And they said that a Hero could save us
Nov. 14th, 2007 02:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderpig
What do you get when you put a peculiar public prosecutor with a TV-shopping addiction together with his straight-laced, no-nonsense law clerk along with her eccentric colleagues?
So what exactly is the Truth? Is there Justice in this dog-eat-dog world? How can we as mere humans, attempt to define something so abstract and complicated? Curiously, Hero (in theatres November 22) comes up with a simple for both questions.
Starring Kimura Takuya (2046, Love and Honour) as Kuryu Kohei, the casually dressed but never casual about his pursuit for truth public prosecutor; and a delightful ensemble cast including Matsu Takako (Tokyo Tower) as law clerk Amamiya Maiko and Abe Hiroshi (TRICK, Hana and Alice) as Shibayama Mitsugu; Hero continues from where the chart-breaking 2001 TV series left off.
Returning to the Josai Branch of the Tokyo public prosecutor’s office after six years and numerous stints at various outposts in the countryside, Kuryu finds himself assigned to what seems to be a deceptively simple manslaughter case.
Alarm bells start to ring as the accused retracts his confession and throws the whole court session into disarray. Turns out that his defence lawyer is the distinguished Gamo (Matsumoto Koshiro), who apparently is under the thumb of someone powerful. Political intrigue and signs of national scandal start to entangle themselves into a huge complication.
Things start to get messy for Kuryu and his colleagues, who not only have to deal with domestic problems (Shibayama is embroiled in divorce-proceedings against his wife) and the daily grind of work.
When nothing else could seem to get any worse for Kuryu, he discovers that a crucial piece of the puzzle lies in (South) Korea, which he needs to get in order to prove the attacker’s guilt: the van belonging to him. Thus Kuryu and Amamiya embark on a wild chase across borders to the city of Pusan. Filled with hilarious moments where the duo try to convey their questions in botched Korean, the trip proves to be a memorable one where the almost-romance of Kuryu and Amamiya takes a small but significant step forward.
For fans wondering if Hero made a successful transition from hit TV series to box-office buster, let me ease your fears: director Suzuki Masayuki resumes his idiosyncratic fetish for close-ups and oddly-angled shots that are never an eye-sore and at the same time, a refreshing change of pace from the stock cinematography that is prevalent in films today.
The series’ quirky humour is still firmly intact, and perhaps even better than before seeing as how the repertoire of trademark subtle jokes and jibes was expanded to include a whole new set of laughs that ribbed the audience non-stop. While the TV series made audiences chuckle every now and then, one of the movie’s best points is that it managed to elicit consistent laughs throughout the movie without degrading the high comedic level.
Similarly, while the TV series and even its 2006 2 hour special was curiously devoid of exciting court-room scenes, the film finally satisfies with fast-paced and adrenaline pumping rebuttals and counter-arguments reminiscent of Boston Legal. Fans of Hero (the series) and of legal dramas alike will delight in the tenacity of the court-room battles present in the film, which while exciting, do not alienate audience members who have no legal knowledge at all. Hero succeeds in establishing moot points purely based on logic alone, something which democratizes the film.
However, what takes Hero to greater heights as a legal comedy is undoubtedly its excellent ensemble cast who reunite with Kuryu, all their quirks untouched. The legal clerks Suetsugu and Endo, fellow lawyers Nakamura Misuzu, Shibayama Mitsugu and Egami Tatsuo, and Chief Ushimaru Yutaka enchant the audiences with their superb performance as a dysfunctional group of prosecutors who band together when push comes to shove. It’s extremely endearing to see them support each other under the pressure of a potentially explosive case.
So with such contagious humour and impeccable acting, can anyone actually find fault with this movie? Unfortunately, we can.
Newbies to the Hero series might be left in the dark for certain in-jokes that only fans from the series and TV special know, such as the chronic TV-shopper that Kuryu is, the “I have everything” bartender and the appearance of key influential characters who appeared in the TV Special. But don’t fret! Even without all these nuggets of information, viewers can still expect a thoroughly enjoyable movie.
So if you’re feeling a little blue during the next few weeks, why not take a quick trip down to the cinema to let Kimura Takuya and company heroically save you with a dose of light-hearted fun? Considering the success of the movie in Japan, Hero is one film that you should miss before this year ends – even if you watch it only for heart-throb KimuTaku.
Rating: 4/5
Images courtesy of Yahoo Movies Singapore, StareastAsia.com and Asianpopcorn.com
