kluseba "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.

Chung Mo Quite frankly I dislike most of the Hollywood comic to screen adaptations that have been made possible with high budget CGI and motion control. The most positive thing about a cheaply made film is that either the makers deliver shoddy goods (nearly every SciFi Channel movie) or they focus on story, drama and comedy which can result in the most satisfying movie.K-20 inhabits a world that's very familiar to comic book readers, alternate history what-if. Here the Japanese have avoided WW2 and have evolved into a strange combination of the Taisho era with the totalitarian leanings of the Showa with technology seemingly mired in the 1920's even though the film is set in the late 1940's. German is used instead of English when a universal language is needed. The film revolves around a Japanese invention that finally brings Tesla's dream of wireless energy to fruition. Unfortunately it can also be used as an extremely powerful weapon. The look of the film is excellent and the effects are, as others have pointed out, very good and well conceived. But that is true of many other big budget films like this. What makes this film different is the drama that fleshes out the fantasy. It's not perfect, some of the acting is old-school over-acting, the main characters are very familiar to anyone with familiarity with Japanese entertainment especially the Duke's daughter. And there are some moments that strain the viewer's credibility but The Dark Knight had moments like that as well. Overall the film ended and I had enjoyed myself.There are way worse ways to spend your time, (The Spirit anyone?) hopefully this film will see a wide release.

dbborroughs In a world where the second world war never happened, class structure is rigidly enforced, Nikola Telsa wins the Nobel Prize and there are dirigibles, gyro-copters and the like, a villain called K-20 (because he has at least 20 different faces) is going around stealing art treasures from the rich. Well known detective Akechi is called into investigate when K-20 steals the model of a Telsa free energy machine. Things get complicated when circus performer Heikichi Endo is mistaken for K20 by the police when the job of photographing the engagement ceremony of Akechi to his fiancé the Duchess Yoko Hashiba, goes horribly wrong. It soon becomes clear that K-20 has set up Heikichi, and its left to the young circus performer to find away to break free and clear his name.I have described this as the superhero (Batman like) movie that I have been waiting for but never knew I was waiting for it. For the two hours and twenty minutes of the running time I was the two year old kid with the Batman t-shirt on with his nose literally pressed against the glass of the screen. I was there and going along for the ride where ever the ride took me.And what a ride. Set in a steam punkish world like our own but different, this is a film that was free to go and do what it wanted. Its a film that takes all the cool things from the pulp fiction of the 1930's and 40's mixes them with the iconic superhero material from today and serves it up into a mixture thats familiar but wonderfully new. Yes you've seen it before, there are shots that are cribbed from a variety of sources (the Batman movies) but they are the right shots to use. They are visual cues that deepen what we are watching.The plot moves along as a grand mystery, but at the same time odds are you're going to know who's who and whats what. The plot will play out in ways best described as the sort of thing you can guess, but at the same time thats not right. Things play out as they must. This is a retelling of a story that we all know and we laugh and cry out and cheer when the film gets to our favorite parts even though we've never seen them before. Thank god no one was around me in the theater as I repeatedly said "YES!" to myself as the film hit every point exactly as it should.I loved the characters.Takeshi Kaneshiro as Heikichi Endo is right on target.He is the hero we'd all like to be. Even better is Takako Matsu as Yoko. The prim and proper young lady who proves to be much more than her title suggests. Her refrain that she is a "modest girl from a good family" covers a great deal of kick ass ability. She is now my new ideal woman (sorry Mrs Charles). The rest of the cast is for the most part note perfect.Is it a perfect film? No, some of the plotting is a bit awkward as if they didn't quite clip it from the source correctly. There are a couple of burps with the CGI of K20 bouncing across the roofs and in one bit the dialog between Heilichi and his young friend is awkward. Other wise its just a great rip roaring adventure that Hollywood should have made but didn't. (Okay twist my arm there aren't enough dirigibles and I would have loved a gyro-copter chase- but I'm being picky.) You want to see this, and you want to see it on as big a screen as possible. This film rocked my world and reduced me to a gibbering idiot as the phone messages I left after seeing it will attest.This is one of the best films of the year and one of my favorite films, period.See this film. If they give this film a big screen release in the US go see it you will love it.Thats it, go see this. (and I haven't even talked about the action which includes one of the best final confrontations between antagonists I've seen. I loved it, really)

helmutty K-20: Legend of the mask is considered a Japanese superhero movie although K-20 is not a superhero, he is more of Japanese robin hood but only more evil. The 2 billion yen movie has the realistic special effects that you rarely see in Japanese movies and its action scenes are breath-taking especially the acrobatic stunts and famous Takeshi Kaneshiro with good musicStory: It is set in 1949 where there is no world war, which is lucky. There is K-20, stealing priceless items from the rich. He frames an acrobat, Heikichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Heikichi is caught and soon escapes. He then vows to unmask/catch K-20 and proves his innocence. The fight scenes with K-20 and Heikichi are stunning with amazing acrobatic stunts. I wish there will more of the breath-taking stunts in movies. As Heikichi races to find what K-20 is going after, it leads to the final battle between them where there happens to be a twist.Overall: This is not to be missed for Takeshi fans or those who are fans of Japanese movies. K-20 may be a little long- the runtime is 2 hours 17 minutes but the plot is engrossing that you won't care about the time and watch how K-20 battles with Heikichi with wits and power. It is nice to see a big-budget Japanese action movie as the past few years, there are mostly Japanese thrillers like 20th century boys and death note.