Review of MW (movie)

Title: MW

Official website: here

Review of the preceeding SP: here

Original manga by: Tezuka Osamu

Movie's screening date: 4 July 2009

Total running time: 129 minutes

From the time I watched the SP way back in 2009 till now when I finally watched the movie, I can't believe that it took me 3 long years before I could lay my hands on this film. The film was originally marketed as one which was revealing some taboo topics rarely discussed in Japanese film so I have no idea if this affected the distribution of the film in any way. At that time, I mentioned in my review of the SP that there were lots of things which were unknown about Yuuki Michio (Tamaki Hiroshi) and MW which I hope would be answered in the movie. However, it was disappointing that the movie fell short of my expectations and didn't turn out to be as good as I thought. Nonetheless, there were still some bright spots about this film which I would still like to highlight.

However, before I begin, let me state that I've not read the manga before and the brief outline of the manga's story and what MW means are the results of the research I've done about the original material online.

Although the name MW actually refers to a biochemical weapon developed by a foreign military force (in the movie, this was represented by the US military forces), there were a number of different theories online as to what the letters stood for. One theory was that Yuuki was depicted as a guy who sometimes posed as a female and prostituted himself while committing his crimes thus it was said that MW meant "Man & Woman". On the movie's official website, there is another definition i.e. "Mad Weapon". In the novel version, Karai had defined MW as "Monster Way" in reference to how Yuuki had evolved after inhaling MW. Whatever it is, there seems to be no single answer as to what MW stands for.

In the manga, Yuuki Michio is an elite bank employee who was born in a distinguished family within the kabuki circle. However, behind his distinguished and refined image hides a criminal self who is responsible for a number of crimes involving those who were responsible for his plight. Whenever he commits a crime, he would seek solace in his longtime friend Karai Iwao who's a pastor at a church. Besides their friendship on the surface, the two men also maintain a sexual relationship and they usually sleep together when they meet.

Long ago, Yuuki had paid a visit to a southern island Okinomafune when he was a boy and had been kidnapped by a group of delinquents who had also visited the island at the same time. Karai was a member of the delinquent group and had raped Yuuki when the latter was abducted. Later on, the leakage of MW (a lethal biochemical weapon developed secretly) from the military base of a foreign country caused the deaths of the islanders and Yuuki had unfortunately inhaled MW as well but survived the ordeal. When they both grew up, the tables were overturned because Yuuki now calls the shots in his relationship with Karai. It also turns out that Yuuki and Karai are the sole survivors of the MW leak since the military had conspired with Japanese politicians to hide the matter and dispose of the bodies of those who died at Okinomafune.

With his heart, body and health badly affected by the Okinomafune incident, Yuuki vows to take revenge on all those who were responsible and kills them one by one. In the end, he lays his hands on MW and wants to bring the world along on his path to destruction but Karai tries to stop him in order to prevent further harm done and in a last-ditch attempt to save Yuuki...

Unfortunately, the movie failed to capitalise on such an intriguing storyline and felt like a half-baked attempt at conveying the controversial themes e.g. homosexuality, serial killing, violence and warped relationships. The first 30 minutes of the film felt like a really good and intense action thriller especially when the police detective Sawaki was chasing Yuuki along the streets in Bangkok as the latter was orchestrating a kidnap and ransom retrieval exercise. Of course, being so early on in the story, there was no way our villian would get caught so easily so that means Sawaki wasn't able to arrest him. However, when Yuuki reappeared in front of Sawaki using his elite salaryman persona, the latter could guess right away that there was something not quite right with Yuuki. To be frank, I was under the impression that if the film had started off so promisingly, surely it wouldn't fare too badly with a sound story structure from Tezuka Osamu?

However, the adaptation of the film was quite different from the manga in a number of ways (the following is based on what's written on Wikipedia) but I will only highlight the key differences:

1) Besides the focus on Yuuki and Karai, another key focus of the story was Sawaki's investigations of Yuuki.

2) Yuuki was depicted as a descendant of a kabuki family with an elder brother while Karai was a teenage gangster. However, this was not the case in the movie because they were described as childhood friends who were raised in Okinomafune instead of being merely outsiders who happened to come to the island.

3) Yuuki was described as someone with a sexual identity crisis and a spontaneous-type of criminal in the manga but owing to the fact that the movie does not mention anything about Yuuki prostituting himself, disguising as a woman nor his homosexual relationship with Karai, he became more like a terrorist-type of criminal who had a childhood trauma due to MW.

4) In the movie, it was said that Yuuki had accidentally inhaled MW while saving Karai thus the latter had viewed him as a saviour. However, this wasn't the case in the manga.

5) Karai was described as someone with feminine mannerisms and felt like a man with a womanly spirit within in the manga.

6) There were new inhabitants on Okinomafune after the MW incident as mentioned in the manga but in the movie, the island was deserted with no apparent monitoring by the authorities.

The biggest issue I find with the movie would be the lack of depth in describing Yuuki and Karai's relationship. Apparently, the reason which this key concept was left out was the controversial nature surrounding their homosexual behaviour which sponsors of the film had objected to. According to a special talk by the director and producer on 13 July 2009, they revealed that Tamaki Hiroshi and Yamada Takayuki had both agreed to act in the homosexual scenes but it was too bad that the film had to cut out such an important part of the story due to the objections.

I don't mean that including controversial themes is a must in all films although this is almost a sure way to attract attention. However, in this story, this actually plays an important part in explaining the dynamics of the lead characters' warped relationship. In the manga, it actually potrays Yuuki as a victim and Karai as an aggressor because the latter had raped Yuuki while they were both on the island. However, once the two of them were out of the island, the tables were turned with Yuuki calling the shots in the relationship and Karai being so submissive and passive. In the film, I simply couldn't comprehend why Karai had to listen to Yuuki because the only apparent reasons why Karai did his bidding was because of the kids in the orphanage (Yuuki might harm them) and the fact that Yuuki saved his life. I also didn't get why Karai seemed so concerned about Yuuki and yet was on the verge of killing him just to make sure he stopped killing people. If there had been the explanation about their relationship, it would have been easier to understand that Yuuki's traumatic experience on the island made him become someone with a twisted mentality and not that MW was mainly responsible for the change in his temperament. It would also have made Karai's anguish more believable because his angst-filled expressions did not seem to be supported by a strong reason. I think that's a pity because the film had the potential to do better in terms of depicting these characters but in the end, I don't think viewers can really understand why they behaved in certain ways.

As for the violence in the film, there were certain scenes which were really gory e.g. Sawaki's subordinate Tachibana was unwittingly killed by Karai because the latter had attempted to tell on Yuuki who then lured Tachibana into his trap of death. On the other hand, the scene where Makino Kyoko (Ishida Yuriko) was shot on Okinomafune was done in slow-motion and I have to admit, she died "beautifully". Essentially, since Yuuki is a serial killer, there are no lack of such murder scenes so you may need to brace yourself for them.

When it got to the climax of Yuuki finally revealing his intention of destroying the world before he dies from the after-effects of inhaling MW, that's when it got boring. The hostage drama at the military base fell flat and was lacking in the thrill factor especially when you compare how well the opening sequence was executed. In short, I couldn't care less whether Yuuki failed or succeeded because I wasn't invested in the film anymore by that time. It was obvious that Karai's ability to survive despite Yuuki trying to finish him off as he was being a hindrance, would have meant that Karai would be able to stop Yuuki this time round, whether or not Yuuki dies. True to what I expected, Karai jumped from the plane with MW into the sea to stop Yuuki from laying his hands on such a dangerous weapon but the latter obviously managed to survive the subsequent plane explosion because Sawaki received a call from this maniac after everything had apparently settled down. Maybe the ending was made this way so that the possibility of a sequel is not written off but honestly speaking, if the story wants to stay on safe ground and avoid challenging the taboo topics in the original material, it might be better not to do it at all.

Coming to the performance of the cast, Tamaki Hiroshi hogs the limelight and it's not just because he is the lead but rather his image and character's personality this time are very different from his usual demure and gentlemanly-type of image in his dramas. He obviously made an effort to train his body to fit the role (that will be a visual feast for his fans!) and he was rather believable as Yuuki who held a grudge with almost everyone and wouldn't bat an eyelid whenever he killed someone. A pity that the film chose to show a more ruthless side to Yuuki rather than potray Yuuki as someone who still had a humane side to him. Although Karai did explain before that Yuuki's personality was altered by MW (not sure how it was supposed to be), it was difficult to sympathise with Yuuki for what he had gone through given how cruel he had become.

On the other hand, Yamada Takayuki tried his best to show the dilemma which Karai faced especially when it comes to Yuuki. He showed a compassionate side of Karai most of the time and it was obvious that he was an unwilling party in Yuuki's scheme. However, Karai appeared too angelic with no apparent fault other than being unable to stand up to Yuuki so I think it was deliberately meant this way to show the contrast between Karai and Yuuki. Moreover, Karai's appearance time was much lesser than Yuuki so it felt like a lopsided attempt to show that these two characters were equally important in the story. In essence, Yuuki represented black and Karai was white i.e. evil vs. good. It might have been better to make the boundaries less clearer and show that there is grey rather than clearcut colours of black and white i.e. these two characters aren't as entirely good or bad. As for Ishida Yuriko, her appearance was largely limited and as soon as her purpose was fulfilled, she was killed off in the film so I think if she had more time to develop her role, Makino would have felt like someone more than a mere link to Yuuki's final goal i.e. locating MW.

And my ratings for this movie...

Story: 3 out of 10 (Too many unexplained questions, loopholes in the story and lack of character depth)

Acting: 7 out of 10 (The main cast members did quite well but they were not able to show a more complete representation of their characters)

Theme song: 4 out of 10 (Didn't make too much of an impression on me)

Visual effects / Scenery: 5 out of 10 (Nothing in particular impressed me but I think the opening action sequence i.e. Sawaki chasing Yuuki along the streets of Bangkok and the shooting scene at Okinomafune were handled quite well)
Teamwork / Chemistry: 5 out of 10 (There should have been more interaction between Yuuki and Karai but the film only showed a lopsided view to their relationship.)

Total: 24 out of 50