Gjefflin

I just watched a Japanese movie called "Returner". Did anyone else see this movie? It was directed by Takeshi Kaneshiro and is an action/adventure.

I kinda liked it. It's about this girl who goes back in time to stop an alien invasion and joins up with this guy who's a "Gun for hire". There are some very cool action scenes that are a little "Matrix'y" and the villian is slightly over the top but in a really good way.

Let me know what those of you that may've seen it think and your opinions of it.

SixEdxMia

I have never seen it,but thanks to you..I know that I never want to.: ) Not my style...I think I've heard of it..

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kel

I saw it a year ago on videoCD, I thought it was okay. I find the production values on japanese films to be lacking. They aren't quite up to speed on creating believable props and locations.

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Gjefflin

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! So what "is" your style?

Gjefflin

Hmm...I don't know. I think they're really catching up. As a matter of fact...I think that at some point they may exceed us.

phredgreen

on a whim i picked it up at the rental store a couple months ago. loved it. it's alot of fun watching mnovies like this, they almost seem like live-action anime. keep your eye out for another one that may be headed this way at some point called Casshern. the trailer looked really neat, i'm hoping to catch it sometime sooner than later.

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Mr.Deflok

The Returner was great! Takeshi Kaneshiro exudes an effortless cool that I'm jealous of. The biggest gripe I have with modern Japanese sci-fi is that the trailers show all the "cool" or "money" shots so the film seems pretty dry.

Like Phredgreen said Casshern is definately one to look out for, it's been getting some fantastic reviews too but I'm hoping that the trailer didn't give away all it's cool.

Gjefflin, you might like the PRINCESS BLADE, pretty good but has a horrible ending.

Gjefflin

OH MY GOD! It looks awesome!!! I"ll post the link in my other thread on Japanese/Chinese action flicks! Can't wait to see this one!

Gjefflin

I've already got that in my Netflix queue.

diergray

I rented it at Blockbuster. Not a bad movie and the main actor does come off as a very cool character.

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Gjefflin

Yeah. He was a very cool character. I almost wanted to see what other action films he's done but someone said he normally doesn't do action films so I didn't bother.

Nikilidstrom

I saw Retuner a few months ago. It was pretty good, loved the villain, and the special effects were pretty good. Another one that was ok was the Vampire Effect. It was a little silly at times, but really had that live anime feel to it. I only wish we had a video store here that was dedicated to having these type of titles, but they only pop up on occassion.

Gjefflin

Hey cool. I just added "Vampire Effect" to my Netflix queue. Looks interesting!

Mr.Deflok

Onimusha 1 and 3 on the PS2 has a digitized version of Kaneshiro as the lead character. I remember sitting down to watch The Returner and saying "Damn, he looks a lot like Samunoske from Onimusha... wait a minute... shit! He is!"

hilbert25

Holy freaking crap, I just saw the movie. Really good stuff. Really slick with some slight idiosyncracies.

My favorite part was when they spoke English in the future, I nearly hurt myself laughing so hard.

Gjefflin

I KNOW!!! When I first started watching it...I turned off my subtitles because I was thinking that it was all English. Then I had to turn them back on because I realized that it was just that one area of the film. LOL!

minusthesoul

I saw the movie and didn't really think it was that good. The main character was cool but that was all the movie had going for it.
A similar movie I did enjoy is Versus, better characters and cooler fights.

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Kadath

Watched it with a buddy expecting it to be a laughably bad Japanese action flick. Though it did borrow heavily from Independence Day and Terminator, we were surprisingly pleased with it. Some silly elements, especially the villain's ultra-frosted hair, but worth putting on the Netflix queue.

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Gjefflin

I just added "Versus" to my queue in Netflix. Can't wait to see it.

Gjefflin

That's kinda another reason why I dug it. It had that anime feel a bit and the villain was over the top!

hilbert25

I definitely have to give credit to Versus, which is fantastic, but for me it wasn't hands down better.

Gjefflin

So...you thought that Versus was better then Returner? In what way?

minusthesoul

The best part about versus over Returner was the characters and actors. I couldnt stand the girl in returner and the plot was annoying. The main character was a badass and it had some good fights but I only enjoyed about 20 minutes of the movie.
In versus, the actors were so great. The one crazy bad guy reminded me of Benecio del Toro for some reason. It was over acting but was fun to watch. Also the fight scenes were better, the scenery was better, and it was a lot more enjoyable to watch than returner.
Basically it just comes down to versus being a lot more watchable and re-watchable for me.

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Gjefflin

Hmmm...okay. I guess i'll have to wait until I see Versus.