China
recently surpassed Japan to become the world’s second largest film market. Yes, China is number two with a bullet, but
Japan is hardly chopped liver. As an
extra added benefit, studios do not have to debase their product or sell their
souls to export films into Japan. Yet,
they seem to take perverse pleasure in kowtowing to Chinese Communist Party censors. However, the latest Japanese-centric
installment of the X-Men franchise
surely understood where its international bread would be buttered. Better than initial reviews gave it credit
for, James Mangold’s simply titled The
Wolverine (trailer
here) is
worth a look-see in theaters now.
As
most guys between the ages of thirteen and fifty know, Logan is a mutant, whose
uncanny healing powers were augmented with an adamantium skeleton and
retractable claws. You cannot kill him,
because he simply heals too fast, but you can definitely tick him off. At least that used to be the case. While visiting the deathbed of Yashida, the
Japanese industrialist who knew Logan during dark days past, his healing powers
are drastically impaired by Yashida’s strange physician, Dr. Green, who also
happens to be a rather nasty mutant known as Viper.
At
Yashida’s funeral, an attempt is made to kidnap Mariko Yashida, the
granddaughter and surprise heir to the Yashida empire. Suspecting the yakuza assassins are in league
with her somewhat disappointed father, Logan and Mariko go underground. However, the anti-hero mutant just isn’t
shrugging off shotgun blasts to the gut like he used. At least, he still has the claws and the
temper, which are considerable.
Nevertheless, he will need a bit of help from Yukio, a mutant orphan
adopted by the Yashida family to serve as Mariko’s friend and confidant.
Wolverine works surprisingly
well, because most of the time it is not operating as a superhero movie, but as
a blend of the yakuza and ninja genres.
No longer immortal, Logan follows the tradition of other noir gaijin
hard-noses, like Robert Ryan in Sam Fuller’s House of Bamboo. The claws
versus swords fight sequences are well staged and have real stakes. Unfortunately, the film makes a tactical
mistake in the third act, veering into Iron
Man territory not in keeping with up-close-and-personal hack-and-slashing
tone it had so nicely established.
Regardless,
The Wolverine has a real
ace-in-the-hole in the person of supermodel turned thesp Rila Fukushima. As the trusted Yukio, she shows gobs of
screen presence and wicked action chops.
Frankly, many fans will want to see her and Logan walk the earth
together, “like Caine in Kung Fu,”
but the franchise seems to have different plans for the future (judging from
the stinger-tease).
Tao
Okamoto (another model) is also quite engaging as the dutiful Mariko, but
probably Royal Shakespeare Company and Lost
alumnus Hiroyuki Sanda is the most recognizable face after Hugh Jackman,
bringing Shakespearean heaviness to the homicidal father, Shingen Yashida. Although clearly comfortable with the
character by now, Jackman admirably digs into this grittier detour into
mortality. On the other hand, Will Yun
Lee (so good in Witchblade and the
cool b-movie Four Assassins) is
woefully under-utilized as ninja-protector Kenuichio Harada, while Svetlana
Khodchenkova’s Viper is a bland standard issue super-villainess.
