Returner
dir. Yamazaki
Opens Fri Dec 5
Clinton Street
Returner is a Japanese action film that literally has it all. There’s aliens, car chases, explosions, an unlikely crime fighting partnership, special effects, and combat choreography. Much like the Terminator series, it concerns a young protagonist, Milly, sent from the future to prevent an intergalactic war, wherein the remainder of the human race is is holed up underground in Tibet. During Milly’s time in present-day Japan, she teams up with the handsome gunslinger Miyamoto by taping a futuristic paper bomb to his neck, forcing him to help her, lest his head explode.
They go up against a criminal ringleader who kidnaps children to sell their organs, shoots people like he’s swatting flies, and is sometimes escorted by a full-on
SWAT team. It’s a charming fairy tale villain, impossibly power hungry and cowardly. He even wears suits and saddle shoes. The clearly mapped, good-versus-evil dichotomy reinforces the comic book feel to the film, as does the gadgetry and hokey interspacial conflict.
In many ways, Returner is a collection of references, down to the amusing interpretation of the American characters, one of whom utters the classic, whispery, “They’re here.” The American viewer will recognize moments straight out of Independence Day, Matrix moves, a nice shot of E.T. , and a central, odd-couple relationship somewhere between Bonnie & Clyde and Turner & Hootch. Spike that with balletic martial arts moments, cartoonish evildoers, and sharp cinematography, and there you have Returner. Boggled all together, the onslaught of clichés works, forming a satisfying, fantastical adventure of heroism, athleticism, and sentimentality. It’s pure in its entertaining qualities, and, unabashedly improbable, expects its viewer to be able to suspend their disbelief and enjoy the action.
This is lightweight entertainment, with all the non-threatening suspense and “danger” one could hope for in a cream puff. But it’s well done and intentioned, and it makes an irresistible puree of all the hooks and ploys that appeal to the genre. Like the celluloid version of an Epcot Center ride, but without tan lines and belly shirts.