Japanese pop culture, by and large, doesn’t do human
superheroes. Super-powered robots (Atom Boy aka
Tetsuwan Atom), monsters (Godzilla) and space aliens
(Ultraman) exist in abundance, but it’s harder to find the
local equivalents of Spider-Man or Batman, especially on
the big screen.
One reason, perhaps, is that in a group-oriented society,
human superheroes may seem arrogant, or even offensive.
In Matsumoto Hitoshi’s 2007 comedy Dainipponjin,
the eponymous hero - a sad-sack loner who transforms
into an alien-battling giant - is scorned and abused by his
neighbours, who consider him a freak. Even normally
hero-worshipping kids gaze at his full-blown form with
unease, as if he were more monster than man.
In her new film K-20: Legend Of The Mask( K-20 - Kaijin
Nijumenso-den), director and scriptwriter Sato Shimako
has delivered Spider-Man-like excitement and scale, from
life-or-death duels at dizzying heights to a fantastically
detailed retro-future cityscape. At the same time, she and
her collaborators have adapted the superhero genre to
local sensibilities, beginning with the title character.
A creation of pioneering Japanese mystery writer
Edogawa Rampo (aka Hirai Taro, 1894-1965), the Fiend
with Twenty Faces is the Moriarty-like criminal rival to the
Sherlock-Holmes-like detective Akechi Kogoro. The film,
however, is based on a new story by Kitamura So, in
which the setting has shifted from an early 20th Century
Japan that more or less corresponds to reality to an
alternative-history Japan that, as the action begins in
1949, has avoided fighting World War II (there’s no
attack on Pearl Harbor, for instance). It has thus preserved
its old class system, with a wealthy aristocracy
lording it over a vast, desperately poor proletariat.
The Fiend is a masked thief who deftly filches the
treasures of the rich and moves through the urban
canyons like a black-cloaked cat. Effortlessly leaping
fences and climbing walls, he keeps one quick step
ahead his pursuers - and never reveals his identity. The
most grimly determined of those pursuers is the suave,
brilliant detective Akechi Kogoro (Nakamura Toru), who
is engaged to the impeccably upper-crust, charmingly
unworldly Hashiba Yoko (Matsu Takako). His assistant,
though, is a delicate-looking, but intensely loyal young
chap (Hongo Kanata), and their relationship has a borderline
campy Batman-Robin vibe.
Be that as it may, the film’s true center is Endo
Heikichi (Kaneshiro Takeshi), a talented, if penniless,
circus performer who is employed by a mysterious
stranger (Kaga Takeshi) to snap candid photos of
Akechi and Yoko. This assignment, however, leads him
to being taken for the Fiend. With Akechi and the police
in hot pursuit, he must find the real deal - whom he
suspects is his new employer.
The Fiend’s prime target, however, is Yoko - and once
he snatches her the game is truly joined, with Heikichi
and Akechi finding themselves on the same side. “We
had to change the story because Rampo’s work doesn’t
suit modern tastes”, explained Sato in an interview at
the Tokyo International Forum, where she was to appear
on stage prior to a pre-release screening of K-20. “It’s
seen as somewhat dark and erotic - which was not the
image we wanted”.
Born in 1964, the slight, soft-spoken Sato studied at
the London Film School, then made a series of low-budget
horror films in the 1990s. She had her biggest successes
as a TV scriptwriter and director in the current
decade, notably on the hit Unfair series about a hardboiled
female police detective played by Shinohara
Ryoko. Sato also co-wrote and directed by the 2007 film
based on the TV show.
She was thus given a relatively free hand by producer
Abe Shuji when she wrote the screenplay: “The only conditions
he made were that I use the Fiend with Twenty
Faces character, write a role for Kaneshiro Takeshi (who
was already cast in the film) and assume a world in which
World War II never occurred. Everything else was pretty
much up to me”.
Sato stressed the class divide in her fictional capital city,
Teito. “It reflects what is going on in Japanese society
today”, she commented. She also emphasised the difference
that Kaneshiro - a half-Japanese, half-Taiwanese star
who is based in Hong Kong and fluent in Japanese - brings
to the role. “He raises the energy level whenever he is on the screen”, commented Sato. “He has a real star presence.
It’s a much bigger film with him in it”.
Kaneshiro’s Heikichi does quite a lot of zooming up and
down buildings using a wire reel gizmo that is like a tape
measure on steroids. It’s crafted by a canny, grizzled circus
veteran played by Kunimura Jun. But he and the Fiend
also chase each other about the city using the techniques
of parkour - a French-developed discipline for overcoming
urban obstacles with an eye-popping strength, agility and
flow. “The two stunt doubles for those scenes were both
Russian”, Sato explained. “They used no wires, just their
own bodies”. Though seen in several Hollywood films,
including the 2006 Casino Royale, parkour’s appearance
in K-20is a Japanese film first.
The designs for the city - which include a huge, looming
glass-domed tower that looks both fascistic and futuristic
- were suggested by Sato, then realized by the CGI staff at
the Shirogumi effects studio. “They made drawings and
models which I checked”, Sato explained. “They had
worked on the Alwaysfilms and the designs they made for
K-20had the same incredible level of realism”.
The film’s most blatant departure from the local genre
norm is Matsu Takako’s character of Hashiba Yoko, who
may be a quintessential ojosama (a well-bred, well-off
young lady), but is also brave and quick-witted, if somewhat
ditsy - and can fly a plane down the side of a skyscraper
with a blithe comic élan. “I thought that writing
her as the usual screaming lady-in-distress would be
boring”, said Sato. “She’s really there to provide a comic
contrast to the rather serious Kaneshiro - and Matsu is
good at comedy. She’s also an ojosamain real life (Matsu
belongs to a distinguished Kabuki family), so she totally
understood what I wanted”.
Sato had not made a theatrical feature in more than a
decade when she took the K-20assignment, but the shift
from directing for the small screen did not faze her, she
claimed. “I had trained in London as a film director”, she
explained. “It was harder for me to direct TV dramas.
When I started they complained that I was making them
too much like films”.
Sato would like to direct another K-20film - a sequel
is even implied in the ending - but the producers don’t
have a firm plan yet. “They want to see how this one
turns out”, she says. Which is understandable - unlike
nearly every other big commercial film being made in
Japan today, K-20 is not based on a popular comic, TV
show or best-seller. It is more of a risk for its producers.
After its release on December 20th, K-20 got off to a
slower-than-expected start at the box office. But generally
good reviews and positive word-of-mouth finally
boosted it towards the break-even point. Here’s hoping
that the Fiend with Twenty Faces flies again. |