It is the days before the second World War exploded. In Japan Jiro Kato kills a superior officer accidentally and is sentenced to die. Rescued at the last moment by Mr Yuki, he is offered a chance to redeem himself by joining D Agency, a secret spy group for the Japanese Military, When the plans for a new bomb go missing from the Germans. The plans are believed to be with the American Ambassador so Kato is sent to retrieve it....
This film is great fun. It kept me up way past my bed time watching it and I enjoyed every damn minute of it. This is standard by the book ultra cool spy stuff but from different perspective than we are used to in the West. The Bad guys are actually the people we in America or Europe would place as the heroes- us. I love that the British are the bad guys, really vile bad guys. They are the sort of bad guys that one up even the vileness we attributed to the Japanese over the last 70 years.
The action sequences are expertly handled with several set pieces turning into rousing bits of excitement. Who cares if some of it is too fantastical to happen, but the time the twists come we're so enraptured that we'll by that a photo falls in just the right place to spark the require conclusion.
This is not a deep film so I'm not going to try and expose any meaning. Its is a great time passer and a lot of fun so I will simply say that you really must go to the Japan Society when this film plays opening night at this year's Japan Cuts.
One of my guilty pleasures of 2015
I'll take 'vile bad' as an absolute compliment, my good man. Thanks for the review
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