is a 2002 Japanese
science fiction film
Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...
directed by
Takashi Yamazaki
is a Japanese visual effects artist, television producer, director, screenwriter, and actor. He won the Japan Academy Film Prize for Director of the Year, Director of the Year and Japan Academy Film Prize for Screenplay of the Year, Screenplay o ...
and starring
Anne Suzuki
is a Japanese actress.
Career
Suzuki co-starred in Shunji Iwai's ''Hana and Alice'' with Yū Aoi. She voiced the title character Ray Steam in Katsuhiro Otomo's animated film ''Steamboy''.
Suzuki played a supporting role in Andrew Lau and Alan ...
and
Takeshi Kaneshiro
is a Japanese-Taiwanese actor and singer. Beginning his career as a pop idol, he has since moved his focus towards the film industry, where he achieved both commercial success and critical acclaim. He has worked with directors throughout East A ...
.
Plot
Milly is a soldier from 2084, where humanity is on the verge of extinction because of the "Daggra", an alien race. In mankind's final stronghold in Tibet, Milly leaps into a newly built time portal just before the fortress is overrun. The portal sends her to 2002, where her mission is to kill the first Daggra, who faked a crash landing, and stop him from signaling his invasion fleet.
Milly lands in the aftermath of a shootout in
Tokyo Bay
is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous a ...
, where a hitman named Miyamoto holds the murderous Triad mobster Mizoguchi at gunpoint. Her arrival allows the mobster to escape and Miyamoto takes Milly, who he thinks he accidentally shot, back to his place. She was saved by a plate of metal in her coat. She tapes a tiny bomb to his neck and threatens him into helping her on her mission. Miyamoto has a personal score to settle with Mizoguchi, who killed his childhood friend by kidnapping him and selling off his organs.
That night, Miyamoto sees Milly cleaning up his trenchcoat on a coat hanger, so he tells her to go back to sleep. The next morning he discovers photos of himself and a newspaper article on his death. He shows these to his weapons supplier Shi, who tells him it's an elaborate trick the Triads wouldn't waste their time on.
With Shi's help, they track down where the alien spaceship crashed, but it was taken away to the National Institute of Space Science. They try to get to the spaceship to kill the alien, but Mizoguchi arrives and tries to take the facility over. Milly is surprised at the alien, it is not what she expected. She hesitates to kill it as Mizoguchi advances on the lab.
Using Miyamoto as its mouthpiece, the alien says it wants to go home. Milly realizes that she has been lied to. The humans and not the aliens, started the war which has been destroying the human race. They started it when they captured and killed the alien. She now knows they have to stop Mizoguchi as he wants the alien technology to take over the world. Following the destruction of the Space Science lab, Mizoguchi and his goons take the alien and its ship. Meanwhile, Miyamoto and Milly regroup for the next part of her mission.
The duo again confronts Mizoguchi at an abandoned oil rig, where they rescue the alien. Surviving a huge explosion, a bloodied Mizoguchi threatens to kill them all for ruining his plans. However, his bullets hit an invisible force field. Miyamoto quickly grabs the gun and kills Mizoguchi. Before they can figure out where the force field came from a Daggra craft, disguised as a Boeing 747-400 airliner arrives, having received the alien's distress signal. The Daggra take their wounded comrade and leave Earth. As the future war has ceased to exist, Milly slowly disappears.
Shortly after the incident, Miyamoto decides to give up his life of violence and hands in his guns to Shi. While walking home, he is confronted by a thug whose life he had spared earlier at Tokyo Bay. Realizing that he is weaponless, Miyamoto is helpless as the thug shoots him. The thug walks away, assuming that Miyamoto is dead. A little later, Miyamoto staggers up and finds his life was saved by a plate of metal similar to Milly's. The plate has a written message by Milly, telling him she has repaid him. Miyamoto recalls the night Milly messed around with his trenchcoat. While Miyamoto and Milly were asleep, a second, future Milly traveled from the future and slipped the metal plate into his trenchcoat before returning to her timeline. On her way out, she accidentally drops the newspaper article on Miyamoto's death.
Cast
*
Takeshi Kaneshiro
is a Japanese-Taiwanese actor and singer. Beginning his career as a pop idol, he has since moved his focus towards the film industry, where he achieved both commercial success and critical acclaim. He has worked with directors throughout East A ...
as Miyamoto
*
Anne Suzuki
is a Japanese actress.
Career
Suzuki co-starred in Shunji Iwai's ''Hana and Alice'' with Yū Aoi. She voiced the title character Ray Steam in Katsuhiro Otomo's animated film ''Steamboy''.
Suzuki played a supporting role in Andrew Lau and Alan ...
as Milly
* Goro Kishitani as Mizoguchi
*
Kirin Kiki
(15 January 1943 – 15 September 2018) was a Japanese actress for Japanese cinema and television.
Biography
Kiki was born on January 15, 1943, in Kanda, Tokyo. Her father was a master of the ''biwa'' lute and a former police officer. Her mother ...
as Shi Zhi Tang
* Dean Harrington as Dr. Brown
Release
''Returner'' was released theatrically in Japan on August 31, 2002 where it was distributed by
Toho
is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...
. The film premiered at number one in the Japanese box office on its release, beating ''
The Cat Returns
is a 2002 Japanese animated fantasy film directed by Hiroyuki Morita, produced by Toshio Suzuki and Nozomu Takahashi, written by Reiko Yoshida, based on the manga ''The Cat Returns'' by Aoi Hiiragi, with music by Yuji Nomi, animated by Studio ...
'', ''
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'' and ''
Resident Evil
''Resident Evil'', known in Japan as is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments ...
''.
It grossed a total of $9,564,276 in Japan.
It received a theatrical release in the United States through Destination Films and
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Samuel Goldwyn Films is an American film company that licenses, releases and distributes art-house, independent and foreign films. It was founded by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the son of the Hollywood business magnate/mogul, Samuel Goldwyn. The curre ...
with English subtitles on October 17, 2003.
Reception
''Returner'' has received generally negative reviews, with a 35% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
. Derek Elley of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote on his review that "Kaneshiro is all long flowing locks and smoldering disdain, the visual F/X are only so-so, and pacing is almost brisk enough to hide the plot holes."
Don Willmott of Filmcritic.com gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, calling it "a watchable, if somewhat absurd, sci-fi stir fry."
On the positive side, Jo Berry of ''
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' magazine gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, saying, "So much of this film is 'borrowed' it's like watching a chirpy tribute band. Good fun." Peter Hartlaub of the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'' also offered qualified praise, pointing out that "with little room for new ideas, the film must rely on the strength of its actors, and they're excellent across the board."
References
Bibliography
*
External links
*
*
*
''Returner''a
LoveHKFilm.com*
Returner' at
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
{{Takashi Yamazaki
2002 films
2002 science fiction action films
Films directed by Takashi Yamazaki
Films set in 2002
Films set in 2084
Films about Tibet
Films set in Tokyo
2000s Japanese-language films
Japanese science fiction action films
2000s Mandarin-language films
Japanese post-apocalyptic films
Films about time travel
Triad films
Toho films
2000s English-language films
2000s Japanese films
2000s Hong Kong films