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.

K-20: Legend of the mask is considered a Japanese superhero movie although K-20 is not a superhero, he is more of Japanese robin hood but only more evil. The 2 billion yen movie has the realistic special effects that you rarely see in Japanese movies and its action scenes are breath-taking especially the acrobatic stunts and famous Takeshi Kaneshiro with good music

Story: It is set in 1949 where there is no world war, which is lucky. There is K-20, stealing priceless items from the rich. He frames an acrobat, Heikichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Heikichi is caught and soon escapes. He then vows to unmask/catch K-20 and proves his innocence. The fight scenes with K-20 and Heikichi are stunning with amazing acrobatic stunts. I wish there will more of the breath-taking stunts in movies. As Heikichi races to find what K-20 is going after, it leads to the final battle between them where there happens to be a twist.

Overall: This is not to be missed for Takeshi fans or those who are fans of Japanese movies. K-20 may be a little long- the runtime is 2 hours 17 minutes but the plot is engrossing that you won't care about the time and watch how K-20 battles with Heikichi with wits and power. It is nice to see a big-budget Japanese action movie as the past few years, there are mostly Japanese thrillers like 20th century boys and death note.

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.

Fairly well done light entertainment movie with good computer graphics and retro set-up. Some reviewer says Japanese stole Batman, but I would like to present some facts here. K20 character was created in 1930 by Edogawa Rampo, a Japanese pioneer mystery novelist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edogawa_Rampo This movie is based on a recent novel adaptation by a different author. If you think cape and mask means everything MARVEL, think again and do some basic research before saying anything about "originality".

Some other characters like Akechi, and boy-sidekick Kobayashi are also came from Rampo's novels.

Retro set up seems like homage to the original author who wrote juvenile fun novels about K20 vs Akechi before WW2, and I appreciate the director's sensitivity.