K-20: Legend of the Mask [K-20: Kaijin niju menso den] (Shimako Sato, 2008)IMDB LinkIt would have been more interesting to watch “K-20: Legend of the Mask” on the big screen and maybe a decade and a half ago, not only because it would have been more fun to see it when I was younger but it just does not seem to fit very well in 2008. There are two kinds of action-adventures nowadays. Dark and broody or light and tongue in cheek. This film is neither. It’s like Paul McCartney’s “Silly Love Songs”. “K-20” is out to be an action-adventure film and it does not care if it has been done before.
The movie is set in an alternative Japan, one which World War II never happened and Japan did not lose its imperialism. I’m not sure exactly why this alternative Japan was envisioned, since the era is 1949. They could just as well have placed it a few years back, and a Japan where WW2 never happened would have held true without needing to have a “what-if” scenario. The only reason for the alternative universe seems to have creators create a slightly steam-punk version of Japan. I kind of want to compare the world to “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” but I have not watched it, so my comparison might be inaccurate.
In this alternative universe, there is a criminal called K-20, someone who is stealing valuable items and is looking for a rumor machine called the Telsa machine that can destroy any spot on earth by just punching in its coordinates. Endo is a good natured, lower-class, circus acrobat and gets framed for K-20’s acts. Endo is rescued from jail, and with the help of an old man thief and an upper class, pampered young woman, he has to clear his name, stop K-20, and save alternative Japan and alternative world.
It is silly and entertaining, and I guess, some people wanna fill the world with silly action-adventure movies, and what’s wrong with that? I’d like to know.
3/5
