K-20 - The Legend Of The Black Mask [DVD]

This is the way a manga movie should be, good story, good steam punk style effects and lots of action. On the action note there are more acrobatics and Parkour style chases than actual fights in this movie, but that is ok. Most of all this movie is fun to watch.In this movie World War 2 never took place to the A-bomb was never dropped on Japan. There are two class the rich and the poor there is not real in-between. There is no "official" movement between classes. The only sign of rebellion is K-20 the Fiend of 20 faces. He is a master thief, a master acrobat and a master of disguise/illusionist. He can be anybody; he steals from the rich and gives to himself. A young circus performer Heikichi Endo, played by Takeshi Kaneshiro, is hired by a newspaper to take pictures of an upcoming wedding of the Princess and the local hero super cop. Getting caught Endo seems to have all the attributes of K-20 so he is pronounced as K-20 and arrested to close the case. Escaping with the help of a thief ring, he must learn all the secrets K-20 know so he can fight him as an equal if he has a chance of clearing his name, and stop K-20 from his end game.Well worth watching. My wife, who always make fun of me for watching martial arts and Eastern movies, was impressed with Takeshi Kaneshiro's acting and managed to sit through it without complaining. This is a good fun and great entertainment.

K20: The Legend of the Black Mask is that increasingly rare beast, an almost entirely satisfying superhero film - and an even rarer one that's written and directed by a woman, Sato Shimako. No relation to the Hong Kong Black Mask series, it's set in a 1949 Japan where WW2 never happened and the ruling military elite still vigorously enforces a rigid class system that leaves the poor to fend for themselves but is constantly plagued by master criminal K20, the Fiend with Twenty Faces. A cross between Arsene Lupin and The Shadow, he's no hero even if he does wear a cape. He may come from the underclass, but he wants to tear down the old order to create a new elite of his own and isn't too particular about who he hurts doing it.Set against him are Toru Nakamura's aristocratic detective, Takaku Matsu's `modest girl from a nice family' (given a bit more moxey than the usual romantic lead in this kind of film) and Takeshi Kaneshiro as the none-too-bright circus performer set up to take the wrap for K20 so he can retire, only for his escape to force the master criminal to change his plans and the acrobat to learn K20's tricks so he can fight fire with fire to clear his name. This being a period piece the stakes are a hidden device created by Nikola Tesla that could be a source of great energy or a terrible destructive weapon, and its location can only be discovered by stealing a reproduction painting and breaking into a heavily guarded military installation to x-ray it which, along with a couple of enjoyable training sequences, provides the big setpieces.The production design is pleasingly detailed, alternating grandiose art deco, grubby industrial landscapes and lived-in poverty, and the film takes the time to flesh out its characters a bit more than expected, ensuring the human element is never entirely overlooked. Most of the CGI effects are impressive enough for the few bad ones to stick out like a sore thumb, the action fun if not as frequent as you might expect in a film running 137-minutes. Only the final stunt is a bit of a letdown, but not enough to spoil the fun and the goodwill the film leaves in its wake. If it ultimately ends up being another origin story of sorts, it's an entertaining enough one and the characters are likeable enough for you to want to see them back on the screen againManga's Blu-ray offers a fine 2.35:1 widescreen transfer with optional English subtitles with a making of and cast and crew introductions from the film's premiere as extras.

Excellent if like me you like Asian Films and Dramas. As with all Japanese films, always exciting, always sad, and always full of action and I love Takeshi Kaneshiro who has appeared in many Chinese, Korean and Japanese films.

Kaneshiro is the best Japanese Batman ever .. cool movie!

It's Japan 1949. Because Japan struck a peace deal with the UK and USA there was no World War 2 and Japan is now a rigidly stratified society of have and have-nots. Its peace is only threatened by the master criminal, the Man of 20 (and probably a lot more) faces, K-20. Determined to steal a machine, invented by the Nobel prizewinning Nikolai Tesla, which broadcasts cheap power but he wants to use for destruction to make him the most important man in Japan, as part of his schemes he sets up our hero Heikichi Endo, a circus acrobat and illusionist, to be framed as K-20.Phew!I loved this film. Based on either novels or manga (I'm not sure which) which have been popular for some time in Japan, it's directed with a feminine sensibility by Ms Shimako Sato who also wrote the screenplay. What this means in that there's a lightness of touch, a hero who is compassionate (he helps feed locals orphans living rough) fallible good-humoured and masculine without being macho, there's an element of humour and understated romance. There is also plenty of action. When Endo is broken out of prison by local thieves, he is given a book on how to become a master thief. The various elements play to both his intelligence and skills and involve a lot of parkour (the French sport of leaping around buildings) and provides everything he needs to challenge K-20.The other main players, apart from the masked K-20 and Endo, are Baron Kogoro Takechi the senior police officer in charge of the K-20 and his fiancee Duchess Yoko Hashiba who seems to have reservations about her impending marriage. When Endo rescues Yoko from the clutches of K-20, he takes her to his world, a place of deprivation that Yoko never knew existed and which immediately sparks her social conscience. So we have a three-hander, plus master villain K-20 always waiting in the wings to strike.There's lots going on in this film which is always fascinating and holds the attention for its two-hour running time (note: not the 2hrs42 it says on the DVD case). The special effects are great, the action is wild, the acting is everything it should be. Don't let the fact that it's subtitled put you off. This is a great action movie with elements of science fiction, super-villainy, comedy, romance, social conscience. Apart from some minor swearing it's fine as family viewing albeit not for younger kids who wouldn't be able to follow the subtitles anyway. That caveat to one side: highly recommended. Trust me, you'll love it.

blow me away

Me sentí atraído a adquirir este BD tras unas recomendaciones. Es un tanto peculiar, dado que el audio es en Japonés, pero lleva subtítulos en inglés, que para los que comprendamos algo el idioma de Shakespeare, no son excesivamente complejos y se entienden bién.La calidad dudiovisual está fuera de toda duda. Manga UK ha editado un BD con una calidad visual cercana a la perfección, con un audio en dos opciones, una en stereo 2.0, y la otra en un magnífico DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, que luce muy bién.La historia es entretenida, y los actores cumplen. Es una história ucrónica, ya que se emplaza en un 1949 en el que la 2ª G.M nunca ocurrió. El mundo es reconocible, pero no es el que estamos acostumbrados a ver. Los FX cumplen, así cómo las numerosas escenas de riesgo, con acrobacias, saltos, etc, que están muy logradas.En definitiva, un film japonés muy entretenido.

Si lo tuyo es el cine oriental y no tienes problemas con el ingles (la unica pista de sonido es JAPONES y subtitulos en INGLES) deberias ver K20, excelente pelicula de aventuras nipona. El bluray no tiene desperdicio en un 1080HD espectacular y con sonido mas que aceptable. Ademas incluye dos documentales sobre el proceso de creacion... a este precio ni te lo pienses.

The narrative was a little to out of this world. Hard to keep up! I would not buy this again.