Space Travelers Film Review

Brought to you from the same folks at Fuji Television Network who produced the Bayside Shakedown films and like those it is filled with lovable appealing slightly quirky characters who worm their way into your bloodstream. It wasn't the sci-fi film that I was expecting but instead your basic bank robbery in which everything goes wrong and the robbers, customers and employees all have their distinct personalities and eventually become family. Tiny dramas play out among them as the cops surround the bank. Some light humor and potential romance play out as well. It is a sweet gentle film - till it isn't.

Three childhood friends decide to rob a bank and fly away to paradise. It isn't much of a plan they have. Go into the bank at closing time and get into the vault. The three of them would never be up for a Noble prize of any kind. Led by Nishiyama (Takeshi Kaneshiro), the other two friends are the gun-toting Takamura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) and Fujimoto (Masanobu Ando), who is obsessed with an older anime called Space Travelers that is no longer on the air. That is where the title comes from and which no doubt led many like myself to expect a space ship sci-fi film.

The bank is planning a big party after hours to celebrate the upcoming marriage of the shy teller Midori (the wonderfully engaging Eri Fukatsu - in the Bayside Shakedown films as well as the TV series) to one of the other staff who all the women think is a creep. "He told me that he would never leave me", she says. Everyone initially thinks the robbers are part of the festivities. There is also a bickering couple planning to get divorced, an electrician who can't remember his pin number, the socially awkward customer service person and a terrorist. Yes, a terrorist who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and is now trapped in the bank with all the others. When the cops see him on the camera, they assume they are all part of a terrorist group and bring out hundreds of cops, SWAT, helicopters and snipers.

Our three robbers are basically nice guys with no intention of hurting anyone. They just wanted money for their dream. But the money is locked in the vault along with two employees and it can't be opened till the morning. Things are not looking good. Fujimoto convinces the staff and customers to help them - become members of Space Travelers and gives them names from the show (not a real anime by the way) - among them Crusher to the terrorist (Ken Watanabe), Irene to Midori, Gold Papillion to the nagging wife (Sawa Suzuki) and so on. They take to their roles with gusto. And like the travelers in the Wizard of Oz they find courage, sacrifice, redemption and love by doing so. Yes, a little corny but director Katsuyuki Motohiro who did all the Bayside Shakedown films is a master of the small moments, the quiet connections between people, a look that means so much that these types of Japanese films do so well.