Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (Akio Jissoji, 1988)

[krillov]

Título: Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis Título V.O: Teito monogatari Director: Akio Jissoji Año/País: 1988 / Japón Duración: 129 minutos Género: Terror, Ciencia-ficción, Thriller Reparto: Shintarô Katsu, Kyusaku Shimada, Mieko Harada, Junichi Ishida Enlaces: Español Ficha de: Krillov

[krillov]

Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis is a film of really epic proportions and it follows the story arcs of a multitude of sometimes (seemingly) unrelated characters over a fifteen year time period. On first viewing, the initial thirty minutes or so are just a little confusing if only because so many of these characters (and clan names, mystical rites and processes, locations, legends, etc) are introduced to us while we're still trying to work out who is who and whose side we want to be on: the Chief Financier and his team appear initially to be a shady bunch who have links with the military; the 'good' mystics are followers of Masakado, who is painted as a dangerous and vengeful spirit; the 'bad' mystic, Kato, wants to destroy Tokyo simply because he feels that the city and its foolish inhabitants have polluted consecrated ground. As the years go by, and the various characters are given further development and begin to interact, everything becomes clearer and the film is eventually set up for a real humdinger of a final showdown.

Another stumbling block, again only initially, is the film's design. As with films like, say, Luc Besson's The Fifth Element or any number of Terry Gilliam films, it is obvious from the start that the design personnel at work here have made a concerted effort to come up with something completely new: consequently it can take a while for the viewer to become suitably attuned to these bold but unfamiliar aesthetics. The actual period costumes, sets and locations are suitably lavish, impressive and authentic looking but anything of a mystical nature is found to be pushing for something different. The villainous Kato is given the air and look of a cruel military officer from some unspecified totalitarian regime while his assistant priestess appears to source her clothing from the same fetish-wear suppliers used by Jean Rollin's vampire priestesses, etc. European artist H R Geiger worked on some of this film's production designs: the most familiar aspects of his unique style, which inspired the look of Ridley Scott's Alien, are largely absent but they do surface towards the end when Kato employs a kind of baroque version of the deadly flying sphere from Don Coscarelli's Phantasm.

The presentation of the mystic and the modern works pretty well in this alternate version of early 20th Century Japan. In Terry Gilliam's Brazil we had the strange, anachronistic mix of 1940s British civil service-dom and weird future technology. In Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis we have the spectacular but anachronistic mix of 1910s Japanese civil service-dom and ancient magic. But it seems almost natural to enter the Ministry of Finance and find a suitably decorated hall containing members of the Tsuchimikado clan earnestly chanting and performing the rites that they hope will prevent Kato from disturbing Masakado's slumber.

But, perhaps most importantly, the film has some great characters that we really come to care about and take an interest in as they weave in and out of each others lives. (Mild spoilers begin....) Yukari Tatsumiya (Haruka Sugata), a descendant of Masakado who is psychically impregnated by Kato. Her brother, Yoichiro (Jun'ichi Ishida), who cannot bring himself to join the fighting directly but who tries to help by placing protective statues at key sites around the city. His friend and fellow civil servant, Junichi Narutaki (Shiro Sano), who secretly loves Yukari but who is separated from her following Kato's intervention. Doctor Ogai Mori (Katsuo Nakamura) and the writer-cum-swordsman Rohan Koda (Koji Takahashi) two earnestly interested parties who are forced to accept and confront the supernatural. Keiko (Meiko Harada), a psychic warrior who marries Yoichiro in order to fulfil a mystical prophesy while secretly hoping that they might become a real couple if she should survive the final confrontation with Kato. Professor Torahiko Terada (Ken Teraizuma), who dreams of building an underground city: he has to settle on building Tokyo's underground railway system where he is forced to employ the services of Doctor Makoto Nishimura's (Ko Nishimura) prototype Robot, the mighty "Gakutensoku", when his construction workers are attacked by demons. Wajiro Kon (Seiko Ito), a young sociologist, and Shigemaru Kuroda (Sanshi Katsura), a likeable travelling expert in underground energy patterns who assists Keiko when Kato brings a malevolent six-armed statue to life (....mild spoilers end). Some of the key characters featured here appear to be based on actual people who lived during this period of Japanese history.

There's some good cinematography on display here with director Akio Jissoji proving himself to be capable of helming a really quite epic and highly original sci-fi/horror/adventure extravaganza. The film's fifteen year story arc is handled convincingly, aided by the use of some subtle but good ageing make-up and some great acting. Kato's periodic testing of the city's defences results in some of the city's defenders enduring years of anxiety and exasperation but some electrifying scenes unfold on Tokyo's city centre streets when he finally makes his master move. The special effects employed during the psychic confrontations are generally very good and the film boasts some really neat stop-motion animation sequences too. Maki Ishii's music is also particularly good, veering between strange one-note drones and emotionally charged orchestral pieces which are very much in the vein of Ennio Morricone's '80s work at times. There are some suitably re-worked pieces of established classical music employed in the mix, too.

La acaban de publicar en ACF. Estoy descargando los subtítulos, que espero que estén en inglés.

[Reader]

Pinta bien esta... y con Shintarô Katsu.
 Me la apunto por si los subs están en inglés.


 Un saludo.

[Sigurd]

krillov, saludo!

Gracias! Quiero ver mucho esta película!  

[Conri]

Muchisimas Gracias krillov por la ficha!

Ahora una consulta que ah pasado con esos subs???? estaban en ingles???
Solo eso amigo!



*saionara*

[krillov]

Muchisimas Gracias krillov por la ficha!

Ahora una consulta que ah pasado con esos subs???? estaban en ingles???
Solo eso amigo!



*saionara*

Sí, estaban en inglés.

[Alikuekano]

Cuajaros unos subs en SRT y los subimos a algun sitio apañaos

[Reader]

A ver, yo no puedo editar en Japón, pero están en Kloofy hace tiempo  

[kaishakunin]

Ya está puesto el enlace a kloofy. No veas cómo controlas la paginita reader   Yo me dejo los ojos cada vez que entro...

Y pinta muy chula esta peli... Juraría que es la de imagen real del anime "doomed megalopolis"... ¡Despierta Masakado!!!  

[Reader]

Y pinta muy chula esta peli... Juraría que es la de imagen real del anime "doomed megalopolis"... ¡Despierta Masakado!!!  

Todavía no la he visto, pero como sea así ya estoy tardando  

[ironfisthk]

Pues que esta peli esta basada en la misma novela en la que esta basada el anime Doomed Megalopolis.

[Jose. El Luzu]

Tiene una pinta genial, yo estuve tentado de bajarme el DVD y aun lo estoy.  

[Alikuekano]

A ver si los que la teneis podeis relanzarla un poco  

[TrentReznor]

ahora la pongo en powerrelease y si te veo por ahi ya te pongo un slot, q la verdad es q esta pelicula se hace de rogar y mucho (un par de meses creo q estuve para pillarla XD) aunq tiene un pero...y es q mirando por encima tiene pinta de tener una calidad pesima de imagen. Yo tb estuve tentado de bajarla de adc pero decian q no merecia la pena

[Jose. El Luzu]

Yo es que estando Shintarô Katsu....... lo que sea.