February 25, 2004
Returner (2002)
I rented the Japanese film Returner from Netflix and watched it last night. It was about as good as I had hoped. Not quite to the level of innovation and subtlety that Avalon was, but still a very enjoyable film.
It is an homage to elements of the Terminator storyline--hired assassin Miyamoto accidentally injures a young woman during a shootout and takes her home with him. There he learns that she is a time traveller from the future, come back to the past to prevent a war with invading aliens.
Director Takashi Yamazaki appears to have done mostly anime work and this seems to be one of those new generation of Japanese films that seek to bring anime sensibilities to real world film (as did Avalon and the forthcoming Casshern).
It's got cool special effects a la Matrix (bullet-time) and the best transforming spaceships I've ever seen. Some very nice John Woo-like choreography of gunfights as well. Recommended to both anime fans and fans of action and martial arts films. An enjoyable way to while away an evening.
Posted by artandscience at February 25, 2004 08:19 AM