I didn't even know that this film is already playing in the cinemas until I saw the trailer on TV yesterday (or rather, early this morning, 4am), and I immediately decided to see it because, aside from the film festivals I attended, I haven't been to the cinemas in Tokyo for a long time.

K-20: LEGEND OF THE MASK (also known as K-20: THE FIEND WITH TWENTY FACES) is, in my opinion, Japan's attempt at the superhero genre, or to be more precise, the HOLLYWOOD superhero genre, because when I was seeing this film, I can't help but noticed many similarities between the film and the many superhero films that came out in Hollywood this year, especially with its admirably high production values.

And that's my problem with it. By trying to play Hollywood's game and make films following mostly the blueprint of Hollywood blockbuster popcorn flicks, like their recent attempts at disaster flicks, I feel that K-20 comes off as nothing more than an imitation (albeit one with, again, good production values). As I was watching K-20, I couldn't help but felt that it invited comparisons to the likes of DARK KNIGHT and IRON MAN, which isn't doing itself any favours, and because of this, K-20 suffers in comparison.

Female director Shimako Sato, a London International Film School graduate, did a competent job with the film, especially one with such a big budget. (read her interview on Japan Times) The film tries to encompass everything, charismatic performance from Takeshi Kaneshiro, a cute turn from Takako Matsu, more cool badassness from Toru Nakamura, it has comedy, romance and some genuinely nice action scenes which opt mostly for semi-realistic parkour stunts instead of distractingly bad CGI. Let me copy and paste the synopsis I got from Nippon Cinema as it's the most accurate one I can