FilmFan
12-08-2009, 07:38 PM
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Project A aka 'A' gai wak
Running time: 129 minutes
Directed by: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Ken'ichi Matsuyama
IMDB rating: 6.0
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912597/
This is the first foreigh-language film that I've watched with low expectations. Obviously I hoped that it'd be worth watching, but it didn't receive good reviews upon release and isn't rated very highly by fans. The reason that I still gave it a chance is that it's a sequel to/spin-off from the two Death Note films. I enjoyed them both and liked the character of L, and was interested in seeing more of the character.
This is also the first sequel that I've reviewed, and so if you've not seen Death Note 1 and 2, it might be best not to read this as it'll spoil several important parts of those films.
At the end of Death Note 2, L (who is a kind of freelance master detective) took an action which he knew would kill him 23 days later. This film shows how he spent his last weeks.
The first five minutes take place in America, before the events of the first two films. Not much happens, other than L talking to a cop who then goes after a suspect. It then skips to after the events of DN 1+2, to a village in Thailand where it seems that the villagers are dying from some kind of infectious disease. Some Americans arrive and see what has happened, and then they get into a helicopter and drop a bomb, which destroys the entire village and kills everyone in it. A man and a boy manage to escape in a truck, but the helicopter chases after them. The man tells the boy a phone number to ring and a code to give, and then lets him out. The helicopter then catches up to the man and blows up his vehicle with him inside.
After a while, we find out who is behind the virus. The guy looked a bit like a James Bond villain, with crazy-looking eyes and an unusual scar on his face. He kills an old professor who disagrees with him, and then talks of his plans to release the virus all over the world. He is helped by a female scientist, who tricks her co-worker into helping develop an antidote for the virus. This is needed so that the bad guys can stay healthy when the whole world gets sick and dies. However, the co-worker figures out what is going on and destroys his work and then kills himself, and the only chance of finding out the formula for the antidote is to find his daughter, who he shared some of his work with.
None of the above gives too much of the plot away, it's just that a lot takes place in the first quarter of the film.
For me, the strength of the Death Note series of film/anime/manga was the central concept: that there is a book which can be used to kill someone, and all you need to do is write down their name to make it happen. This film doesn't have any of that present, nor does it have any Shinigami. In the previous films, the two main characters were constantly planning three and four steps ahead, but here there isn't really any of that, and the film has no supernatural elements at all.
Despite the above, I still liked the film. It goes on for 2 hours but never drags, it has some good characters and an interesting story. As my expectations weren't high, I ended up pleasantly surprised that the different aspects of the story do work well together.
6.75/10
Project A aka 'A' gai wak
Running time: 129 minutes
Directed by: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Ken'ichi Matsuyama
IMDB rating: 6.0
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912597/
This is the first foreigh-language film that I've watched with low expectations. Obviously I hoped that it'd be worth watching, but it didn't receive good reviews upon release and isn't rated very highly by fans. The reason that I still gave it a chance is that it's a sequel to/spin-off from the two Death Note films. I enjoyed them both and liked the character of L, and was interested in seeing more of the character.
This is also the first sequel that I've reviewed, and so if you've not seen Death Note 1 and 2, it might be best not to read this as it'll spoil several important parts of those films.
At the end of Death Note 2, L (who is a kind of freelance master detective) took an action which he knew would kill him 23 days later. This film shows how he spent his last weeks.
The first five minutes take place in America, before the events of the first two films. Not much happens, other than L talking to a cop who then goes after a suspect. It then skips to after the events of DN 1+2, to a village in Thailand where it seems that the villagers are dying from some kind of infectious disease. Some Americans arrive and see what has happened, and then they get into a helicopter and drop a bomb, which destroys the entire village and kills everyone in it. A man and a boy manage to escape in a truck, but the helicopter chases after them. The man tells the boy a phone number to ring and a code to give, and then lets him out. The helicopter then catches up to the man and blows up his vehicle with him inside.
After a while, we find out who is behind the virus. The guy looked a bit like a James Bond villain, with crazy-looking eyes and an unusual scar on his face. He kills an old professor who disagrees with him, and then talks of his plans to release the virus all over the world. He is helped by a female scientist, who tricks her co-worker into helping develop an antidote for the virus. This is needed so that the bad guys can stay healthy when the whole world gets sick and dies. However, the co-worker figures out what is going on and destroys his work and then kills himself, and the only chance of finding out the formula for the antidote is to find his daughter, who he shared some of his work with.
None of the above gives too much of the plot away, it's just that a lot takes place in the first quarter of the film.
For me, the strength of the Death Note series of film/anime/manga was the central concept: that there is a book which can be used to kill someone, and all you need to do is write down their name to make it happen. This film doesn't have any of that present, nor does it have any Shinigami. In the previous films, the two main characters were constantly planning three and four steps ahead, but here there isn't really any of that, and the film has no supernatural elements at all.
Despite the above, I still liked the film. It goes on for 2 hours but never drags, it has some good characters and an interesting story. As my expectations weren't high, I ended up pleasantly surprised that the different aspects of the story do work well together.
6.75/10