Review of Returner (2002) by Josh G — 20 Mar 2008

This Japanese sci-fi action flick from 2002 is, well, unique. I spotted it on the racks at Suncoast, and the title sparked in my memory somewhere, so I checked out the back. Sounded interesting, what with a plot revolving around a time traveller, a gunslinging martial arts badass, aliens, yakuza, and just about everything else you can cram into a movie like this. The cover had me a little skeptical, looking like a Matrix knock-off, but it was only 8 bucks, so I snagged it.

After having watched it, I can say that it definitely turned out to be a whole helluva lot better than I thought it would be. The main character, Miyamoto, isn't the stoic hardass a la Versus that I was expecting from a movie like this, but instead he had a lot of personality, and the actor portraying him, Takeshi Kaneshiro, reminded me a lot of a Japanese version of Heath Ledger (R.I.P.). His costar, Anne Suzuki, played the role of the wayward time traveller trying to save the planet from certain destruction at the hands of an all-too-wicked alien race (who somewhat remind me of the Battle Droid things in Star Wars that rolled around and then folded out into walking laser turrets, except that in this their laser blasts do a TINY BIT MORE than just shoot people dead, thanks to the R rating). While not the most knock-out Japanese actress I've ever seen, she was extremely cute and brought some mild comedy to the collective. Lastly, you've got Goro Kishitani, who portrays the stereotypical Yakuza boss, trying to solidify his place with the Chinese Triad syndicate he works for by means of possessing the crash-landed initial visitor of the alien species.

All in all, the back of the DVD makes the plot sound REALLY COMPLICATED, but the movie flows really well, and they obviously spared no expense on film with a run time of just shy of 2 hours.

Obviously, throw in some wicked action scenes with plenty of breathing room provided by actual ACTING, and you're left with a very solid sci-fi action film to rival other sleeper hits like Equilibrium. I think it's a good sign that I left the movie with a desire to see a sequel, but who knows if THAT will ever happen.

Check it out.