Film review: Short on violence, Takeshi Miike's new film still entertains
Yvonne Teh
Starring: Takao Osawa, Nanako Matsushima, Tatsuya Fujiwara
Director: Takashi Miike
Category: IIB (Japanese)
Over the course of his career, Takashi Miike has made family-friendly films such as Ninja Kids and Yatterman. But the prolific Japanese director is best known for category III-rated shockers such as Audition and Ichi the Killer. So it stands to reason that viewers of Shield of Straw would expect his adaptation of manga artist Kazuhiro Kiuchi's best-selling crime novel to have its share of extreme moments.
But while the work provoked a number of walkouts when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, it wasn't because the police action-thriller is too violent. Instead, this Warner Brothers Japan production is disappointingly mild for a Miike movie, especially since it has a plot that would appear ripe for a no-holds barred visual treatment.
After evil rapist and killer Kunihide Kiyomaru (Tatsuya Fujiwara) makes a seven-year-old girl his latest victim, her financial tycoon grandfather, Ninagawa Tagaoki (Tsutomu Yamazaki), declares open season on her killer by putting a billion yen bounty on his head. Realising that he's now the country's most wanted man, Kiyomaru surrenders to the police in Fukuoka.
Five police officers, including police lieutenant Kazuki Mekari (Takao Osawa) and sergeant Atsuko Shiraiwa (Nanako Matsushima), are tasked with transporting Kiyomaru safely to stand trial in Tokyo, just over 1,000 kilometres away.
After a policeman at the Fukuoka station attempts to kill Kiyomaru to claim the reward, the realisation dawns that the biggest threat to Kiyomaru's life may come from inside their ranks. There's also a mole in their midst who's making their every move known.