RETURNER
Directed by: Takashi Yamazaki.
Produced by: Akifumi Takuma, Toru Horibe & Chikahiro Ando.
Written by: Takashi Yamazaki.
Director of Photography: Kozo Shibazaki & Akira Sako.
Edited by: Takuya Taguchi.
Music by: Akihiko Matsumoto.
Released by: Samuel Goldwyn/Destination.
Country of Origin: Japan. 116 min. Not Rated.
With: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Ann Suzuki & Goro Kishitani.

Take the alien conspiracy theories and the "will they or won't they?" tension of the X-Files, plus the bullet-dodging acrobatics of The Matrix, and you have Returner, a thoroughly enjoyable, tongue-in-cheek, science-fiction thriller. In the year 2084, a young girl named Milly (Suzuki) must travel back in time to present-day Japan to alter the course of history. She is the only hope to save the human race from destruction by an alien army bent on revenge. Yet her quest is momentarily put on hold when she lands, literally, in the middle of a gunfight between Miyamoto, a contract killer out to avenge the murder of his childhood friend, and Mizoguchi, the Japanese crime lord responsible for that murder. Later, because he’s skeptical of her story, Milly blackmails Miyamoto in helping her by slapping an explosive device on his neck. True to type, Milly is the strong and willful, yet sad heroine with a crush on her handsome partner. A typical broody, yet stylish, bad boy, Miyamoto lives alone (because he trusts no one) in a dump of an apartment, yet drives a BMW and shops at Calvin Klein. Mizoguchi, in turn, is the requisite tough guy, and he proves this by eating a lobster tail with the shell still intact! Add to the recipe a sage old woman, several ridiculous gunfights with a few nameless henchmen and you're in for some action-packed fun times. After seeing this guilty pleasure you'll not only wish it didn't have to end, but that there was perhaps a way for the WB or UPN to buy the rights and develop it into a weekly series.
Tanya Chesterfield, Book Reviewer (Barnes & Noble.com)
October 17, 2003