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Jin-Roh - The Wolf Brigade Director: Hiroyuki Okiura Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Running Time: 102 minutes Studio: Bandai Entertainment Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2002-03-05 Buy from Amazon |
 "Big. Fat. Yawn."What a paralysingly dull, underwhelming, tedious and long-winded film. The animation is above par, to be sure, but the plot is nonsensical and the characters almost repugnantly lackwitted and completely uninteresting. Avoid, or forever lament those many missing minutes of your life.  "Delicious plot twists"The film is set in a fictional Japan. In its alternative history a paramilitary police force, known as the "Capital Police Force" (CPF), was created to put down civil unrest that developed in response to harsh economic policies instituted by the government following WWII. However unlike Tokyo's existing, local police force, the CPF utilizes military-style armor and weapons. Apparently some portion of the CPF, known as the Wolf Brigade, really does consider itself to be more wolf-like than human. This is due to their mission, which involves stalking their prey and using lethal force to bring it down, instead of trying to apprehend criminals and bring them to justice. The CPF's military-like tactics causes a portion of the civil unrest to organize, and a terrorist group is born, known as "The Sect". Fast forward to the present. As it turns out, the government's harsh, yet aggressive economic policies have worked. The economy has been stimulated to the point that unemployment has shrunk drastically, and most people are happy with the government. "The Sect" is now a marginalized, fringe group, and there is less and less need for the CPF. Consequently the local police force would like to drive the nails into CPF's coffin, whereas the CPF is fighting tooth and nail to preserve itself. Our hero, "Kazuki Fuse" (a rookie in the CPF), stumbles into this mess when he has an opportunity to prevent a terrorist from setting off a bomb, but doesn't. All he has to do is shoot the terrorist, but she's just a teenage girl, and he can't bring himself to do it. He is sent back to boot camp as punishment, but he's haunted by memories of this young girl blowing herself up. He later visits the site where her ashes are interred, and it's there that he meets and becomes involved with her sister. This "emotional weakness" on the part of Kazuki Fuse works its way into the turf war, and much of the plot centers on the question, "Is Kazuki Fuse a wolf, or is he not?" There are many well-done plot twists, so just when I thought I could answer this question, it became obvious that I was wrong. And then things would twist again! And oh, the animation was beautiful...  "Required viewing for all movie fans."You know a film is excellent when the first 10 minutes evokes an emotional response like no other. Jin-Roh does it. This is a retelling of Red Riding Hood, based in a terrifying parallel Japan. There is civil unrest everywhere, and the only means of putting it down is through violence. Jin-Roh is not a family film; it is ultimately depressing and the violence is graphic. But this film needs to be seen by a huge audience. The artwork, music, and characters are all excellent. And even though action is not abundant in this film, the plot's dark telling will hold you tight until the end, and in the final seconds of the film, you'll be speechless until the credits disappear. Jin-Roh has a special place in my heart as one of the finest films ever made, anime or not. "Beautiful"I will simply put it thus: The best movie I have ever seen. "Agonizingly Slow and Convoluted Plot"I finally managed to sit through this anime after the 3rd attempt and still found myself fast-forwarding sections of the movie. I truly wanted to like this movie once I heard that it was written by the director of Ghost In The Shell, one of my favorite animes. The opening sequences of Jin-Roh kept me interested in how Fuse, the protagonist, might come to terms with his involvement in the death of a young girl. But the as the plot starts unfolding, it just ends up being a convoluted mess. I couldn't empathize with any of the main characters, who were either frustratingly non-communicative or just spoke in metaphors to explain themselves. Kudos for art direction and excellent voice acting, but story is dissapointingly weak which ruined it for me. |
