Jin-Roh is an animated film which grew from a story and script by Mamoru Oshii, one of the leading creative artists of Japanese animation. However, director Hiroyuki Okiura deviated from the genre norms in focusing on the humanization of a macho killer. The action takes place in the Japan of the mid-fifties. Ten years after World War II, the country is in a state of strife. Emergency measures to boost Japan's economy have created some disturbing social problems. In Tokyo, special units of an elite police force known as the Metro Police are engaged in a bitter struggle with armed anti-government guerrillas. Any act of violence is reciprocated with more violence. Police officer Kazuki Fushe is a member of one such special unit, known among guerrillas as "Cerberus" and particularly feared for their striking power. Fushe's assignment is to crush the members of a guerrilla group known as "The Sect." During one of his rounds, Fushe meets a young woman on a kamikaze mission who has already activated the bomb she is wearing. Following her death, he can't get her image out of his mind and begins to visit her grave, where he meets another woman who looks like her. She is the sister of the dead girl and has her own reasons for getting closer to Fushe. The plot of the film is very complex, involving several ambiguities which are disquieting at the outset. But gradually, the vision of the director comes through, offering food for thought even in the most violent scenes. Jin-Roh was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
lost interest.
In many ways, this film treads familiar ground for director Hiroyuki Okiura and particularly screenwriter and animé auteur Mamoru Oshii. Just as in
Ghost in the Shell, this film vigorously questions the nature and the limits of humanity. Just as in
Patlabor 2, this film depicts the intrigue, oppression, and fetishization of technology of fascistic organizations. And like all of their work, this film features a terrific attention to detail. Not only is the film's alternative take on history beautifully realized -- the film is set in some recognizable though undefined point in Japan's past, somewhere between the 1950s and the 1970s -- but the character's emotions and motions are expertly brought to life. And herein lies one of the film's flaws. Not content to be another animé with stock characters and cool explosions, this film focuses on the tortured psyches of the film's principles -- Kazuki and Kei. No matter how artful and subtle one draws a face, it cannot match a human's range of emotion, and as a result Kazuki's struggle to find a soul doesn't quite carry the movie. A work of unusual depth and beauty, Jin-Roh falters, but not because of a lack of ambition. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide