“K-20: The Fiend With Twenty Faces” is a film that was exciting, fun, action-packed and entertaining. Featuring an enjoyable storyline with awesome performances from its talent, “K-20” was definitely a refreshing surprise for me and easily a film that I definitely recommend for action fans.
© 2008 “K-20” Film Partners. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: K-20: The Fiend With Twenty Faces (K-20: Kaijin nijû mensô den)
FILM RELEASE DATE: 2008
DURATION: 137 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen, Japanese Dolby Digital with English Subtitles
COMPANY: Viz Pictures
RATED: UNRATED
RELEASE DATE: April 20, 2010
Directed by Shimako Sato
Novel by So Kitamura
Adaptation by Shimako Sato
Executive Producer: Shuji Abe, Seiji Okuda
Producer: Chikahiro Ando
Music by Naoki Sato
Cinematography by Kozo Shibasaki
Edited by Ryuji Miyajima
Production Design by Anri Kamijo
Starring:
Takeshi Kaneshiro as Heikichi Endo
Takako Matsu as Yoko Hashiba
Toru Nakamura as Kogoro Akechi
Kanata Hongo as Yoshio Kobayashi
Jun Kunimura as Genji
Yuki Imai as Shinsuke
Reiko Takashima as Kikuko
Toru Masuoko as Inspector Namikoshi
It is 1949 in Japan, in a world where World War II never happened and the nobility system established in the Meiji Era is still in place. An extreme divide exists between the upper and lower classes, with 90 percent of the country’s wealth being held by the upper class. The capital of Teito is in crisis with the emergence of a phantom thief known as “The Fiend (Kaijin) with Twenty Faces,” or simply, “K-20.”
Heikichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is a circus acrobat who is deceived by K-20 and is set up to take the fall for the phantom thief. Using his incredible physical dexterity, Heikichi wages war against K-20 in order to clear his name, fighting alongside K-20’s next wealthy target, Duchess Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu), and her fiancee, brilliant detective Kogoro Akechi (Toru Nakamura). But what is the ultimate decision Heikichi has to make?
In 2008, director Shimako Sato, known for his films such as the “Eko Eko Azaraku” films and his work for various video games such as “Resident Evil: Code Veronica” and “Onimusha Tactics” (and moreso for his upcoming screenplay for “Space Battleship Yamato) began working on “K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces”, an adaptation of the novel “K-20: Kaijin nijû mensô den” by So Kitamura.
A film that appears to be inspired by “Batman”, “Superman” and “Zorro”, “K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces” is an action-based Japanese film starring talents such as Asian film superstars Takeshi Kaneshiro (“Red Cliff” films, “House of Flying Daggers”, “Chungking Express”, “Fallen Angels”), Toru Nakamura (“Tokyo Raiders”, “Hana”, “Gen-X Cops”, “Umizaru”) and actress/pop star Takako Matsu (“Long Vacation”, “Love Generation”, “Hero”).
The film takes place during a time in an alternate world in which the world did not go into World War II and the aristocrats in Japan are wealthy and there are no services for the poor, let alone orphaned children.
In this world, the police have been plagued by attacks from a mysterious individual named K-20. A thief and a man who has been able to take on various disguises and able to allude police. But this time, he has stolen a miniature version of a Tesla device and his goal, to steal the real version and destroy the world. But in K-20’s way is the well known police hero Kogoro Akechi (played by Toru Nakamura) who is marrying the princess Yoko Hashiba (played by Takako Matsu).
We are then introduced to Heikichi Endo (played by Takeshi Kaneshiro), a man who thrives at entertaining families at the local circus. The problem is that the ringmaster is sick and the circus staff don’t make much money and are trying to survive. But one day, a man from a magazine offers Heikichi a job for a lot of money, money that can be used to help the ringmaster and also himself and possibly the people he cares about. All he has to do is take photos of the wedding between Kogoro Akechi and the princess and with circus skills, avoid being caught since the wedding will have military soldiers securing the whole building.
So, Heikichi goes to take a picture of the wedding and when he clicks on the camera button to shoot the photo, he actually blows up several buildings. Heikichi is then considered to be K-20 and is arrested and detained. Heikichi tries to explain that he is not the thief and that he was approached by a man who hired him and has his business card. But what they find is not the business cards but missing jewelry. K-20 has framed Heikichi and now he is branded as the thief and is tortured by the police.
As Heikichi is being driven out to the prison, his fellow friend at the circus and a bunch of thieves manage to thwart the police by destroying a bridge and rescuing Heikichi from harm. But Heikichi wants people to know his innocence and that he is not K-20 but his pictures are plastered all over the city as he is a wanted man.
And Heikichi learns of the truth of what has happened since he was incarcerated. His circus has been burned down, his doves that he loves so much were killed (except one) and the staff were all beaten by the police. The little boy Shinsuke (played by Yuki Imai) is now homeless and lives with other children who are equally homeless and everything that Heikichi loved has been taken away from him.
So, Heikichi turns to his friend Genji (played by Jun Kunimura), an excellent and former thief who is now more of an inventor. Genji has a book of thievery in which K-20 has mastered but is now wanting Heikichi to learn the ways of the thief and so one day, he can track down K-20 and prove his innocence. As Heikichi learns the way of the thief, the real K-20 has his eyes set on kidnapping Princess Hashiba, as her father may have the secrets of where the true Tesla device is being hidden. Can Heikichi stop K-20 and most of all, can he do it when the Japanese police are after him?
VIDEO:
“K-20: The Fiend With Twenty Faces” is presented in 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen. The film definitely seems inspired by Batman, Zorro and Superman in some ways.  Moreso like Batman and trying to capture this dark and brooding land at night.  But what I like about this film is the look of Japan and its aristocrat style. Because this alternative universe of Japan is different and a country in which the aristocrats are the wealthy, to see the buildings designed in a certain manner, especially its airplanes are quite intriguing. The Japanese in this film are very keen to the inventions of American and European inventors and obviously having its impact on Japanese fashion and aesthetics.
Some parts of the film may seem a bit dark and black but I believe that was the director’s intention. As Batman is working during the night and within the shadows, the same is being done for this film as K-20 is a man of the night. But overall, the picture quality for “K-20: The Fiend With Twenty Faces” is very well done and having watched many CG-inspired live action films from Japan, I was quite pleased with how everything looked in this film.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“K-20: The Fiend With Twenty Faces” is presented in Dolby Digital Japanese with English subtitles. Dialogue and music is clear through the front and center channels but one thing that this film does boast is its use of effects through the surround channels. From Heikichi utilizing his climbing device as it hooks on to metal or the encounters between Heikichi and K-20 in battle to Yoko piloting her airplane, there is a good amount of surround sound usage through this film and I heard LFE-usage during some of the explosions and fighting sequences as well.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“K-20: The Fiend With Twenty Faces” comes with the following special features:
- Trailer – (1:33) Theatrical trailer for “K-20: The Fiend With Twenty Faces”.
- Japanese Original Trailers – (4:13) 15 original Japanese TV spots for “K-20: The Fiend With Twenty Faces”
- Viz Pictures Presents – Trailers for upcoming or currently available Viz Pictures films on DVD.
I have to admit that I was very pleased with “K-20: The Fiend With Twenty Faces”.
While most of the live action heroic films in Japan are typically feudal, military officer, police officer or similar to a film like “Die Hard” of a man at the wrong place at the wrong time but manages to defeat the enemies, “K-20” is more superhero or even anti-hero like. Â What is more interesting is that the man in the mask is actually the villain and the man who wants revenge uses a similar technique in trying to gain revenge against the villain and save the world as opposed to K-20’s goal to destroy it.
Also, what made this film equally exciting for me is how it stars three of my favorite talents in Asian and Japanese cinema. Takeshi Kaneshiro is essentially one of the most well-known faces in Asian action and drama films while both Toru Nakamura and Takako Matsu are very well known for their Japanese drama and film roles. All three talents do a wonderful job in this film and Toru Nakamura is just excellent in playing roles of a serious good guy or serious villain in previous films but to see him so stoic and mysterious as the police investigator going after K-20 was a performance he definitely nailed.
Takeshi Kaneshiro was wonderful of playing the underdog and the viewer can’t help but root for Heikichi Endo and hoping he gets his revenge against K-20 and Takako Matsu playing the rich Yoko Hashiba and playing the naive character but also bringing some of the few laughs to the film, especially during a scene in which she tries to be flirtatious towards her fiance.
All three talents did a wonderful job and I also have to say that I was quite happy to see Jun Kunimura playing the role of Genji (who helps Heikichi) and also to see actress Reiko Takashima in a minor but humorous role as Genji’s wife and also playing a comedic role.
If there was one unusual casting choice that may be questioned by Western audiences is the role of police detective assistant Yoshio Kobayashi. Kanata Hongo who plays the very intelligent assistant to investigator Kogoro Akechi and is delegated to handling a variety of cases. Sure, the character is very young (and Yoshio although 18-years-old at the time looks years younger) but for those who are not familiar with Japanese investigative series, in Japan, there is a bunch of manga, drama and animated series such as “Meitantei Conan” (Detective Conan) in which younger characters are used to take on investigative cases. And in this film, Kanata Hongo does play an intelligent detective and I also imagined his character and his appearance in the film would attract younger viewers (especially those who know him for his roles as the lead character Ryoma in the popular “Tennis no Oujisama” and “Nana 2” films).
The CG special effects are also well-done most of the time, although the scenes of large broken shards of glass look very CG’d and certain action sequences also appear to look a big farfetched. This is a film that I was not exactly expecting CG realism either. But overall, the film worked for me and I found the performances and the storyline to be quite entertaining, fun and I despite the longer duration at 137 minutes, there was not one time where I was looking at my watch to find out how much time has elapsed. So, that’s a good thing.
The DVD doesn’t come with any major featurettes as did the standard DVD edition in Japan but there was a special edition box set in Japan that did have a making of, video greeting and “K-20” TV Show collection as well as booklets and bookmarks. But that was for a more expensive box set release in Japan and I doubt we will ever see this in the US.
Picture quality and audio quality were good for a DVD release and it’s important to note that there was a Blu-ray release in Japan for this movie back in 2009 and since Viz Pictures will now begin to start releasing films on HD, whether or not “K-20: The Fiend With Twenty Faces” will be released on Blu-ray in the US is unknown, but because it is a more recent and big budget film from Japan, I hope it is considered.
Overall, “K-20: The Fiend With Twenty Faces” is a film that was exciting, fun, action-packed and entertaining. Featuring an enjoyable storyline with awesome performances from its talent, “K-20” was definitely a refreshing surprise for me and easily a film that I definitely recommend for action fans.
