SUMMARY
Miyamoto is a
hitman for hire. On his current job to kill Chinese Tong boss
Mizoguchi, a mysterious girl appears out of nowhere. Her arrival
startles the hitman, and he promptly shoots her. While he is
distracted, Mizoguchi takes the opportunity to escape.
Feeling bad about what he has done, Miyamoto takes the young woman to
his home. When she recovers, he tries to find out who she is.
The girl tells him that her name is Milly and she is a soldier from the
year 2084. Her mission is to kill the leader of an alien invasion,
and thus save humanity from extinction. When he tries to get rid of
her, Milly sticks a bomb to his neck, threatening to detonate it if he
doesn't help her.
As it turns out, the alien has already arrived, having crash landed in
the forest near Tokyo. Wanting to use the alien technology for their own nefarious
purposes, Mizoguchi has been ordered by the tong to capture him.
Now the race is on not only for Milly and Miyamoto to stop Mizoguchi,
but to get to the alien first before his friends arrive.
DVD VISION TEST
VIDEO:
The DVD quality is excellent. It's colors are sharp, and the motion is
fluid. No pixels, wrinkles or edge enhancement noted.
AUDIO:
With the Dolby 5.1, it really knocks your socks off. The sound
during the action segments hits you from all sides. The 2.0 is very
quiet, and no where as good. I wish I had a dts decoder, I bet this
has some kick ass sound. The audio commentary is pretty typical,
with the commentators from the front speakers, and the movie in the
background.
EDITS: No edits.
EXTRAS: An audio commentary, a couple of trailers, and some cast and crew
info are the extras. There are English subtitles, for the movie
only.
WIDESCREEN REVIEW
STORY:
The story is not very original. Half "Terminator" half
"Independence Day", you will spend hours picking what scenes
were "borrowed" from what movie.
ACTING: The
cast is excellent. Asian superstar Takeshi Kaneshiro once again
makes a rather unsavory character a really nice guy. He is also able
to switch from hard edged killer to a regular guy overwhelmed by the
events around him in a snap.
Anne Suzuki is great as Milly. She
plays her character as soldier so sure of her duty, she must succeed by
any means necessary. When the truth about the invasion is revealed,
her break down had me convinced.
FAN SERVICE: Obvious
"homage" to "Terminator", "The Matrix", and
even "Transformers" are in this one. None in the
nudity/panty shot category.
CONCLUSION
Upon
hearing that Columbia-Tri Star was bringing "Returner" to the
states, I had to see it. Thanks to Dan in Japan, he sent us his R2
copy of this film.
This is not a brilliant
film. It isn't even an original film. It's a B film, plain and
simple. However, its a very good B film.
I
was quite impressed with all aspects of this movie. First, the fight
sequences were awesome. All that time Takeshi Kaneshiro spent
in Hong Kong doing action films has really helped. His moves are
fluid, and he is very comfortable with the heavy gunplay required for his
character. Those of you who have only seen the rather stilted action
of movies like "Black Angel" or "Zero
Woman" will be surprised.
With comedy or dramas, timing is
everything. A veteran of Japanese dramas/comedies, Ann Suzuki has
perfect timing; funny when she needs to be, serious when the situation
calls for it, and emotional during the dramatic moments. I am
looking forward to seeing what she will do next.
No plastic spaceships
in this movie. There is some top of the line Computer Generated
Imaging going on here. I love the designs of the aliens. After
seeing the transforming Harrier, I can believe in the idea of a live
action "Transformers" movie.
Columbia-Tri Star has made a very
wise move in choosing this movie to release in the states. While
there are other movies that are better (Bayside Shakedown 1 and 2), this
one is perfect for the "Matrix"/ "Terminator" crowd
who are not quite finished with their stylized violence fix. With
both "Returner" and "Kill Bill" coming out around the
same time, this fall may be the season for Asian style cinema to really
make it big.
Returner
is a top of the line B movie. It has a lot of action, cool special effects,
and great acting. Provided they don't dub it, Columbia Tri-Star
might have a winner.
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