DVD review: K20

1947, in an alternate timeline where World War II never happened a young circus acrobat fights the legendary thief K 20, the man with 20 faces.

A fun romp from Japan this movie, adapted from a novel at least according to Wikipedia, is at first impact somewhat complicated and unfriendly. The tone is the literal opposite of naturalistic, K20 behaves like a Japanese version of “The shadow”, and everything is very theatrical, but if you stick with it you’ll discover a worthwhile movie.

The plot, apparently very disjointed, in the end ties everything nicely trough a lot of unexpected twists and turns. Even if many of the actors are somewhat wooden, at least from our western point of view, the unpretentious tone, with many physical jokes and a lot of action, enliven the atmosphere. As I said above it’s like watching a pantomime at the theatre, when you get used to it all the problems disappears.

The action is top notch. A seamless blend of parkour style jumping with CGI eastern steampunk backdrop, a liberal dose of kung fu and tons of superhero style gadgets.

Conclusion: This is certainly not a movie for everyone but if you are a part of the fandom you should check it out.