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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Space Travelers (Supêsutoraberâzu/スペーストラベラーズ-2000)

Space Travelers
Starring:
Takeshi Kaneshiro - Nishiyama ("Hayabusa Jetter")
Eri Fukatsu - Midori ("Irene Bear")
Masanobu Ando - Makoto Fujimoto ("Black Cat")
Hiroyuki Ikeuchi - Takamura ("Dragon Attack")
Sawa Suzuki - Kimiko Fukaura ("Gold Papillon")
Masahiro Komoto - Takahiro Shimizu ("Karl Hendrix")
Teruo Takeno - Shintaro Kurasawa ("Electric Sunny")
Koh Takasugi - SAT Taicho
Shigemitsu Ogi - SIT Taicho
Isao Nonaka - Det. Arai
Yozaburo Ito - Det. Nishikawa
Seiko Takada - Band manager
Toshio Kakei - Koichi Fukaura ("Hoi")
Jovijova - J-Six Babys
Chikara Ishikura - J-Six Babys
Meisui Kinoshita - J-Six Babys
Satoshi Sakata - J-Six Babys
Tomoharu Hasegawa - J-Six Babys
Magy - J-Six Babys
Shinji Rokkaku - J-Six Babys
Jin Nakayama - Sudo
Guts Ishimatsu - Shoda
Ren Osugi - Tsuneda
Masatoshi Hamada - Kiyoshi Nonomura
Ken Watanabe - Sakamaki ("Crusher")
Masayasu Kitayama - Officer
Bokuzo Masana - Officer
Naoto Kokaji - Toyoyama
Maiko Shobu - Momoe Kimura
Runa Ito - Minako
Kikuyo Saito - Atsuko Kikushima
Aki Hoshino - Yukari Unno
Megumi Ujiie - Moe Susuki
Miho Ogata - Ayana Nagata
Tatsuro Hoshiyama - Danshi Kouin Amemiya

To be able to finally realize their childhood dream, 3 young men plan to rob a bank. Nishiyama, the leader, Takamura, a very self contained guy and Fujimoto, an otaku obsessed by an anime called Space Travelers. Their plan is very simple, enter the bank at the closing time, take the money and leave within 5 minutes. But unfortunately for them, their plan got screwed. Not able to reach the money and surrounded by cops, they are stuck in the bank. They then decide to use the remaining customers and staff as hostages to gather some time to plan an escape, but they soon realize that an escape is almost impossible.

With the time passing, the hostages begin to sympathize with the three robbers and decide to help them. Nishiyama gets an idea that could help them, try to fool the police into thinking that they are more than what they are in reality. They will all decide to personalize a member of the favorite anime of Fujimoto and call the whole group The Space Travelers. Strangely every one has a character that really correspond to their personality and they will soon begin to develop a real association to their character, forgetting their own personality, as they all begin to be more active in the new improvised band of bank robbers. This matter doesn't help the police at all, confusing them even more as they try to solve that delicate hostage situation. -- KFC Cinema

This here movie was really, really, really good. It's a little corny at the beginning and I mean that in a good way.


The guys are 3 orphans who were raised in the same orphanage and through it all became close enough to actually being brothers. They start the movie out as amateur bank robbers. Sort of like bumbling fools but as the story moves on you can't help but fall for their kindness and naivete. With no intention of hurting anybody, they just wanted enough money to get away and find a paradise they couldn't find in their lives living in the town or city they live in.


As the hostages and the robbers get to know each other, they form a bond and realize that they all have the same dream of becoming something better or becoming someone better than they are. You can't but feel the comraderie between them all and the willing sacrifices they make.


But every bad deed doesn't go unpunished. Once the cops find out that there was a bank robbery in progress, the bank becomes surrounded. Rumors fly and the situations outside the bank become unstable and tense. Here is where the movie starts to take turn from comedy to a drama of serious proportions. At once seemed like a game now becomes a crime.


The hostages are willing to help the robbers escape but how can they when every single person from every emergency squad are called in. As the story comes to a close, my heart aches for every single character especially the 3 main characters, the bank robbers. Hopeless, abandoned, and feeling unwanted as children they strived to make their own way to find their own paradise but all this comes with a high price.


What I thought would be a funny comedy to start my day off on the right foot left me grieving for the 3 orphans who struggled in this harsh world and I prayed they found their paradise. *Oh gosh.....tears are forming now. Again!*

Ikeuchi Hiroyuki
Ikeuchi Hiroyuki

Kaneshiro Takeshi
takeshiTakeshi KaneshiroTakeshi Kaneshiro
takesh

Masanobu Ando
Ando MasanobuAndo MasanobuAndo MasanobuAndo Masanobu

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