Bayside Shakedown 4: The Final Movie (2012) [Film Review]

Bayside Shakedown: The Movie 4; or, A New Hope

     Don't mess with us cops...

Just in 2010, when the Odoru Daisousasen movie series was rebooted and two years later it was announced that it’s coming to an end! The Last TV special episode and Odoru Daisōsasen The Final: Arata Naru Kibō, filmed back-to-back, mark the very last entries in the 15-year-old franchise.

Release Info

Directed by: Katsuyuki Motohiro Starring: Yuji Oda, Eri Fukatsu, Toshiro Yanagiba, Yusuke Santamaria

Language: Japanese Original Title: 踊る大捜査線 THE FINAL 新たなる希望 Runtime: 126 min

 

Synopsis

A gun is stolen from the evidence archive in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Soon after, two people die from that gun in the jurisdiction of the Wangan Police Station. Aoshima’s team begins the investigation, but the HQ’s investigative unit led by Torigai (Shun Oguri) takes over. It turns out that a cop stole the gun so, to hush things up, Muroi (Toshiro Yanagiba) and Aoshima (Yuj Oda) are turned into scapegoats. In the meantime, Sumire (Eri Fukatsu) considers  quitting her job because of the inability to cope with pain from a gunshot wound. WPS police officers join their forces to discover an in-police conspiracy that has something to do with what Mashita (Yusuke Santamaria) did in his early days as the negotiator.

 

All the good things...

Well, to be honest, Bayside Shakedown 4: The Final is a decent, well-made conclusion to one of the most awesome franchises ever. However, I guess that my expectations for this movie were a bit too high. In a lot of ways, I enjoyed The Last TV special episode more, and it was only lead-in to this final film. The uneven pacing is probably the only issue of this movie as it starts right off the bat with the chase scene, crazy awesome intro (my favourite out of all movies) and then it slows down to present a lot of exposition intertwined with humor scenes.

 

Nevertheless, I also greatly enjoyed many things which this film had to offer. The development of the Aoshima/Sumire (only friends!) relationship was done way better than in the previous sequel. In addition, the running theme of the series: excessive police bureaucracy is quite interesting to watch as both Aoshima and Muroi become the victims of the corrupt system. In addition, the conspiracy involving Mashita was really gripping. At first, I thought that the creators were trying to be over-original with the plot, but eventually, I appreciated that the crime had a little bit of personal factor (with relation to the characters) conveyed in itself. All in all, this is the final movie.

 

Speaking about performances, as in the previous movies, the Odoru cast was remarkable. The highest praise goes to Eri Fukatsu as she did the best job with her character since Bayside Shakedown: The Movie 2. Yuji Oda is great as always as Aoshima and the same thing applies to Toshiro Yanagiba and his portrayal of Muroi. Though, I hoped to see a little bit more of Muroi Shinji in this movie. In addition, Ren Osugi reprises his cameo role from the first theatrical film as a cover-up expert, the man behind the scenes who brings down the top brass of the police force

 

Recommendations

If you liked the previous theatrical films of the series, then this movie will not let you down. It may be uneventful at times, but generally it manages to deliver the desired dosage of Bayside Shakedown glamour. There’s humour, action, entertainment, and Aoshima running to the pumped up "Rhythm and Police" theme song. What’s more important, the promise made by Muroi in the last episode of the show has finally been fulfilled.

 

Well, this is the end of my two-month adventure with Odoru Daisousasen. It was a wonderful and unforgettable ride. I can only hope that someday, just maybe, there will be a new movie released.

Overall score: 8/10

Ran (1985) [Re-upload] [Film Review]

Ran; or, King Lear done right

     In a world gone mad, it’s madness to be sane.

The herein review was created out of my conference presentation about King Lear in late 2015. Later, the post-conference publication was in preparations, so I deleted the review as I incorporated some of the excerpts into the article. However, the publication never came to fruition, thus I decided to re-upload the original review.

Release Info

Directed by: Akira Kurosawa Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Daisuke Ryû, Mieko Harada, Yoshiko Miyazaki

Language: Japanese Original Title: Ran Runtime: 160 min

 

Plot

Set in the Sengoku period, we follow the life of Lord Hidetora Ichimonji (played by the epic Tatsuya Nakadai) who decides that it’s high time to retire and thus divides the kingdom between his three sons Taro (Akira Terao), Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu), and Saburo (Daisuke Ryû). Needless to say, Saburo is the only son sane enough to warn his father about probable disloyalty of his offspring, but Hidetora rejects such accusation and banishes the youngest heir, giving only Taro and Jiro a share in the land. Well, not very long afterwards, it turns out that indeed Hidetora’s sons turn against him, stripping him of his title and massacring his troops. Devastated and on the brink of madness Hidetora, with a faithful Fool (Pîtâ) to accompany him, is on the run through a raging war in Ichimonji kingdom. The father’s only hope for redemption is his rejected son Saburo.

 

The pain of adapting Shakespeare

Obviously, as with the rest of Shakespeare’s plays, King Lear has had countless cinematic adaptations with many big-name actors starring in the leading role, and Kurosawa already had his takes on Shakespeare before with the famous Throne of Blood and The Bad Sleep Well. However, it was twenty years after these two films when he finally decided to make Ran. On a side note, the title is not an English verb, but a Japanese word meaning “chaos”. In a nutshell, we can sum up Ran as a pessimistic study of the lust for power, betrayal of the father, and the outbreak of morbid wars. This film is the most grim, dark, and depressing motion picture out of the whole of Kurosawa’s repertoire, completely contradicting the social and often optimistic messages of his previous films (such as Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro).

 

Lesson of the Three Arrows

Allegedly, Kurosawa became inspired by the so-called “Lesson of the Three Arrows,” a tale about a Japanese warlord who handed each of his sons an arrow, asking each to break it. Then handed each son three arrows, requesting all three be broken together. The inability to do so implied the message “united we stand”. However, Kurosawa stated the following: “When I read that three arrows together are invincible, that’s not true. I started doubting, and that’s when I started thinking: the house was prosperous and the sons were courageous. What if this fascinating man had bad sons?”

That’s why Lord Hidetora has sons in the story (not daughters, as in the play): Taro (first son), Jiro (second son), and Saburo (third son); and it’s the youngest of the whole bunch who breaks the three arrows by snapping them against his knee, reiterating in this way the horrible truth to his ignorant father.

King Lear vs. Lord Hidetora

Highly interesting is the also the change which Kurosawa made with regard to the main character of the tragedy. In the play, we get to know that Lear was the king of Britain, a man “more sinned against than sinning”, and a blind ignorant trying to be the king without any responsibilities. Paradoxically, Kurosawa wanted to create “Lear with history,” a man haunted by his past misdeeds. In contrast to Lear, Hidetora is, or used to be, a bloodthirsty monster, a tyrant who created his kingdom out of the ashes of conquered lands by ruthlessly killing women and children. Naturally, the obvious choice to play such a badass character would be Toshiro Mifune who did an amazing job in the previous Kurosawa’s adaptations of Shakespeare, yet considering the fact that Mifune and Kurosawa were cross with each other since the making of Red Beard, a not so obvious second-choice man was hired for the part.

 

In my opinion, Tatsuya Nakadai in Ran gave the most outstanding performance in his entire acting career. Crappy latex make-up to make him look like an 80-year-old did not stop Nakadai from the stealing the show for himself and providing one of the most interesting as well as menacing interpretations of Lear. In addition, it should be pointed out that the actor did most of the stunts himself, including getting out of the castle that was really on fire! (The best sequence in the whole picture).

 

Frail men, strong women 

Another interesting addition to the original story is also the preservation of a woman as the evildoer. In King Lear, the daughters do the dirty job, but in the movie it’s Lady Kaede (Mieko Harada) who pulls the strings. She encourages the two sons to rebel against their father and later turn against each other, thus leading to the fall of the Ichimonji clan. That wicked witch is literally an impersonation of bad karma.

 

Nevertheless, on the other hand, Kurosawa does not so much amplify female viciousness but puts it in question. Apart from Kaede there’s also Sue (Yoshiko Miyazaki), a girl whose family was slaughtered by Hidetora, but the king spared her and treated… as a sort of a pet in his court. She is the only one apart from Saburo who is truly kind to Hidetora for she finds strength and consolation in the teachings of Buddha, informing Hidetora about the working of Karma before all hell breaks loose.

Last but not least, there’s also the issue of irony presented in the movie. When running along with the Fool, the two engage into pondering upon existential matters. When mad Hidetora states pitifully “I’m lost”, the Fool replies ironically “All men are lost,” enhancing the nihilistic tone of the whole picture.

 

Recommendations

All in all, what makes Ran such a unique adaptation of Shakespeare? Well, it’s certainly a visual masterpiece that everyone should watch before they die, but it’s great for it transposes the themes from the original play (chaos, injustice, madness, reconciliation), and also adds new motifs which amplify the original ones (gender reversal, irony, religion, violence, and bloodshed). I even dare say that the relation of Ran to King Lear can be described as the same of an exceptionally beautiful painting to a well written description of it. In other words, Ran is the visual extension of Lear.

Overall score: 10/10

If you're interested in finding out more about Ran, check out the following books:
Galloway, Patrick. 2009. Warring Clans, Flashing Blades: A Samurai Film Companion. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. (p. 63-69)
Prince, Stephen. 1991. The Warrior’s Camera. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (p. 284-291)

Bayside Shakedown 3: Set the Guys Loose (2010) [Film Review]

Bayside Shakedown: The Movie 3; or, Release the Prisoners!

     One thing I forgot to say... Your death won't be beautiful. You've got no pride, huh? No matter what, I'm going to arrest you. I take pride in that.

It’s been 7 years since the latest instalment of Bayside Shakedown until Yuji Oda proudly announced in 2010: "We’re back". Indeed, the Odoru Daisousasen team returned in this new and exciting reboot/sequel called Bayside Shakedown 3: Set the Guys Loose.

Release Info

Directed by: Katsuyuki Motohiro Starring: Yuji Oda, Eri Fukatsu, Toshiro Yanagiba, Yusuke Santamaria

Language: Japanese Original Title: 踊る大捜査線　THE MOVIE3 Runtime: 141 min

 

Synopsis

Aoshima (Yuji Oda) was promoted to Section Chief and he is currently handling a difficult logistic operation of moving the Wangan Police Station to its new headquarters. In the meantime, strange crimes take place. A bus hijack without any hijackers on board or a bank robbery without any money being stolen. What is more, the WPS chiefs find out that three pistols were stolen from the station’s arsenal. An unknown group of high-tech terrorists send in the ultimatum: Release specific prisoners arrested by Detective Aoshima or people will be shot from the stolen guns, and the Wangan staff will be gassed by toxins. In the course of his investigation, Aoshima discovers that the terrorists are connected with one of the prisoners.

 

Running Scared

Well, Bayside Shakedown 3, what can I say? After The Suspect: Muroi Shinji (2005) and the long break between the second and the third movie, I gather that the series began to run out of steam. Thus, it needed a proper injection of novelty as well as referencing to the previous films. As a result, this sequel feels very much like a reboot. We have a change of location and some new characters like Waku’s nephew, Shinjiro Waku (Atsushi Ito), Chinese police officer Wang (Kenichi Takito), and Natsumi Shinohara (Yuki Uchida), returning from the 1998 special episode: Wangan Police Station Female Officers’ Story. Even the picture’s colour palette seems more lively and vivid in comparison to the other movies, which had more greyish overlay.

 

With regard to the story, thankfully the usual Odoru theme of bureaucracy is not brought into the spotlight. Instead, the drama is delivered with the subplot of Aoshima being misdiagnosed with cancer... (I did not make that up). This sounds so far-fetched outright that it becomes the main disadvantage of this movie. I realise that the makers wanted some emotional scenes between Aoshima and Sumire (Eri Fukatsu) as well as some big catharsis towards the end (that Aoshima is actually healthy and the x-ray was faulty), but it is really uninspiring to watch. Especially when the script tried to turn Aoshima into Dabney Coleman’s character from Short Time (1990), as he is unafraid of anything, because he knows that he is going to die. The movie could easily got away without this subplot, and thus, decrease its lengthy runtime (140 minutes).

 

When all was said about the downsides, some positives have to be mentioned. Well, Kyoko Koizumi returns as Manami Hyuga from the first movie and she is revealed to be the main villainess of this story. However, contrary to her performance in Movie 1, Koizumi gives a very distanced and frigid portrayal of a crazy psychopath, so do not expect to hear her hysterical laughter or see her running amok with a loaded gun.

 

When the action is there, it is entertaining, especially with Akihiko Matsumoto’s main theme. New characters serve as a good addition to Aoshima’s team, though they are not given much time in the movie. Oh! Susumu Terajima has a small cameo in one of the scenes as Detective Kijima. Also, Shun Oguri plays Torigai, a Harvey Dent-like character who appears to start off as a good guy but gradually transforms into a baddie by the fourth movie.

 

About the performances, the original cast shines as brightly as ever with Yuji Oda and Eri Fukatsu in the leading roles. Toshiro Yanagiba’s appearance as Muroi Shinji is slightly limited in this sequel, but it’s always great to see him. Yusuke Santamaria and Kotaro Koizumi also return from Negotiator: Mashita Masayoshi (2005) and the WPS chiefs (Soichiro Kitmura, Satoru Saito, Takehiko Ono) are funny as always, though one can tell that the passage of time has taken a toll on them.

   

Recommendations

To sum up, Odoru Daisōsasen The Movie 3: Yatsura o Kaihō Seyo! is a fun and refreshing entry in the series. Though uneven at times, it’s a safe pick for Friday night. Unfortunately, it may not be suited for repetitive viewing. Probably that is the reason why it did well in the box office (over 7 billion yen), but not as good as the two previous films. However, it has the cast, it has the music, and it has the entertaining factor. This is a fully fledged Bayside Shakedown sequel.

Overall score: 8/10