Hero (2007) User Reviews (5)

"Hero" is not super but rather ordinary...

[jmaruyama · 6/10 · 4 December 2007]

There aren't that many "talento" in Japan that can genuinely be regarded as superstars but Kimura Takuya is definitely one of them. From J-pop idol (as a member of 90s boy band SMAP) to model, to TV drama hot throb to movie star, "Kimutaku" has done it all. With his boyish good looks, charming charisma and decent acting talents he can easily be compared to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio and has just as many adoring female Japanese fans. And now he can also add the title of "box office king" to his resume as his recent movie "Hero" (the theatrical follow up to his immensely popular 2001 TV drama) dominated the Japanese box office for six consecutive weeks this past month and earned over $70 million in ticket sales to date.

"Hero: Gekijou Ban" (Movie Version) is a sequel to the hit Fuji TV series "Hero" which revolved around the character of Kiryu Kohei (Kimura), a former juvenile delinquent in a rural town in Aomori who turned his life around by studying to become a Public Prosecutor. While he didn't have the elite Todai (Tokyo University) degrees of his peers nor their stoic character, he none-the-less distinguished himself as a caring, honest attorney who despite his unconventional quirks (he refuses to wear a suit and tie in court or to cut his hair) was well respected for his dogged determination, sharp intellect and for never giving up on his clients. In further contrast to his partners, he also had a willingness to take whatever case, however small or trivial.

Along with Kimutaku most of the series' stellar cast returns including fellow Ministry of Justice prosecutors Egami (Katsumura Masanobu), Endo (Yashima Norito), Shibayama (Abe Hiroshi), Suetsugu (Kohinata Fumiyo), Nakamura (Otsuka Nene), Ushimaru (Kadono Takuzo) and boss Nabeshima (Kodama Kiyoshi). Popular J-Dorama actress Matsu Takako is also back as conservative Paralegal Amemiya Maiko who pines for Kiryu but is unable to let him know how she feels, even after six years.

Series director Suzuki Masayuki (GTO, Long Vacation, Shomuni) does the directing duties again for the movie and his visual flair and dramatic storytelling style is once again in full effect. I had a hard time however believing in the complex scandal at the center of screenwriter Fukuda Yasushi's story which involved a mugging incident that went horribly wrong and which surprisingly leads up to a political cover-up involving bribery and intimidation.

Kiryu's latest legal opponent comes in the form of the brilliant former Deputy Prosecutor, Harvard Law school graduate and now high priced Defense Attorney Gamo (great character actor Matsumoto Koshiro who is also Matsu Takako's real life father) who is mysteriously hired to defend the mugging suspect. When the true villain is revealed to be a corrupt politician (portrayed by Morita Kazuyoshi AKA the comedian "Tamori") one can't but laugh. With his trademark sunglasses firmly in place, I couldn't believe Tamori to be the villain even with his uncharacteristic serious character's tone and demeanor (it's like asking Jay Leno or David Letterman to appear in a movie as a villain).

The whole side trip to Korea, while interesting seemed also to be out of place with the rest of the movie. Although I liked seeing Byung-hun Lee (J.S.A.-Joint Security Area) in a small cameo role, it would have been nice if he had more to do. Nakai Kiichi is wasted in his cameo as well as a former client who is serving time in a penitentiary.

"Hero" is basically a movie made for Kimutaku fans. With his cool fashion sense and looks, he carries the film and is its main draw and focus. While he is good in his scenes in court, it's his comedic moments that are the most enjoyable, especially the running gags involving all the "junk" he has purchased through a cable TV shopping network (a "Let's Learn Spanish" set, a torso/stomach exercising gizmo and a balancing exercise device).

Kimura and Matsu have a great on-screen chemistry together and their scenes are fun to watch, especially their brief trip to Korea. Their love-hate relationship is reminiscent of Bruce Willis/Cybill Shepherd in "Moonlighting" although not as cocky.

Abe, Katsumura, Yashima and Kohinata also supply funny comedic moments but it's Masana Bokuzou's "Barney Fife-like" capitol security guard and Tanaka Yoji's mean-looking but good hearted bartender who are the standouts.

As with other TV shows turned movies "Unfair", "Tokyo Friends", "Bayside Shakedown" and "GTO", fans of the TV series will probably enjoy the movie a bit more than non-fans but "Hero" does what it sets out to do and does it competently but don't expect the film to go beyond what was already done on TV.

A Nutshell Review: Hero

[DICK STEEL · 7/10 · 17 November 2007]

Movies based on successful television series are natural progressions to make a quick buck, mainly because of the more instant box office dollars it gets translated to. But what I apprehend the most, is when the approach is to not worry whether non-television series followers would be able to get it, so it decides not to afford the time to explain matters, expecting the bulk of the audience to be coming with background knowledge from the series. When you are one of the series' followers, you'll make camp on the side to forgo previous cinematic time on explanation so that the pace does not get slowed, but if you are not, then you'll probably cry foul, not that you don't get to enjoy the movie though, but are lusting after a more complete experience.

For example, the X-Files movie requires pre-requisite knowledge, as did the Japanese movie Mushishi. But there are some which still managed to only require the most basic level of understanding, and to use a Japanese reference, I enjoyed the Bayside Shakedown movies tremendously. Did I enjoy Hero? Sure, but there were enough moments in the movie where you can't help but want to pull your hair in frustration, especially when it comes to bit appearances by minor characters, whom you'll most certainly deem important enough to warrant significant subplot time in the narrative.

Hero is similar to structure with Bayside Shakedown, in that on the surface, it contains one major plot, with the rest of the supporting subplots inevitably linked to the one big one, thereby giving reason for the ensemble cast to exist. Takuya Kimura, whom we last saw as a samurai in Yoki Yamada's Love and Honor, returns to his 2001 television role as Public Prosecutor Kohei Kruyu, a devoted go-getter who is unorthodox in his ways (aren't they all?). Assisting him is his trustworthy legal clerk Amamiya Maiko (Takako Matsu), and together they take on a rather routine open-and-shut case involving manslaughter, especially with a written confession provided. But there's more than meets the eye to the supposedly simple case, and soon enough, they find their legal battle spiral to involve scandals of government officials, and have to go up against a top legal eagle who used to be on the payroll of the Public Prosecutor office.

Bayside Shakedown provided some criticisms to the police system, highlighting the struggles and battles between the bureaucrats in the department, and those on the beat handling day to day, routine and sometimes mundane police work. I thought Hero could have upped the ante if it debated on the judicial system, providing some insight on how things work rather than just a basic introduction. It lapsed into moralistic viewpoints should this be a perfect world with perfect systems, and very often reminded the audience that Justice is Blind with the frequent shots of a statue of Justice holding up the scales.

But not everything's serious and full of legal jargon and mumbo-jumbo. Credit has to be given in weaving a more than compelling investigative and legal drama, with romantic tension between Amamiya and Kohei, as well as plenty of comedy. Those television sell-a-vision ads are so funny they are a highlight in the movie (I'm not sure if these are regular features in the television series?), and it managed to work into its narrative an explanation of its absence for 6 years since the television series ended, and the characters naturally being aged. Familiar to me in this movie are the actors Hiroshi Abe and Korean actor Lee Byung-hun, who has so minor a role (combined screen time of less than 5 minutes), I'm not sure why the trailer had to hype about it, rather than to keep it a guessing game (is he? or isn't he?).

However, that is not to say that Hero is a bad film. It still offers decent entertainment, especially for those who are fans of the many stars it has in its ensemble, and for those who like this genre of legal investigative movies. Recommended.

Justice and Grievances - Review of "Hero" (2007)

[kampolam-75813 · 6/10 · 22 January 2023]

In 2007, Japan's top-grossing local film "Hero" (2007) is a film version adapted from a TV series, starring popular idols Kimura Takuya and Matsu Takako. TV series is very popular in Japan, and it's the most popular TV series for Kimura Takuya. In TV series and film, Kimura Takuya plays a prosecutor Kohei Kuryu who isn't afraid of power. His attitude of pursuing truth and justice is highly admired by Japanese audiences. In addition, Japanese political figures have been plagued by scandals and corruption. People are heartbroken by the government and politicians, it's rare to meet Kohei Kuryu justice, a meticulous and ideal-seeking prosecutor on a TV series, to express grievances for the public.

The film version may be a little "ready" for audience who haven't seen the TV series. For example, Kohei Kuryu's fair colleagues, including Maiko Amemiya played by Matsu Takako and Mitsugu Shibayama played by Hiroshi Abe, have their own personalities and story in the TV series. The film focuses on Kohei Kuryu and Maiko Amemiya to track down a case of manslaughter by a young man, because the young man was involved in a corruption case of a former Minister of Transportation, the former Minister invited a famous lawyer who used to be a prosecutor to defend the youth.

The film went further to South Korea to shoot on location, and also invited Korean star Lee Byung-Hun to make a cameo appearance. The exchange of two Japanese and Korean superstars on the same scene is only the focus of the news, and it does not have much effect on the film. On the contrary, the film is quite thoughtful in playing foreign languages, such as Maiko Amemiya's Korean notebook and Kohei Kuryu's Spanish CD, both play a role, and the ending scene has a special meaning for fans of the TV series.

The judicial system in Japan is different from other regions. "Hero" only uses prosecutors to tell the story of justice, without much exploration of the system itself. On the contrary, Masayuki Suo's "I Just Didn't Do It" (2007) borrows a case of underground indecent assault is used to explore the problems of the Japanese judicial system, and the film won several Japanese film awards. It seems that the Japanese themselves have varying degrees of appeal for justice.

By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)

A successful film adaptation

[ethSin · 9/10 · 21 March 2008]

FujiTV's HERO aired back in 2001 is my favorite conclusion-per-episode dorama series of all time and I had an extremely high expectation for this movie. Long story short, it met and exceeded my expectations, unlike the SP aired in 2006.

What I love most about this movie was that after 5 minutes, it felt like I was brought back to the world of HERO dorama series. This movie was directed well enough for cinema, yet it retained all the great qualities we HERO fans are familiar with from the TV series. A lot of dorama SPs (including the HERO SP) and movie adaptations have failed in this respect, and many others failed to make it to silver screen standards (i.e. GTO, Saiyuuki, even 1L no Namida felt like a made-for-TV SP) but HERO staff succeeded in this movie where so many others failed. The producers of this film didn't forget about the fans by providing some information for unanswered questions from the dorama series and SP, and connects the stories in dorama, SP, and the movie in a convincing manner.

All the main character's funny habits still makes me laugh, and the interactions between Kuryuu and Amemiya were great as usual. The chemistry between all the main cast was perfect even after all these years. It must be this bond that united ALL the original cast even after 6 years, in which time Abe Hiroshi has become a major presence in Japanese cinema, yet still returns in supporting role.

The cast in this movie is absolutely incredible, with KimuTaku, still popular as ever; Abe Hiroshi, as mentioned; Kohinata Fumiyo, who has also become a major presence in cinema and TV, though still in supporting roles; Ayase Haruka and Nakai Kiichi in same character as SP; Matsumoto Koushirou, multiple-award-winning stage actor, 9 years since his last film appearance; Tamori, the great MC of Wratte Iitomo and Music Station, 17 years since his last film appearance; even Korean actor Lee Byung-hun and many other recognizable faces in supporting roles.

Not only did this movie made me laugh and was a star galore, there were also many moving and inspirational scenes. The story was very well-written and it was very well-directed. The ending completely caught me off-guard. I absolutely loved the dorama series' leave-the-rest-to-your-imagination ending, but the movie ending was just as good, surprise ending fitting for this great franchise. The only thing I didn't like was the lack of Utada Hikaru's "Can You Keep a Secret?" as theme song (understandable, but it felt like something was missing), and a few unnecessary scenes to recreate the greatest scenes in the dorama series.

I've seen MANY dorama series and movies since HERO in 2001, but watching this movie once again reminded me that Kuryuu Kouhei is one of the greatest character ever created by Japanese live-action writers. I recommend watching the entire dorama series before the movie. It's definitely worth your time.

Nice Entertainer with excellent cast!

[giteckm · 10/10 · 13 January 2016]

Hero (2001) series - It is must watch for Kimura Takuya fan. The character that he plays Kohei Kuryu is an eccentric prosecutor who visits the crime scenes to solve his cases unlike other prosecutors who take care of their cases in office.

Initially disliked by his colleagues,he eventually influences them and wins their heart.

The way he handles each of his cases is note worthy. He is assisted by his paralegal Maiko Amamiya who is very serious about her job and doesn't believe in dating. She initially hates Kuryu for his mannerisms,dress and his love for buying bizarre items from infomercials and the home shopping network. But as the series progresses she eventually starts liking his company and falls in love at the end.

This drama is not a hardcore serious legal drama. Rather it is light and has lot of comic relief.The other prosecutors in the office have their own stories and the way they interact makes it fun to watch.

Watch it if you want a light entertainer. Watch it for Kimura Takuya. He looks effortless in portraying his character. Also I must admit,he is handsome.