Milly, a young girl, travels back in time from the year 2084 to 2002 after an alien invasion. Once back in time her mission is to seek out a Tokyo gunman named Miyamoto in order to prevent the war from ever happening. Meanwhile a Japanese mafia boss named Mizoguchi keeps the first alien spaceship and the alien pilot captive and is involved in the start of the war. Now the gunman and the girl from the future must find a way to stop the oncoming destruction of an alien invasion.
Japanese Sci-Fi...haven't watch too much of that and since I'm not a big fan of Sci-Fi either, I've never really bothered to seek it out. Returner though fell into my lap a few years back and I must say I really enjoyed this movie. It has this futuristic feel to it and the fact the it deals with an alien invasion makes it even more Sci-Fi-like, but you don't need to be a fan of the genre to be able to enjoy the movie as it's far from Star Trek or any other similar kind of crap. Although, in the end it is a Sci-Fi movie, and if you're not a fan of that but like action and Asian/Japanese cinema you'll probably find Returner to be quite a good flick anyway.
In the year of 2084, an alien spaceship did a fake crash landing on earth, and later on the alien armies attacked and destroyed most of it. Leaving just a few desperate survivors, they put their heads together and built a time-machine in order to send troops back in time to destroy the first alien and prevent the war from ever happening. Back in time, all to the year of 2002, gunman Miyamoto is about to extract his vengeance upon mafia boss Mizoguchi but is interupted by a time-traveling girl which gives Mizoguchi a chance to escape. He takes the unconscious girl back to his apartment and when she wakes up she tells him that she has travelled back in time in order to save humanity from an oncoming alien invasion.
 
The gunman of course do not believe the girl, but when she attaches a bomb to his neck he is forced to do what she tells him. They have to find the alien spaceship that crash-landed on earth and kill the pilot before the alien gets a chance to signal the rest of the aliens that goes goes by the name of Daggra. Everything seems easy at first and Miyamoto soon starts to believe the girl since he get to witness some astonishing things. But their mission proves to be more difficult than they first had thought since the Yakuza gets involved as well, wanting the technology for themselves.
The movie has some flaws but nothing that keeps it from being entertaining, something it truly manages to be. The overall story is not very original and it's easy to see how they have borrowed things from many different American movies. On the other hand, as long as it's not a rip-off I couldn't actually care less since most things in this movie are pretty great. So what if they borrowed a few things, everybody does and as long as they manage to make their own thing out of it I find no real reason to complain.
Returner has some really awesome action sequences, some fantastic gun battles and since it's from Japan, one can't help but to get a slight anime feel when watching it as well. It's visually quite stunning at times and add to that some really cool scenes involving the use of slow-motion, plus that the camera-work is great too. Of course there are some CGI and while I'm usually allergic to that, it works very well here. Some stuff really look amazing and it's hard not to be impressed.
When it comes to the acting it has no problem delivering whatsoever. Especially gunman Miyamoto is a really cool character and it's hard not to like him. Between all the Sci-Fi and the action we even get some sentimentality, something that actually works quite well, especially towards the end. And the end itself is well constructed and gives the whole outcome of the movie a very positive feel.
A different Japanese flick with some anime feel to it that has some great action scenes and a few cool twists happening. Even though it might be somewhat unoriginal, it's still greatly entertaining and is a fun and thrilling ride from start to finish. Recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Ritana
MOVIE YEAR: 2002
DIRECTOR: Takashi Yamazaki
WRITING CREDITS: Kenya Hirata, Takashi Yamazaki, Goro Kishitani
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure
CAST: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Kirin Kiki
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 116 min
RATING: 8/10
Returner Website/IMDB Click here
Returner Trailer Click here
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