe in a role inherited from Mitsuki Tanimura) with one option only: run like hell.
As its predecessor, The Chasing World 2 is not a showcase for high quality acting or screenwriting. Stumbling is less this time around, entirely due to simplified storyline. The outline is clear from the beginning: Sato runs, and the camera team try keep up with him. Renewals are few. Most remarkably Sato is now chased by mechanical killing machines instead of masked criminals. Most of the time the protagonist has only a few metal bastards on his tail, but in return each one of them is a near unstoppable killing machine.
The second reworking in the sequel is related to the parallel worlds. Rather than consisting of innocent victims, the Sato-tribe in the new world has now half-militarized into armed resistance. It’s a nice idea executed in mediocre fashion, changing the mix a little without really improving it. Originality has also gone down as a result: the sequel shows its debt to other movies. The iron fisted phantoms are obvious Terminator (1984) descendents, the war in the parallel world borrows from Aliens (1986), and from the amount of iron-hand-approaches-the-victim’s-face it’s safe to say Richard Stanley’s Hardware (1990) has been studied as well.
A lazy sequel The Chasing World 2 is not, however. The sheer energy of it outdoes the original film – and most other movies playing in theaters right now. The film’s strength is the action scenes which are plenty and often long – sometimes more than 10 minutes non-stop. The panic-escape scene around halfway into the film is virtuoso popcorn entertainment. The biggest thanks goes to the special effects – or rather, the lack of them. Computer graphics are only seen in the backgrounds and in one explosion, and the use of wires is minimal as well. The protagonist, escaping his faith with the help of amateur parkour, is also no superman or even professional athlete, which in turn may have been the thing that convinced the filmmakers to leave out dull Matrix-tricks.
The intensity of the chase scenes is also raised a few notched by changing the enemy’s artillery. Instead of strangling their victims like before, the villains now have an electrified arm that activates with a few second load time. With a brief gentle touch being enough for game over, the characters – and the viewer – and constantly have to be on their toes. The twist proved its practical effect in the movie theatre: the Tokyo school girls sitting behind me nearly ripped off their seats from the floor as they were dodging the iron claws reaching for the handsome hero’s ass on the screen (exactly how much the girls’ own metro and train traumas had to do with the sympathy they felt of the hero remains unclear to me).
A fluent mix of genre cliché, The Chasing World 2 is delivers what it promises. In terms of storyline the film in dumb, and some of the acting performances can’t be analyzed with common sense. As a small scale adrenaline grenade the film is, however, highly enjoyable. One must nevertheless wish the filmmakers will not continue the series from the end of the second film. The final scene, following the story climax, is so dumb it could be considered offensive if the clever ending credits image and decent theme song didn’t compensate. One must also feel amusement when the ending credits reveal the theme song to be courtesy of a band called High Speed Boys…
Japanese Blu-Ray's for both films coming December 2nd
There's a bit of confusion about extras. Cdjapan claim there's only a couple of short extra features, but amazon is listing bucketloads of interviews and making of features for both discs. According to Amazon the first film has 182 minutes worth of extras, and sequel has 162 minutes of extras. It should not be a mistake as for part 2 the making of and interviews alone alone have a total running time of 100 minutes, according to their listing...
Something tells me Mamoru Oshii was more of an influence on these guys than the Killzone games. I've read that the Killzone developers refuse to acknowledge any influence from Oshii on their designs, which I find hard to believe.
