Japanese Reviews Projects Reviews The Takashi Miike Project (105/116 complete)

Series Review: K-Tai Investigator 7 Episode 1: A Walking Cellphone (2008) by Takashi Miike

K-Tai Investigator 7 Episode 1: A Walking Cellphone

Production I.G. and WIZ wanted to shoot an impressive TV science fiction tokusatsu action drama (and to introduce a toy line) and in order to draw more attention to it, decided to let direct the first episode, and to give him a rather big budget for a TV production. The crossover nature of the series that involves crime, science fiction, school drama and comedy among others suited Miike perfectly, and the result is impressive.

The film starts with the president of a large company being trapped in an elevator by a hacker who threatens to kill him by letting the elevator fall to the basement in top speed. The police seem unable to deal with the situation and Under Anchor, a major cellular telephone service provider that carries out investigative field missions related to data and technology crimes, takes over. Sosuke, a cocky agent and his Phone Braver, a mobile phone that can transform into a tiny robot, arrive at the apartment of the hacker and quickly resolve the situation. Soon, however, it is revealed that the perpetrator was not acting alone, and another villain is revealed, along with an evil Phone Braver. A bit later, Keita Amishima, a detached high school student ends up in a middle of a heavy machinery going rogue situation, in a series of events that have him also becoming a member of Under Anchor.

The first thing one will notice in the episode is that its premises lean more towards a movie than a TV series. The presence of actors like and definitely point that way, as do the great SFX and animation sequences. Particularly the whole presentation of the Phone Bravers is impressive, if somewhat humorous, while the various action scenes are extremely well shot. The fact that one is very sci-fi as it revolves around a heavy machinery vehicle that becomes rogue (in Transformers-like fashion) and the last one is more realistic, with hand-to-hand combat also works quite well for the narrative, highlighting Miike’s direction in different styles.

K-Tai Investigator 7 Episode 1: A Walking Cellphone still

Some absurdness is also present and the fact that the mobile phones are sarcastic and the regular police officers clueless add much to the comedic element of the episode, as much as to the entertainment it offers.

Kanji Tsuda is great as the cocky, always cool detective while Masataka Kubota as Keita Amishima highlights both his teenage angst and his courage in the best fashion.

“A Walking Cellphone” is a great episode, which truly transcends the borders of TV programme, with Miike definitely succeeding in his hired purpose, to draw interest to the series.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

Panagiotis (Panos) Kotzathanasis is a film critic and reviewer, specialized in Asian Cinema. He is the owner and administrator of Asian Movie Pulse, one of the biggest portals dealing with Asian cinema. He is a frequent writer in Hancinema, Taste of Cinema, and his texts can be found in a number of other publications including SIRP in Estonia, Film.sk in Slovakia, Asian Dialogue in the UK, Cinefil in Japan and Filmbuff in India.

Since 2019, he cooperates with Thessaloniki Cinematheque in Greece, curating various tributes to Asian cinema. He has participated, with video recordings and text, on a number of Asian movie releases, for Spectrum, Dekanalog and Error 4444. He has taken part as an expert on the Erasmus+ program, “Asian Cinema Education”, on the Asian Cinema Education International Journalism and Film Criticism Course.

Apart from a member of FIPRESCI and the Greek Cinema Critics Association, he is also a member of NETPAC, the Hellenic Film Academy and the Online Film Critics Association.

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