Science Fiction, 2000, Japan
Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro
Starring: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Ken Watanabe, Eri Fukatsu

Three men Nishiyama (Kaneshiro), Takamura and Fujimoto walk into a bank to rob, planning to use the money to retire in some paradise island. Things go wrong and they end up with no money but hostages. When the police force surrounds the bank, Fujimoto notices that they and hostages correspond to characters on an intergalactic anime series called “Space Travelers”. He assigns each person an anime persona and they develop a sense of empowerment through their new personalities, when they begin to take active role in the hostage negotiations. They call themselves the Space Travelers and confuse the police force outside.

Unlike all those recent comic book/anime to film adaptations (X-Men, Blade, Azumi), Space Travelers did something interesting here. It’s not a live action version of the series. Instead, they made an action packed comedy with characters that are inspired by the series Space Travelers.  It is highly enjoyable and sometimes stylish film especially when the film starts possessing this infectious sense of fun by having the entire hostage role-playing the alter egos that they all graciously take on. It is difficult not to be swept away because after all, it is everyone’s fantasy to role-play in real life. 90% of the action takes place inside the bank but the colorful characters and fancy camera movements help to create a visual style that is almost like an anime. The only problem I had is that it feels like the director didn’t know how to end the film. You spend all these time with characters and all the sudden they leave without saying goodbye.

Still, Space Travelers manages to be entertaining with good mixture of humor and action.  And oh yeah Watanabe (Last Samurai) plays the man of a few words.

Shogo is an award-award winning filmmaker currently hard at work on a new project. Asian Fever is his weekly column devoted to Asian cinema and related topics.