Takashi Yamazaki's first feature, “Juvenile,” while nothing groundbreaking, was a charming directorial debut that teased the potential of the director's talents moving forward. Sadly, the same cannot be said for his second movie, “Returner,” a visually ugly mess that fails to entertain with its action or engage with its sci-fi storytelling. Much of the production team returns, including visual effects companies Shirogumi and Robot Communications, as do some actors, notably Anne Suzuki, in a more prominent starring role. Starring alongside her is Takeshi Kaneshiro, who cinephiles may best recognize for his collaborations with acclaimed filmmaker Wong Kar-wai. While “Returner” would be a box-office hit, it was met with generally negative reception.
In 2084, a young soldier named Milly travels back in time to try and prevent an alien race known as the “Daggra” from raging war against humanity. She arrives in Japan in 2002, crossing paths with a vigilante named Miyamoto, tasked with settling a score with a human smuggler and crime lord named Mizoguchi. Through her tactics, she forces the vengeful gunman to help her, along with the aid of a merchant shop owner, to search for answers to prevent an apocalyptic war from breaking out.
While there is potential for a fun sci-fi action film, it all crumbles due to uninspired direction and lackluster writing. If there's an apparent glaring issue with “Returner,” it is how much it lacks an identity while failing to succeed in entertainment value. While “Juvenile” lacked originality, there was just enough good material in the script for an engaging viewing. Here, much of the content looks like inferior copy and pasting. The science fiction aspects of the story are just a shameless culmination of “The Matrix,” “Back to the Future,” and “The Terminator,” yet with worse execution. Beyond that, its story fails to engage with the conflicts it sets up due to how downright mechanical everything feels and a complete lack of subtlety. Much of it feels like a bad videogame going from one poorly designed level to another, while occasionally sprinkling in cut scenes that don't resonate any emotional connection.
Check also this interview
All the characters are one-dimensional and bland. Even the presence of great actors doesn't help in making the terrible script moderately passable. Save for an occasional amusing banter, the cast is unsuccessful in making this material work, with a lot of the acting ranging from painfully robotic to obnoxiously hammy. Takeshi Kaneshiro is boring as Miyamoto, a painfully generic tough guy with a heart of gold and whose overall character arc feels contrived. Anne Suzuki doesn't fair much better as Milly, with her story as a child soldier with a tragic past. The seeds for potential good material are there but are unsuccessfully planted and grown. Mizoguchi is a dull antagonist, and Goro Kishitani's cartoony performance is more obnoxious than amusing. Even legendary actress Kirin Kiki doesn't leave much lasting impression in her supporting role.
While the budget may be bigger here than in Takashi Yamazaki's first feature, the production values in “Returner” are significantly worse. Akira Sako and Kozo Shibasaki's cinematography is generally unimpressive, and the overall art direction of the movie is hideous. There is an overabundance of laughably terrible CGI and composite work topped off with an ugly color palette plagued by an oversaturation of dirty greys, browns, and yellows. It doesn't help that some of the imagery plagiarizes other sci-fi properties, such as the “Daggra,” sporting armor that strongly resembles the Xenomorphs from the “Alien” franchise. Then there's Akihiko Matsumoto's music score, which is painfully forgettable and sometimes irritating, downright hindering the intended drama in prominent scenes.
From a production standpoint, it is on par with the unsightly presentation of “Godzilla: Final Wars” directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, which similarly sports many of the countless problems prevalent here. All of this is even more disappointing considering the involvement of special effects director and supervisor Katsuro Onoue, a rather talented man in the visual effects department. Thankfully, he would go on to do great work in projects moving forward, such as the live-action “Attack on Titan” duology and “Shin Godzilla.”
Even from an action standpoint, “Returner” fails to deliver satisfyingly. The fight choreography is unremarkable in what are supposed to be intense sequences. Most of it tries to impersonate the style of “The Matrix” and various John Woo flicks. However, it fumbles in execution and lacks the tight direction that otherwise made it work in those movies. These sections are certainly not helped by some headache-inducing editing.
“Returner” has nothing to offer but rehashed tropes, cashing in on the success of vastly superior science fiction films while executing those sci-fi elements significantly worse here. When it's not tedious to sit through with hollow storytelling, it's invasively bombarding the senses with ugly special effects and atrocious editing, further hurting already uninspired action sequences. With all of that, it disappointedly wastes talented actors who try but ultimately fail to make the material salvageable.
