K-20: Kaijin nijû mensô den

I was surprised by how much fun I had with this film. I was skeptical, but this turned out to be a really enjoyable Japanese film. It reminded me of 90's action adventure period pieces like The Shadow and The Rocketeer, which were some of my favorite films to watch as a kid. If you also enjoyed films like those, and to a lesser extent, films like Indiana Jones and other period action adventures, you will no doubt enjoy the film too.

The film takes place in Japan, 1949. World War II never took place and Japan remained with the feudal system, while the poor and the wealthy remained separate with no middle class. The wealthy rule, while the poor are left to starve and die on the street. None help the poor, with the exception of K-20, a master thief who steal priceless artifacts from the rich.

The film's main focus is Endo Eikichi, a circus performer who is tricked by K-20 into committing a crime and taking the blame for being K-20 himself. From there one, Eikichi is set on a quest to catch K-20 and clear his name.

The best thing about the film is its lead, Takeshi Kaneshiro as Eikichi. He's highly entertaining, as usual, and does a good job as he goes from agile circus performer to competent thief. He's funny, exciting, and plays up all the right things for this kind of film. The supporting cast is great as well, made up of several veterans of Japanese film and TV. They deliver in their performances with the right mix of adventurous spirit, drama, camp, and humor.

The film is also big, with some big sets, and few decent cg sets, and some big action moments. The best action sequences utilize parkour-style stunts, but less in the way B13 does it and more in common with something like Assassin's Creed, which came to mind during the big training sequences. These sorts of action scenes are a lot of fun and create for some excellent foot chases.

While the film does get a bit preachy about its rich versus poor plot line, it remains fun and, even when it slows down, the acting keeps you engaged. There is also a great deal of humor mixed in, which keeps things light. Suffice to say, the film never feels too heavy handed. Although it could have played up it's issues much more seriously, it thankfully never does.

Overall, I have to say that this is one of the more enjoyable Japanese films I have seen in a while. Much like America, I can't say I have seen too much I have thoroughly enjoyed as I enjoyed this film. If there were more films that aimed for the scope and Hollywood scale of this film, with as much talent as went into this film, we might see more enjoyable pictures from Japan.

Quite frankly I dislike most of the Hollywood comic to screen adaptations that have been made possible with high budget CGI and motion control. The most positive thing about a cheaply made film is that either the makers deliver shoddy goods (nearly every SciFi Channel movie) or they focus on story, drama and comedy which can result in the most satisfying movie.

K-20 inhabits a world that's very familiar to comic book readers, alternate history what-if. Here the Japanese have avoided WW2 and have evolved into a strange combination of the Taisho era with the totalitarian leanings of the Showa with technology seemingly mired in the 1920's even though the film is set in the late 1940's. German is used instead of English when a universal language is needed. The film revolves around a Japanese invention that finally brings Tesla's dream of wireless energy to fruition. Unfortunately it can also be used as an extremely powerful weapon.

The look of the film is excellent and the effects are, as others have pointed out, very good and well conceived. But that is true of many other big budget films like this. What makes this film different is the drama that fleshes out the fantasy. It's not perfect, some of the acting is old-school over-acting, the main characters are very familiar to anyone with familiarity with Japanese entertainment especially the Duke's daughter. And there are some moments that strain the viewer's credibility but The Dark Knight had moments like that as well. Overall the film ended and I had enjoyed myself.

There are way worse ways to spend your time, (The Spirit anyone?) hopefully this film will see a wide release.

I watched this at a Fantasy Film Festival and was surprised how funny it was. The action part was expected, but the silly things in the movie really do work. You could say "Spirit" silly, although the overall movie is not as silly as Spirit of course.

It's a really great "Origin" movie and I guess you don't have to know the Mangas this is based on (I hadn't read/seen anything about this character, before I watched the movie). Great action set pieces, great actors, nice editing, of course mostly foreseeable, but still quite a few crazy ideas. If you like fun action movies, you can't go wrong with this one!

K-20 was the most fun I had in a movie theater in a long time. Yes, there are deeper movies, and definitely more expensive ones, especially on this side of the ocean. But K-20 kicks Spiderman's butt (or any other recent costumed hero movie) any day of the week. Special effects are there, but this is first of all a movie about people.

Set in an alternate 1949, where Word War II never happened, K-20 takes place in a poorer Japan, that bears many signs of the alliance with the Reich. The sets are very well done, imagine a steampunk Blade Runner mixed with post-Dickens, post-Industrial revolution London. This is Teito, the capital of Japan, where orphans roams the streets and the Imperial aristocracy rules with fear and armed men. One ruthless vigilante roams the streets (well, perhaps the roofs): K-20, who in spite of his professed Robin Hoodism is less than loved by the population, who'd rather root for his arch-enemy, the aristocrat Inspector Akechi. Yet K-20 is not the main character here: the hero is Heikichi Endo, who is framed for the crimes of K-20, beaten and imprisoned. How he will be able to escape, clear his name (and save the world, in passing) keeps you glued to your seat for the over two hours and fifteen minutes of the movie.

The retro atmosphere reminded me a little of Chabon's Kavalier & Clay, if a movie could ever do it justice. Parkour lovers will definitely enjoy the antics of the hero in training. Everyone else, manga fan or not, will have fun.

I've watched this film twice on flights to Japan and enjoyed it on two levels. First, by itself, it is a rousing fun action film--superior to most of the US adaptations from graphic novels. The combination of the CGI vistas with realistic local sets works extremely well: you are reminded that you are in an art deco-influenced alternative reality but the immediate surroundings of squalor in the poverty-stricken lower class sections of the city and opulence in the wealthy neighborhoods are entirely plausible. The action and the fights are great and integrated entirely into the plot, and the performances are solid. The only difficulty is that the identity of the villainous K-20 (and, yes, he IS a villain) is probably too easy to guess, while the hero seems at times too dense.

The second level of enjoyment is how the film contributes to an understanding of Japanese culture. The mixed admiration and dislike for the wealthy artistocratic class who dominated Japan during the early 20th century strongly emerges from the film. The depiction of how Japanese people would react to a spectacular, mysterious criminal was also interesting. I could write more, but perhaps someone should try a serious academic analysis. The bottom line is that its fun to watch--much more fun than The Hulk or V--and, at the same time, it is a uniquely Japanese take on the whole vigilante against an unjust society theme. It is definitely NOT a Japanese "imitation" of anything.