Reset (2017) [Film Review]

Reset; or, Time and Time Again

     Rainbow rangers transcend through time and space.

Time-travel flicks are always fun to watch, at least to me. When I saw the teaser trailer for Reset (a.k.a. Fatal Countdown: Reset) in early 2017, I knew that I couldn’t give this one a miss. However, a whole year passed and I somehow forgot about the film. Thankfully, I checked it out during Christmas time and now I’m ready to discuss this Chinese science fiction masterpiece.

Release Info

Directed by: Chang Starring: Yang Mi, Wallace Huo, Hummer Zhang, Liu Chang

Language: Mandarin Original Title: 逆时营救 Runtime: 106 min

 

Synopsis

It’s the year 2025. Various research labs across the globe are exploring the possibilities of travelling back in time to parallel universes. One of such facilities is the Nexus Corporation, which already performed experiments with animals. Xia Tian (Yang Mi), one of the project’s leading scientists, tries to divide her time between work and home as she is taking care of her small son Doudou (Hummer Zhang). All of a sudden, Doudou is kidnapped by a henchman from an American corporation (Wallace Huo) who orders Xia Tian to bring him all the research data or her son will die. Xia Tian complies, but Doudou is ruthlessly killed anyway. Devastated mother attempts to travel 1 hour and 50 minutes back in time so as to save her child.

 

Help yourself by helping yourself helping yourself

When the movie started, I wasn’t expecting anything exceptional. I was just hoping for a good film with forgivable CGI effects, but, oh boy... I’ve got say that Reset is actually gobsmackingly amazing! The thriller-like beginning already kept me on the edge of my seat. When Xia Tian jumped into this hub/gate portal, which disintegrates every human body cell… Like wow! Just talking about this movie makes me wanna go back in time and re-watch it again!

 

Everything in this movie is a near perfection: the script, well-crafted characters (even the supporting ones), performances, the special effects, and the music score. Director Chang (also known as Yoon Hong Seung) did a splendid job. In addition, this film was also produced by Jackie Chan. At first, I was like: Yeah... his company gave the money and he just slapped his name on the credits, but now I’m convinced that he must have had some input into the creative process.

 

In terms of performances, I know I shouldn’t write something like this in a review, but I can’t help it. I just fell in love with Yang Mi. Her performance of a mother willing to do whatever it takes to save her son is a triumph! Within the time span of about 40 minutes, she goes from Ellen Ripley in Alien (1979) to Ellen Ripley in Aliens (1986) effortlessly! Her interpretation of Xia Tian makes her character one of the most tragic time travellers in movie history.

 

Additionally, Wallace Huo is a great addition as a bad-to-the-bone killer. I mean, this guy is willing to kill a kid and blow up the lab full of people just to get the job done. His motivation is eventually explained at the end of the movie (no spoilers here), but he’s still a very dark villain with many issues. Also, Hummer Zhang convincingly played Doudou (it’s always very hard to find a good child actor).

 

With regard to disadvantages... there are only three minutes of stupidity, just because the scriptwriters wanted to provide a double twist. Thankfully, the scene does not last long and it does not affect the overall reception.

 

Recommendations

If you enjoy time-travel movies, I strongly suggest that you jump into your DeLorean, buckle up, and check out Reset as you’re in for a great film (in fact, one of the best time-travel films). I can only hope that the Chinese will make more science fiction pictures (with Yang Mi starring in them). To sum up, Reset is an outstanding showpiece, which casts into the shadows Hollywood’s failed attempts to make outstanding stories with strong heroines.

Overall score: 8/10

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)