DVD Review: K-20: The Fiend With 20 Faces
K-20: The Fiend With 20 Faces has all of the elements of a swashbuckling smash hit: a Robin Hood-esque story of good and evil, a handsome leading man in Takeshi Kaneshiro, serviceable special effects, and an intriguing alterna-history premise involving weaponized Tesla coils, masters of disguise, and class struggle after a peaceful end to Japan's involvement in WWII. Unfortunately, it's the way that all of these elements that are brought together that result in K-20 being such an absolute letdown.
The film's opening text tells us that Japan has peacefully extracted itself from WWII, leading to a rise in the upper class while creating a vast gap in social inequality (demonstrated by the many shots of the slums the characters find themselves in throughout the story). The Imperial capital city is Teito, and it's menaced by a masked thief calling himself K-20. The villain is the bane of the existence of chief detective Akechi (Toru Nakamura) until a case of mistaken identity pins the thief's alter ego on a good-hearted circus acrobat named Heikichi (Kaneshiro). We know Heikichi is good-hearted because he mentors an orphan who travels with the circus and looks pained when anyone brings up that the ringleader is ailing.
From there the story bounces unevenly between Heikichi's efforts to clear his name while learning to become a thief (in spite of his good-hearted, fierce morals) to support the local orphans. There's also a giant Tesla weapon and personal helicopters but don't worry overmuch about how this alternate Japan came by such technological marvels - the script by the film's director Shimako Sato sure isn't. Instead, the movie feels stuck in a maudlin emotional first gear, never really revving up until the final scenes where that energy feels practically wasted after everything that's come before. Halfway through I actually found myself dreading the remainder of the movie's 2hr 20min runtime.
The usually charismatic Kaneshiro is served poorly by a script that should be more fun that it is but is instead more concerned with a half-baked commentary on social inequality (long story short: it's bad). The actor lends unnecessary gravitas to the character who possesses so much rigid decency that it's a wonder he's capable of the film's many acrobatic scenes. The character practically feels locked in amber at times as the story just kind of happens to him, leaving the actor with nothing to do but react to scenes.
The action in the movie is likewise stiff with camera movements that occasionally lose track of the participants but that's less troubling that the incredibly weak fight choreography. Essentially, the movie puts a lot of action on the screen (in between mopey moments of shallow introspection) but very little of it is worth looking at.
Again, this is a movie that had all of the parts of an exciting alterna-history action adventure - but the combined elements come together in a final package that underwhelms on every front.
A review copy of this film was provided by Viz Media.
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