More of a rip-off from a few really famous Western SCI-FIs rather than a tribute, but you won't care because it's alot of fun!
Great Popcorn movie.
Miyamoto (Takashi Kaneshiro) is a Returner, a killer-for-hire.
Miyamoto is hot on the trail of the man he swore he would kill, a dealer of human organs for the black market, Mizoguchi (the incredible Goro Kishitani), who killed Miyamoto's childhood friend Xi-Huan and sold his organs on the black market.
Miyamoto finally catches up with Mizoguchi durin a run-of-the-mill mission, just as he is about to take his revenge for Xi-Huan a strange girl who fell from the sky interupts him allowing Mizoguchi's escape.
This girl is Milly (the cute Anne Suzuki), a girl sent back for the distant future to prevent a war between humans and an invading alien race called the "Daggra".
Milly forces Miyamoto to help her, so the two must now work together to kill the first "Daggra" who will fake a crash landing the very next day. Little does Miyamoto know, but he will get his second chance for revenge because Mizoguchi has also become involved with this alien race.
Will Milly and Miyamoto be able to stop the invasion in time?
What has Mizoguchi got to do with all this?
and do the "Daggra" really intend to invade Earth?
Find out in this action packed fusion of past mega-hit Sci-Fi movies!
Ok before I go deep into this I would just like to say that despite this movie having very little originality, it is a very awesome movie that deserved all the success it got while screening in movie theatres over in Japan. RETURNER borrows so many themes and stories from other movies that I'm surprised the company hasn't been sued into bankruptcy. It borrows some major themes from THE TERMINATOR and INDEPENDANCE DAY, and some minor (but obvious) themes from THE MATRIX and ET THE EXTRATERESTRIAL.
Despite all these plagiarisms I really can't find much about this movie to criticise, sure alot of movie critics have criticized it for things like the acting and (in every case) the "borrowing" from other movies, but I just find that (as a normal movie viewer) it is generally a really fun and enjoyable movie. The reason it is so popular in Japan is because everybody who went to see it wasn't movie critic-type people, just average movie goers. Critics (especially Sci-Fi fans) are really WAY too uptight when it comes to plagiarism (the image that comes to mind is nerdy Star Trek fans). Yes it does borrow alot from other movies, but what really matters is that it's alot of fun!
RETURNER is very polished, it has good CGI for a movie not made in Hollywood, the picture is clean and pleasing to the eye.
The story may not be original but I found that all the familiar themes rolled into one actually made it a very interesting walk down memory lane.
The story does have a few plot holes, like "if she's on a race against time why is she going clothes shopping and getting a facial?" and "if Miyamoto was raised on the street shouldn't he be a bit more heartless and tougher then being such a pretty boy?", but all in all RETURNER was always intended to be the kind over movie where viewers are expected to take their brains out and enjoy a good 1hr and 50mins worth of mindless fun. The story is because it is.
One place the movie definantly shines is in the action. You can't go wrong with good old shoot-em-up flicks where the main character looks cool with his coat wavering about in the air rather unrealisticly.
The bullet-time effect is used here but it has a more plausible explanation than the bullet-time used in THE MATRIX, it's actually generated by a gadget from the future that allows it's wearer to speed themselves up 20 fold, it has limited uses and there is only one so I found that handicap rather refreshing.
The acting is top notch and was casted excellently, with the 3 leads pulling it off perfectly. There is the case of the character Miyamoto who should be alot more tougher than he is portrayed, however that is an error from the writers and Takashi Kaneshiro acts out the character he is given very well.
Anne Suzuki is wonderful at portraying her character who is very tough for a young girl but being young, still has the qualities of a young Japanese girl like the infatuation with all things "kawaii" (cute) and "kirei" (pretty). But the stand-out performance is Goro Kishitani as the sleek and evil Mizoguchi. Mizoguchi is just awesome, from his slick walk and anime-esque hair you just know you don't want to mess with this guy, espcially since he has the habit of shooting his own men for no reason. He takes no prisoners and is ruthless to everything living thing he sees.
This movie was a joy to watch, it's got that classic sci-fi and action flavour with that dash of Japanese craziness that makes all things plausible.
Pick this up if you enjoy a good sci-fi/action hybrid like THE MATRIX (using the Matrix as an example of the genre mix, it's not actually like the Matrix).
If you're expecting something like THE MATRIX, which the RETURNER was surprisingly describe as, don't expect much.
I know those Matrix fanboys who think nothing can top it, personally I found THE MATRIX pretty overrated and enjoyed watching the RETURNER much more.
I guess this movie is a great flick for those who didn't find THE MATRIX was their taste.
Put on some microwave popcorn because this is a definant Popcorn movie.
No, I don't think so... Don't be fooled. This isn't as good as you want it to be. Fine performances, with some nice comic timing from the leads, and some interesting action/sfx, are let down by ham-fisted pacing and a running time that's at least 20mins too long. Aside from a twist or two, the simple storyline goes from A to B in the longest time possible. Don't get me wrong, it's worth seeing, but it's NO classic!
backstepprogram(15) on 14, Aug. 2004 21:19 (HKT)
A Great Popcorn Flick! RETURNER is like the little engine that could.
Despite all best attempts to fly apart at its illogical seams, the film manages to muster a warm smile along thanks to some terrific special effects, some above-average Asian action sequences, and three performances that never quite take themselves -- or the plot -- too seriously.
The story is utterly painstakingly familiar territory to science fiction: an alien force threatens to invade the Earth. The twist here is that the invasion is a calculated response to the Japanese Space Force retrieving one of the alien's crashed pilots -- think of the events allegedly to have happened in Roswell, New Mexico, but with a Japanese relocation and markedly Asian accents. What the Space Force plans to do with the recovered pilot and the craft is never made clear, but those variables aren't important to the plot that brings in the Japanese Triads (are they ever far from a Hong Kong actioner?). Once they realize that the aliens possess technology superior to the Glock, they want it, and they'll stop at nothing -- including shooting beautiful Asian scientists -- to get it.
In short, have INDEPENDENCE DAY meet THE TERMINATOR with just a hint of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and that lovable E.T. ... but I'm sure that the comparisons don't stop there.
The principals are simple:
Miyamoto (played as part Bruce Willis and part James Dean by the winning Takeshi Kaneshiro) is a gun-for-hire trying to keep his neighborhood safe from the Triads. Always trying to find peace with his troubled past (he failed to aid a young friend whose organs were harvested by the film's major bad guy fifteen years ago -- this is, perhaps, the film's only truly grim sequence thankfully played out in flashback), Miyamoto lives life as a loner, on the edge, from hit job to hit job.
Milly (given a wonderful exuberance by Anne Suzuki) is a young girl from the future whose troubled past happens to reside in Miyamoto's distant future. As mankind has been virtually hunted to extinction, the last stand against the aliens fails miserably, but not before Milly can leap into a Time Shifter -- ala STARGATE -- that propels her back in time to exactly three days before the original events that brought the Earth and the aliens into conflict.
Thrown together by pure circumstance, Miyamoto and Milly -- two cinema social misfits -- inevitably join forces in the race to find the imprisoned extraterrestrial pilot and return him to his rightful species before the war to end mankind can commence.
Despite some hackneyed logic (a problem not uncommon to some Hong Kong vehicles), RETURNER manages to preserve a terrific pace through some wonderful editing, tongue-in-cheek acting, and some well-choreographed stunts. The film is not without its share of twists (did the aliens simply attack, or did mankind bring it on itself?), but these revelations are of little value to the already explored themes. Still, Director Takashi Yamazaki (also screenwriter) manages to kick up the 'dazzle factor' every time the plot seems to be careening toward dreariness, and the 'race-against-time' formula helps the viewer dismiss a few plot gaffes and accept this fun little film -- with some wonderful TRANSFORMER-esque creations near the conclusion -- for what it is:
Pure escapism.
Who knows? RETURNER might be worth another 'return.'
