Shield of Straw (Japanese: Wara no tate), 2013.
Directed by Takashi Miike.
Starring Nanako Matsushima, Tatsuya Fujiwara, and Takao Osawa.
SYNOPSIS:
The Japanese police have to transport a known child killer to Tokyo. When the billionaire grandfather of the murdered girl offers a reward for the killer’s assassination the police’s job gets a little tougher.
Prolific filmmaker Takashi Miike brings his umpteenth action movie to Cannes. The story is a familiar one: the noble cop placed in a situation in which he has to struggle with his conscience when the temptation to take the law into his own hands becomes almost unbearably tempting. In this case the cop is an agent in the state security service, Kazuki Mekari (Takao Osawa). He’s a man we’ve encountered many times before: handsome, tough, still in love with his dead wife and held in awe by his colleagues.
Mekari doesn’t have to solve a case, just get a prisoner from A to B so that he can be tried. The prisoner in question is Kunihide Kiyomaru (Tatsuya Fujiwara), a child rapist and killer, who after eight years in jail for a previous conviction has struck again. This time he has killed the granddaughter of a billionaire, who offers a billion yen to anyone who will take out the girl’s killer. And so Mekari’s task has just a whole lot more complicated. This isn’t helped by his colleagues, all of whom – Mekari included – have been chosen because of their personal frailties rather than their strengths as police officers.
As the audience rubs its hands in glee, anticipating some great fight scenes, extravagant car chases and gore galore, the cops and their troublesome prisoner set off. There is one excellent scene involving a lorry laden with nitroglycerine heading straight for the police escort, but this is the one and only entertaining scene of the entire film. There is a weariness to this action movie, perhaps due to Takashi Miike himself getting a little tired after taking on a few too many films a year. The storyline is bland and there is a dearth of action sequences. When we do get a bit of action, it’s shirt on originality and over in an instant.
Anyone who has seen the magnificent 13 Assassins will be sorely disappointed at this flaccid piece of filmmaking. How it got into competition at Cannes, particularly in a year of such strong competition, is a mystery. An action film that induces narcolepsy in its audience is no action movie at all.
Flickering Myth Rating: Film ★ / Movie ★ ★
Jo Ann Titmarsh
Originally published May 20, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
