"K-20" is a visually stunning Japanese steam punk epic with a couple of promising ideas that are destroyed with a too ordinary story and a quite instable acting performance.
The story takes places in an alternate history of the year 1949 in Japan where the second World war never happened. In the fictional capital Teito, the viewer can observe zeppelins and similar flying objects as well as adventurous machines that work with alternate forms of steam or electricity. These science-fiction gimmicks are what make this movie truly imaginative and fantastic. If you observe closely, you will see many lovely details of that kind in this film.
The story is set around the poor circus acrobat Endo Heikichi who needs some money to heal his old and sick master in form of an operation. He is portrayed in a rather weak and horribly faceless way by actor Kaneshiro Takeshi who is one of the reasons why this movie doesn't work as well as it could have been.
Meanwhile, the fictional city is haunted by a smart thief who seems to have twenty different faces or masks and is therefor called K-20. The character seems to be a mixture of Robin Hood who mostly steals from the rich, Spider-Man thanks to his great acrobatic and flying skills and of the Shadow because of his appearance. From that point of view, the movie picks the best influences from famous American superheroes which is not very original.
This thief comes to meet the poor circus acrobat and gives him a lot of money to take a couple of pictures of the engagement ceremony of the intelligent but cold-hearted detective Akechi Kogoro who has become a local celebrity with the charming, vivid and unconventional Hashiba Yoko. These two characters are well portrayed by the stylish and authentic Nakamura Toro and the charming and beautiful Matsu Takako.
The whole thing turns out to be a trap as the circus acrobat gets caught during the event and is now mistaken for the thief with the mask. He gets imprisoned and tortured but suddenly gets some help from a gang of local thieves who liberate him in a quite original way. The acrobat is not very thankful and rather looks for isolation and overtly despises the thieves that saved him. He later realizes that he can flee and must become a smart thief as K-20 is to clear his name and find out about the true criminal intentions of the master thief. This profound change of mind is not very well portrayed in the movie and definitely lacks of passion. Instead of focusing on this important turning point, the film wastes a lot of time with more or less important and gripping dialogues. It's also sad that the thieves that liberated the circus acrobat are promisingly introduced but never seem to appear again in the entire movie.
Endo Heikichi meets K-20 again when the criminal chases the young fiancée Hashiba Yoko through the nocturnal streets of Teito. It seems that the young woman's grandfather had developed a futuristic Tesla machine that could be used as a weapon of mass destruction. The young acrobat, the energizing fiancée and her fiancé and detective try to solve the puzzle to find and destroy the mysterious weapon hidden by the deceased grandfather before K-20 can get his hands on the dangerous machine. The thief of shadows though always seems to be faster and smarter during this fast paced competition that builds up some atmosphere and tension but unfortunately leads to a quite stereotypical ending that could have been taken from any Hollywood assembly-line product.
In the end, the visual parts and the steam punk elements of the movie are quite addicting. The gang of thieves, the circus crew as well as the charming fiancée are positive elements of this movie. This feature builds up some good atmosphere towards the second half that leads to a fast paced competition between the good and the bad.
On the other side, the story of this movie is not quite original and somewhat predictable at some point even if there is a little twist in the end. The main villain is a copy of many Hollywood figures and can't convince. The acting of the main actors is rather poor and leads to some lengths.
After all, the movie is worth a watch if you like steam punk elements or if you collect all possible superhero movies in the world but it can't be counted as a highlight of its genre. Anybody else should skip this one and go for the original superhero movies from Hollywood.
The story takes places in an alternate history of the year 1949 in Japan where the second World war never happened. In the fictional capital Teito, the viewer can observe zeppelins and similar flying objects as well as adventurous machines that work with alternate forms of steam or electricity. These science-fiction gimmicks are what make this movie truly imaginative and fantastic. If you observe closely, you will see many lovely details of that kind in this film.
The story is set around the poor circus acrobat Endo Heikichi who needs some money to heal his old and sick master in form of an operation. He is portrayed in a rather weak and horribly faceless way by actor Kaneshiro Takeshi who is one of the reasons why this movie doesn't work as well as it could have been.
Meanwhile, the fictional city is haunted by a smart thief who seems to have twenty different faces or masks and is therefor called K-20. The character seems to be a mixture of Robin Hood who mostly steals from the rich, Spider-Man thanks to his great acrobatic and flying skills and of the Shadow because of his appearance. From that point of view, the movie picks the best influences from famous American superheroes which is not very original.
This thief comes to meet the poor circus acrobat and gives him a lot of money to take a couple of pictures of the engagement ceremony of the intelligent but cold-hearted detective Akechi Kogoro who has become a local celebrity with the charming, vivid and unconventional Hashiba Yoko. These two characters are well portrayed by the stylish and authentic Nakamura Toro and the charming and beautiful Matsu Takako.
The whole thing turns out to be a trap as the circus acrobat gets caught during the event and is now mistaken for the thief with the mask. He gets imprisoned and tortured but suddenly gets some help from a gang of local thieves who liberate him in a quite original way. The acrobat is not very thankful and rather looks for isolation and overtly despises the thieves that saved him. He later realizes that he can flee and must become a smart thief as K-20 is to clear his name and find out about the true criminal intentions of the master thief. This profound change of mind is not very well portrayed in the movie and definitely lacks of passion. Instead of focusing on this important turning point, the film wastes a lot of time with more or less important and gripping dialogues. It's also sad that the thieves that liberated the circus acrobat are promisingly introduced but never seem to appear again in the entire movie.
Endo Heikichi meets K-20 again when the criminal chases the young fiancée Hashiba Yoko through the nocturnal streets of Teito. It seems that the young woman's grandfather had developed a futuristic Tesla machine that could be used as a weapon of mass destruction. The young acrobat, the energizing fiancée and her fiancé and detective try to solve the puzzle to find and destroy the mysterious weapon hidden by the deceased grandfather before K-20 can get his hands on the dangerous machine. The thief of shadows though always seems to be faster and smarter during this fast paced competition that builds up some atmosphere and tension but unfortunately leads to a quite stereotypical ending that could have been taken from any Hollywood assembly-line product.
In the end, the visual parts and the steam punk elements of the movie are quite addicting. The gang of thieves, the circus crew as well as the charming fiancée are positive elements of this movie. This feature builds up some good atmosphere towards the second half that leads to a fast paced competition between the good and the bad.
On the other side, the story of this movie is not quite original and somewhat predictable at some point even if there is a little twist in the end. The main villain is a copy of many Hollywood figures and can't convince. The acting of the main actors is rather poor and leads to some lengths.
After all, the movie is worth a watch if you like steam punk elements or if you collect all possible superhero movies in the world but it can't be counted as a highlight of its genre. Anybody else should skip this one and go for the original superhero movies from Hollywood.