Studio: Robot

Rating: 3/5

Principal Cast

Takeshi Kaneshiro – Miyamoto

Anne Suzuki – Milly

Goro Kishitani – Mizoguchi

Introduction

Returner is a Japanese science fiction action movie. Well, not that much science fiction in that most of the action is between two groups of humans in present day Tokyo. There is lots of gunplay and a little bit of martial arts.

The basic plot is that Milly, a teenager from 2084, is sent back in time to kill an alien scout in 2002. The scout crash landed on Earth and called in the Daggra invasion forces, starting a war that humans had been losing for eight decades.

But Milly arrives in the middle of a gunfight between Miyamoto and Mizoguchi along with Mizoguchi’s henchmen. Miyamoto is an independent agent for hire and he interrupts Mizoguchi’s business transaction to steal all the money. But the stakes go up when Miyamoto realizes it’s Mizoguchi since he’s been looking for Mizoguchi for fifteen years to exact his revenge.

Anyways, Milly is accidentally shot. Mizoguchi makes his getaway. Miyamoto takes Milly home to make sure she’s ok. Then he kicks her out. But it won’t be that easy because Milly returns and places a small bomb on Miyamoto’s neck in order to get him to help her find the alien.

Eventually Milly does explain to Miyamoto why she’s here. And it takes her even longer to convince him it’s the truth. Meanwhile as they keep looking for the alien, Mizoguchi finds the alien in a government lab. Realizing the weapons potential of the alien ship, Mizoguchi resolves to assault the installation, just as Miyamoto and Milly are infiltrating the same building.

Mizoguchi manages to nab the alien and his tech. But Miyamoto and Milly track Mizoguchi to his giant offshore oil drilling platform. It’s two people against dozens but the fate of the world is in their hands.

Review

It’s a fairly nice gun-fu action movie. Science fiction which is unusual for asian films. And with the special effects we see why (though they’re not that bad, I’d say about mid 80’s Hollywood standards).

The movie is subtitled but it’s good subtitling. Not just a transliteration but actual translations and grammatically correct too. Apparently the actors are speaking Japanese and Mandarin but I couldn’t tell the difference.

Overall I thought this was a better than average asian action film.

Extras

Interviews

    Action Coordinator Takenari Tsuneyoshi (5 min)

    Production Designer Anri Johjo (6 min)

Visual Effects: Before and after (8 min) – shows footage with animatics on top and final scene on bottom.

Production Diary (54 min) with optional commentary by Director Takashi Yamazaki and actress Anne Suzuki. The commentary is pretty interesting.

The interviews and production diary are all subtitled.