Japan's renegade horror filmmaker
Takashi Miike reveals a more subtle (but no less adventurous) side to his cinematic personality in this offbeat example of thinking person's science fiction. Mai (Hiroko Shimabukuro) is a youngster whose father (Tsunehiko Watase) is a scientist who is working on a system to record a person's memory and personality as computer data. As Mai edges into young adulthood, her interest in boys begins to compromise her long-standing friendships, and she is beginning to suffer pangs of guilt for it when she is killed in an auto accident during a date. Mai's father, using his experimental technology, had already recorded his daughter's thoughts and memories into his computer, and is able to create a virtual version of her, Ai, who is able to lead a life of her own. But a less-than-scrupulous technology firm has nefarious plans for this invention, and soon Ai, her father/creator, and her friends are on the run from a team of shadowy assassins. Leading lady Hiroko Shimabukuro is best known in Japan as a member of the best-selling teen pop group Speed; the other members of the group also appear in the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide