Aegis (Bokoku no Aegis)
Director: Junji Sakamoto
Production Company: Bandai Visual
Year: 2005
Running time: 127 minutes
Recently, Japan has begun churning out a few
big budget films that have strong undertones of nationalism and militarism
integrated into the plot. One can see that in this film as well as in two
WWII movies – “Lorelai” in which a renegade group of army officers plot
to have the United States nuke Tokyo in order to start a New Japan and
“Yamato: The Last Battle” which is based on the sinking of that great battleship.
The films try to play it both ways to some degree – include a wide strain
of nationalism but temper it with its portrayal as potentially being extreme
and apocalyptic. Yet one can sense that the sentiments of the filmmakers
may well sympathize with these political agendas. This reflects what has
been taking place in Japan of late – a flourishing of nationalism in which
textbooks are being re-written to portray Japan as a heroic fighter against
European imperialism in WWII and the argument to make a break with its
allegiance to pacifism and become a nuclear power.
A film that secretes nationalism automatically
is negatively handicapped by me – I just don’t really like the sentiment
or even get it for the most part. Where we are born is just an accident
of history so why get excited about it – if my great grandparents hadn’t
been freezing their asses off and moved to the United States I might have
been brought up loving hockey in Canada – and if their grandparents had
decided to stay put I would be scattered about somewhere in Europe. Nationalism
is almost as idiotic as organized religion – who’s great idea was it to
divide mankind into thousands of different beliefs in which everyone of
them thinks they are the only ones reaching salvation. And we kill each
other over this nonsense which makes it all the more absurd and tragic.
Yes – let’s divide the human race by country then by religion then by race
and try not to annihilate each other. It drives me crazy to think how we
complicate life and buy into the big lies that we are better because we
come from this country, have these religious beliefs and have this skin
color – and it’s the same all over the world. Ok – time to get off my high
horse and talk about this film – sorry for this needless pomposity but
every now and then I have to vent! Some web sites advertise ad nauseum
– I very occasionally feel the need to advertise my beliefs – not sure
which is worse!
Putting aside my reservation about the film’s
agenda, it is for the most part a tepid version of one of the staples of
Hollywood – the Die Hard formula – in which one (or in this case two) brave
men have to take on evil terrorists who are intent on doing evil things.
The film is based on a novel that runs more than 600 pages and according
to this site
it not surprisingly contains much more in depth characters and a lot more
background. This certainly rings true – it feels as if major portions of
the film may have ended up on the floor as relationships are hinted at
but never explained and one near the end comes as an out of left field
surprise that makes little sense. For what is basically an action/political
thriller, the film fails on the most basic level – it generates little
suspense and has a bumpy pace – at times it moves along swiftly, at other
times it feels very sluggish. If the film had been a rambunctious over
the top action thriller I could perhaps have forgiven the politics – but
I was given too much time between action scenes to think about it and it
stuck like a craw in my throat.
Sengoku (the great Hiroyuki Sanada) is the Chief
Petty Officer on the destroyer Isokaze and he is curious about the number
of special observers that are on the ship. He discovers that the captain
has been killed and the second in command, Miyazu (Akira Terao) tells him
that the guilty party is one of his own men – Kisaragi (Ryo Katsuji) who
is a terrorist with a plan to use a deadly gas that was stolen from the
Americans. As soon as this is related an explosion occurs that tears a
hole in the hull – planted by Kisaragi – and he has holed himself up and
threatens to sink the ship. This being his man, Sengoku of course feels
obliged to capture him. He does so but not before Kisaragi tells him that
the real terrorists are in fact the observers along with the officers of
the ship – and that they plan on gassing Tokyo and that he is an intelligence
agent put on board to stop them. Sengoku assumes this is a fabrication
and turns Kisaragi over to the authorities and is then ordered to abandon
ship along with his men. On the lifeboat though he smells a rat when the
officers and observers remain aboard and so he swims back through the hole
in the hull.
Once on board he soon realizes that Kisaragi was
speaking the truth and now has to save Kisaragi not to mention Tokyo! Though
unstated in the film, the book identifies the terrorists/observers as North
Koreans. Meanwhile back in Tokyo, the government has received the demands
of the terrorists and has decided to blow it up with a heat incendiary
device – provided of course by the USA. Interspersed in the film are various
nationalistic comments – an essay in fact at one point – on the need for
Japan to become a military power again. For action junkies the film will
likely fall a bit short – one might expect better things with Sanada in
it, but his character is such a decent sort that he prefers talking to
shooting and the action parts are not particularly well carried out and
mysteriously fizzle from time to time. For example, a female terrorist
(Choi Min-Seo) is brought on board and she has that insane killer look
about her like Joyce Godenzi in “Eastern Condors” and there is apparently
some murky connection between her and Kisaragi in the past, but nothing
comes of any of this. Very odd really. The film does have a really solid
cast in its favor - besides the ones mentioned above there is also Kiichi
Nakai (When the Last Sword is Drawn) as the main terrorist and Koichi Sato
and Kishibe Ittoku (the birdman in Survive Style 5+) as two intelligence
agents.
My rating for the film: 6.0
