K-20: Legend Of The Mask
Shimako Sato


The year is 1949 and the place is Teito, Japan, in an alternate universe where World War II never happened. In this society with rigid class boundaries, K-20, The Phantom Thief with 20 Faces, steals from the rich to give to the poor.
Unwittingly, circus acrobat Heikichi Endo (an earnest, if slightly detached, Takeshi Kaneshiro) takes the fall for the real McCoy and is captured by detective Kogoro Akechi (a laidback, smirky Toru Nakamura).
The acrobat sets out to clear his name and finds an unexpected ally in the duchess Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu providing some comic relief), Akechi’s fiancee.
This period sci-fi flick borrows elements from movies ranging from Face/Off (1997) to the secret agent James Bond franchise. It cruises along pleasantly enough in handsomely rendered sets with an old-fashioned twist at the end.
Surprisingly, the film is not a manga adaptation. The characters were created by late author Rampo Edogawa, the father of the Japanese mystery novel.
(ST)