Returner

In 2084, the mankind is near total annihilation by alien invaders. Milly (Anne Suzuki), a young woman from the Earth resistance, uses a time machine and returns to October, 2002, trying to avoid the beginning of alien invasion and the war. In her arrival in a ship, she is rescued and saved from the Yakuza evil boss Mizoguchi (Goro Kishitani) by a hit-man called Miyamoto (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Using unconventional methods, Milly forces Miyamoto to help her to save the human race.

"The Returner" is a good surprise: the story uses many elements of "The Matrix" (the shootings, the costume of Miyamoto), "Clockstoppers" (the apparatus that makes time stand quite still), "The Terminator" (the traveling back in time to save the human race) and even "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (an alien that wants to return home). However, although having some flaws in the story (as usual, when dealing with time travel), it is a great entertainment. The chemistry between the beautiful Anne Suzuki and Takeshi Kaneshiro is excellent, and Goro Kishitani is a great villain. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Retorno" ("The Return")

I know that I will definitely have to see this film again. Japanese movies are getting that sleek futuristic look and Returner is chock full of it. Although I have to admit, there seem to be a lot of "homages" ranging from Matrix, Men in Black to Fifth Element, X-Files and so on. Still, it's an action packed with cool style to boot.

The main hero and butt whooping babe work well together. From martial arts, lasers, guns, explosions, action scenes are so rapid that you're left blinking in awe. I definitely think towards the final 30 minutes, it does seem to go on a tangent and a friend and I were trying to piece together what we could and keep up. The CG is used well in enhancing the style of the film, especially the futuristic technology stuff.

If possible, catch this in the theater or on a good home system and you won't be disappointed.

Having read a few online reviews of this movie, and having seen some of the more recent movies out of Japan including Batoru rowaiaru (2000), my expectatations were low. (Battle Royale is for the most part a good movie, but enjoyment of the movie is ultimately crippled by a truly lousy ending.) For some reason, recent Japanese live-action movies tend to be really bad, while anime is often very good.

This movie was a pleasant surprise. It didn't rip off other movies nearly as much as I was led to believe. True, some of the special effects resembled those in The Matrix, but they helped advance this movie instead of being a way to try to make the movie seem more "cool."

The character of Mizoguchi, played by Goro Kishitani, resembled Gary Oldman's parts in a number of films including Fifth Element, The (1997) and Léon (1994). The acting by Takeshi Kaneshiro as Miyamoto was good, but the standout of the movie was the cute-as-a-button Ann Suzuki as the serious, fun, energetic, and rebellious Miri.

The CG of aliens disguised as terran aircraft transforming into their true forms was impressive, resembling the work done in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) and Independence Day (1996). This is a movie not to be missed by CG buffs.

With the recent shortage of good live-action movies coming out of Japan, The Returner is one of the best to come out within the last few years.

This has admittedly taken a lot of inspiration from Matrix, Terminator, Independence Day, ET, Predator, and probably a few others that I didn't notice. However, it seems more like a tribute to the movies, than a lazy ripoff, as it treats the source material with the respect it requires. The plot is very good, it borrows heavily from Terminator, but it gives it a bit of a twist that is pretty interesting. The science fiction portion of the movie is pretty good; the effects are nothing short of stunning and mind-blowing. The CGI totally mixes in perfectly with the live action, without at any point in the movie looking out of place. The action sequences are fantastic; sure, the action is often heavily inspired by films like The Matrix, but they pull it off pretty good. Some sequences leave you yearning for more. The acting is pretty good. I saw it with English audio, so I can't really say anything about the original actors voices, but the English/American voice actors did their job well. The only negative thing I can say about the film, is that the plot drags a bit in some places. At certain times, the movie seemed to not move on at all. However, this is only a few instances in the first part of the movie, and no one should be discouraged from watching it simply because of that. It's a damn good action/sci-fi movie, as long as you can accept that the concept is not particularly original. I recommend this to anyone who liked The Matrix, or similar films. 8/10

The day was set to end, I had two videos in my hands I had just rented an hour before, one of them was "Lost in Translation" and the other one was "The Returner".

To make a long story short, my attitude turned pretty sour after viewing the more anticipated "Lost in Translation" and turned on "The Returner" thinking it would be pretty cheesy....turns out, I was completely wrong.

The Returner, even though it obviously borrows a lot of ideas from other films, is incredibly entertaining. The main characters Miyamoto and Milly were incredibly engaging, the bad guy (with his "Vash the Stampede" look and gun) was pretty cool, the storyline (filled with some comedy, drama, action, and a science fiction twist of course) was not that bad (some parts were a lot more enjoyable than others), the execution of the directing was what caught my attention, and the overall impression I got from it was completely passable and whole-fully entertaining.

Even the ending and the soundtrack was superb. It made me drop my jaw in awe during the credits, it really had that much of an impact with me throughout the entire thing. I long for the special double disk edition (if it exists that is, not entirely sure yet).

For those who love action/SCI-FI flicks, this is a definite must. And this is also recommended for those who love Japanese Cinematography in general.