A couple of weeks ago I found out there was a new Japanese movie to be playing in Indonesian theaters soon. When I read the synopsis about cyborg and seemed to be action movie, I thought I would give myself a try. Yesterday I finally got the chance to see this one in one of the few cinemas still playing the movie (it was quite a challenge since this kind of movie only played in the smaller cinema chains and with a very big Hollywood movie just playing, the options became even more limited). Anyway, let us get on with the movie.
Brief Story Line
Inuyashiki (Noritake Kinashi) was a rather elderly family man married to Marie (Mari Hamada) and they had a high school daughter named Mari (Ayaka Miyoshi) and her younger brother Takeshi (Nayuta Fukuzaki). Working at a company with small pay made him unable to provide for his family and they seemed disrespectful & did not love him, especially Mari. One night his life would change forever when an incident made him became like a cyborg with various "super" power. At first he was confused but later on started to do good things using his power, but he only kept this to himself and did not dare to share it with his family.
Meanwhile a high school student named Hiro Sishigami (Takeru Satoh - Ajin: Demi-Human etc) also experienced the same thing as Inuyashiki. He showed this new power to his best friend Ando (Kanata Hongô - Full Metal Alchemist, Attack on Titan etc) who was worried and a bit scared with what Hiro would do. Unlike Inuyashiki, Hiro started to use his power to do bad things like murdering people. Things were also a bit complicated with a girl at school Shion (Fumi Nikaidō) who had a crush on Hiro.
As things went from bad to worse for Hiro, he seemed to have lost his way and vowed to do the worst possible damage to the world and it would seem only Inuyashiki who could probably stop him. So what would happen to this 2 opposite side of people with the same power? Find them all in this dramatic action movie.
End of Brief Story Line
This movie was a rather slow burner. The first half hour was more like a drama (and actually seemed a bit depressing especially when it was showing how low Inuyashiki's life was). But when the power started to appear, the movie tone changed to very interesting and a bit suspenseful at times. What I loved about the story development was how contrast the power was used by 2 different people who got the same thing. It was a real great moral story & dilemma that was amazingly done. It was really something that I believed was the great strength of the story in here.
Having a duration of a little over 2 hours was sufficient to my opinion as the build up to the story was slow & steady but it really gave us the understanding of how these two people could develop into what they were in the end. The action sequence itself was quite nicely done, with some decent special prosthetic effects (not spectacularly good but adequate), very good explosion effects and the rather scary moments of what Hiro would do using his power. The sound effects were OK but I really think the standard of sound system in the theater I saw really need upgrade as it was not giving me the "wow" effect. The music was very good, with occasional silence giving more dramatic effects in some scenes. The rock song during the end credit scene was very uplifting and sung by Man with a Mission. Oh there was a mid end credit scene that really should not be missed out, but there was no post end credit scene, just for you to enjoy that song.
The movie was adapted from Japanese manga with same title by Hiroya Oku. After reading the brief summary of its manga, I think for a live action version movie, this seemed to be quite loyal to the original story with few modification but different ending. I actually quite love the ending of this movie, but I think the ending of the manga version might be much more satisfying. Perhaps I got to find time to watch the anime version that did not seem to be too long and should not take long time to complete. What I loved about this film was that it did not take too much effort for me to understand the story even without reading the manga first. I know that some movies adapted from different media might be quite a challenge to enjoy if we did not know the background story first (or read them/watched the series first).
I myself enjoyed this movie a lot. I liked the story and of course the cool action sequences especially the finale fight. I also loved how the moral message of how to best use great power was delivered so smoothly. My wife was also able to enjoy the movie as she was absorbed to the story development, particularly the more dramatic part. There were some of the more worrying moments of Hiro's actions & or course the touching moments that really affected her. The movie also had few brief funnier side particularly involving Inuyashiki's moments of adapting to his power, but it was mostly rather serious and heavy. I really do not think this one is suitable for younger children as it had quite abundant violent killing scenes.
So if you enjoy movie adapted from manga, and if you love science fiction movie but do not mind a bit more dramatic parts, then this movie is certainly for you. But if you prefer a much more full action movie without considering the story developments then it might be possible you would not be able to fully enjoy this one. The choice is yours.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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