K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces

2008
6.6| 2h17m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 23 January 2009 Released
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Budget: 0
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Official Website: http://www.k-20.jp/
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In an alternate version of 1949 Japan in which World War II never happened, the Japanese capital of Teito is home to both an ultra rich upper class and the dirt poor masses. The city is thrown into a state of panic when a phantom thief called “The Kaijin (Fiend) with 20 Faces” (K-20 for short) begins to use his mysterious abilities to steal from the rich and give to the poor. One day a circus acrobat named Heikichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is framed for K-20’s crimes and becomes determined to clear his name. He teams up with K-20’s next target, a wealthy duchess named Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu) and her detective fiancé (Toru Nakamura), to take K-20 down once and for all.

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Director

Shimako Satō

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K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces Audience Reviews

Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!
Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Jan Strydom I bought K-20 without knowing it was a Japanese movie but it didn't keep me from watching it since I already own a few Japanese movies. However this film turned out to be very fun and enjoyable with well done special effects, awesome stunt work and a plot that manages to hold your interest from start to finish.Although the film does feel a tad long sometimes it's still a fun watch. The characters are all likable and do eventually grow on you thus encouraging you to watch on.Overall, it's a fun and enjoyable superhero movie from Japan highly recommended if your are a fan of Japanese films.
kluseba "K-20" is a visually stunning Japanese steam punk epic with a couple of promising ideas that are destroyed with a too ordinary story and a quite instable acting performance.The story takes places in an alternate history of the year 1949 in Japan where the second World war never happened. In the fictional capital Teito, the viewer can observe zeppelins and similar flying objects as well as adventurous machines that work with alternate forms of steam or electricity. These science-fiction gimmicks are what make this movie truly imaginative and fantastic. If you observe closely, you will see many lovely details of that kind in this film.The story is set around the poor circus acrobat Endo Heikichi who needs some money to heal his old and sick master in form of an operation. He is portrayed in a rather weak and horribly faceless way by actor Kaneshiro Takeshi who is one of the reasons why this movie doesn't work as well as it could have been.Meanwhile, the fictional city is haunted by a smart thief who seems to have twenty different faces or masks and is therefor called K-20. The character seems to be a mixture of Robin Hood who mostly steals from the rich, Spider-Man thanks to his great acrobatic and flying skills and of the Shadow because of his appearance. From that point of view, the movie picks the best influences from famous American superheroes which is not very original.This thief comes to meet the poor circus acrobat and gives him a lot of money to take a couple of pictures of the engagement ceremony of the intelligent but cold-hearted detective Akechi Kogoro who has become a local celebrity with the charming, vivid and unconventional Hashiba Yoko. These two characters are well portrayed by the stylish and authentic Nakamura Toro and the charming and beautiful Matsu Takako.The whole thing turns out to be a trap as the circus acrobat gets caught during the event and is now mistaken for the thief with the mask. He gets imprisoned and tortured but suddenly gets some help from a gang of local thieves who liberate him in a quite original way. The acrobat is not very thankful and rather looks for isolation and overtly despises the thieves that saved him. He later realizes that he can flee and must become a smart thief as K-20 is to clear his name and find out about the true criminal intentions of the master thief. This profound change of mind is not very well portrayed in the movie and definitely lacks of passion. Instead of focusing on this important turning point, the film wastes a lot of time with more or less important and gripping dialogues. It's also sad that the thieves that liberated the circus acrobat are promisingly introduced but never seem to appear again in the entire movie.Endo Heikichi meets K-20 again when the criminal chases the young fiancée Hashiba Yoko through the nocturnal streets of Teito. It seems that the young woman's grandfather had developed a futuristic Tesla machine that could be used as a weapon of mass destruction. The young acrobat, the energizing fiancée and her fiancé and detective try to solve the puzzle to find and destroy the mysterious weapon hidden by the deceased grandfather before K-20 can get his hands on the dangerous machine. The thief of shadows though always seems to be faster and smarter during this fast paced competition that builds up some atmosphere and tension but unfortunately leads to a quite stereotypical ending that could have been taken from any Hollywood assembly-line product.In the end, the visual parts and the steam punk elements of the movie are quite addicting. The gang of thieves, the circus crew as well as the charming fiancée are positive elements of this movie. This feature builds up some good atmosphere towards the second half that leads to a fast paced competition between the good and the bad.On the other side, the story of this movie is not quite original and somewhat predictable at some point even if there is a little twist in the end. The main villain is a copy of many Hollywood figures and can't convince. The acting of the main actors is rather poor and leads to some lengths.After all, the movie is worth a watch if you like steam punk elements or if you collect all possible superhero movies in the world but it can't be counted as a highlight of its genre. Anybody else should skip this one and go for the original superhero movies from Hollywood.
kosmasp I watched this at a Fantasy Film Festival and was surprised how funny it was. The action part was expected, but the silly things in the movie really do work. You could say "Spirit" silly, although the overall movie is not as silly as Spirit of course.It's a really great "Origin" movie and I guess you don't have to know the Mangas this is based on (I hadn't read/seen anything about this character, before I watched the movie). Great action set pieces, great actors, nice editing, of course mostly foreseeable, but still quite a few crazy ideas. If you like fun action movies, you can't go wrong with this one!
helmutty K-20: Legend of the mask is considered a Japanese superhero movie although K-20 is not a superhero, he is more of Japanese robin hood but only more evil. The 2 billion yen movie has the realistic special effects that you rarely see in Japanese movies and its action scenes are breath-taking especially the acrobatic stunts and famous Takeshi Kaneshiro with good musicStory: It is set in 1949 where there is no world war, which is lucky. There is K-20, stealing priceless items from the rich. He frames an acrobat, Heikichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Heikichi is caught and soon escapes. He then vows to unmask/catch K-20 and proves his innocence. The fight scenes with K-20 and Heikichi are stunning with amazing acrobatic stunts. I wish there will more of the breath-taking stunts in movies. As Heikichi races to find what K-20 is going after, it leads to the final battle between them where there happens to be a twist.Overall: This is not to be missed for Takeshi fans or those who are fans of Japanese movies. K-20 may be a little long- the runtime is 2 hours 17 minutes but the plot is engrossing that you won't care about the time and watch how K-20 battles with Heikichi with wits and power. It is nice to see a big-budget Japanese action movie as the past few years, there are mostly Japanese thrillers like 20th century boys and death note.