Genre: Action, Crime
Starring:
Takeshi Kaneshiro - Heikichi Endo
Takako Matsu - Yoko Hashiba
Toru Nakamura- Kogoro Akechi
Release year: 2008
Language: Japanese
Subtitle: English
SYNOPSIS:
The story takes place in an alternative Tokyo which has taken a different history. In the fictional capital Teito where the aristocrats continue to thrive since the 19th Century, there is a wide gap between the rich and the poor. The aristocrats own 90% of the wealth in the capital. In the city, there are rumors about a mysterious thief, who only steals from the rich with incredible ways like magician. People call him K-20, that's short for "Kaijin Niju-Menso" (the Phantom Thief with 20 faces).
RATING: 8/10
USER RATING:
REVIEW:
" K-20 is not the name of the hero, but the villain, and the movie opens with him already established. The villain is established before the hero and the hero is born out of the necessity to stop him; I can’t think of a single other entry that I’ve ever seen that has done this and that includes the foreign fare. Usually the storyline of the hero’s rise either concludes prior to, or runs congruent with, the villain’s. But in K-20, the only reason this guy wants to be a hero is so he can take down this one bad guy and clear his name. Also, a hero who has completely selfish motives is interesting. We never see this guy save a kitten or punch a mugger in the jaw because all of his time and energy is spent trying to save his own ass. He doesn’t even wear any kind of a mask, or cape, or cowl, or…..paperbag? Actually the whole hero/villain relationship is challenged in K-20. The villain is just as much the dystopian society in which they live as it is K-20 himself. Poverty and class structure are motivations for both hero and villain and ultimately the ending hints at a unification of those motives in a very cool way.
The action sequences in this are a lot of fun. The hero, I keep calling him that because he’s not even given a name, being an acrobat allows for some really fantastic, parkour moments that seemed to be the answer to the question of what it would look like if DC took over the District B-13 franchise. He also has a sweet grappling hook attached to his arm that gives the film a Spider-Man flavor despite defying several laws of physics in the process. I thought the final fight scene between K-20 and the hero was really spectacular and slow motion was applied generously but not in excess. I could even forgive moments of lousy CG because they came, more often than not, in moments of high octane craziness so the stark contrast to reality is altogether negligible. I think my biggest complaint with the film is that it needed more action sequences to justify it’s superfluous runtime.
K-20 is far too long. It needs to be trimmed down like nobody’s business; at least 20 minutes in my estimation. The problem is that you have all these exposition scenes that further explain other exposition scenes that were perfectly clear the first time around. It almost seemed that the film was trying to be as long as it possibly could and sacrificed pacing to achieve that. I have a theory that they might have been of the mindset that the runtime of The Dark Knight somehow factors into its success and they were trying to mimic that here. But the reason The Dark Knight is so long is because it has an epic story to tell and not a single moment of that film is expendable. K-20 on the other hand, well let’s just say it needs a shave. If it tightened up its runtime and replaced redundant plot devices with more action-y moments, this really could have been an all around phenomenal film.
The Upside: Really cool Japanese superhero film that introduces just as many new concepts as it borrows from American titles.
The Downside: An inflated runtime that may have you nodding off in the middle of the film.
On the Side: This is the feature debut for director Shimako Sato, who has made a name for himself directing cinematic sequences for video games. "
Source: filmschoolrejects.com
PREVIEW:
RELATED LINKS:
MU:
Part 01 - Part 02 - Part 03 - Part 04 - Part 05 - Part 06 - Part 07 - Part 08 - Part 09 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14
IF YOU LIKE THIS MOVIE, PLEASE BUY THE ORIGINAL DVD HERE!!!
========================================
NOW IT'S YOUR TURN TO SHOW ME YOUR LOVE! BUY ME A DRINK or CHICKEN WINGS. I'm so thirsty and hungry after uploading the movies for you. o(^_^)o
(NOTE: Besides Paypal, the restaurant accepts all major credit cards)
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
========================================
NOTE:
[*] TO JOIN FILES END WITH .001 .002 .003 ... USE FILEFJ. DOWNLOAD HERE
[*] TO OPEN FILES END WITH .RAR, USE WINRAR DOWNLOAD HERE
[*] TO PLAY VARIOUS VIDEO FORMAT SUCH AS AVI, MP4, WMV... AND BE ABLE TO WATCH IT WITH SUBTITLE, INSTAL K-LITE CODEC PACK DOWNLOAD HERE
[*] TO PLAY FILES END WITH RMVB, RM, INSTALL REAL MEDIA PLAYER OR REAL ALTERNATIVE DOWNLOAD HERE
[*] MORE USEFUL INFOMATION AT FAQ/SUPPORT
If you enjoy this movie, leave some comments. Your comments are valuable to me and keep me doing my job well.
NEWER MOVIES
