Returner
Returner
R | 17 October 2003 (USA)
Returner Trailers

A young woman from the future forces a local gunman to help her stop an impending alien invasion which will wipe out the human race.

Reviews
Palaest recommended
SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling
Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
nnclark Kaneshiro always seems to bring a different type of element to every movie he appears and Returner is no exception. Given the movie as ongoing action, but for the slow parts, he really lets his characters conflict show through and expresses it as effectively as possible. Especially with his interactions with the female lead, Milly which also helps lighten the mood when things get a little too intense.It was surprising to see that the actress that played Milly was a young teen girl while she acted roughly like she was in her later teens early twenties. But her maturity in certain scenes did seem to change every so often.
Enchorde Recap: A young teenage girl, Milly, travels almost a hundred years back in time to save mankind from a losing war against the invading aliens Daggra. Her mission is to kill the first alien that set foot on earth, and thereby stop the invasion. She lands in the middle of a shoot out where a lone gunman takes on a whole criminal gang. The gunman Miyamoto is out for revenge for what the crime lord, Mizoguchi, did when Miyamoto was just a kid. But Mizoguchi gets a tip of the alien craft and wants to get his hands on it. And suddenly Milly is not so sure that it was the aliens that started the war, but she is sure she got a common cause with Miyamoto. If she only could convince him about that too… Comments: A good sci-fi action with emphasis on action. Most of the story plays out in 2002 and is a conflict between Milly and Miyamoto on one side, and Mizoguchi on the other. Because of it there are few aliens and little future technology featured, and the story could almost be any action movie at all. Unfortunately it doesn't stand out anything, it is a solid action but little more.Because of it, it is a movie that is fun to watch once, but that is enough. You can expect to be entertained, with some nice choreographed fights as a highlight, some good explosions but unfortunately just an average story as foundation. Therefore it doesn't become much of it. However, this is still proof that good action doesn't necessarily need to come from Hollywood.And just a tip, on my DVD there was a preset dubbed English version. Change to the Japanese audio with subtitles instead and you will be spared some horribly out of sync dialog.6/10
OrinLynn First off, lemme say that normally I don't watch Japanese films. Not that I don't like the Japanese but I saw King Kong...I watched House Of Flying Daggers and immediately took a liking to Takeshi Kaneshiro's acting style. I knew nothing about him and decided to do some searching.I have to admit that the main reason I bought this film is cause of Kaneshiro holding a gun and dressed in tight leather pants and a trench coat. However, I was genuinely surprised when I really liked the movie.Takeshi Kaneshiro is definitely very good as the gun slinging Miyamoto but Anne Suzuki as Milly was more than a match in talent. The kidding around that goes on between Miyamoto and Milly is cute but they are able to kick some serious butt as well.*BIG SPOILER* I nearly bawled my eyes out when I realized that Milly wasn't going to come back and save Miyamoto.... only to find out I was wrong! *END BIG SPOILER* People say that it takes from a lot of other American action films but I saw this as more of a homage than anything.The only warning is, if you watching it in English the first time, watch it again in Japanese (with subtitles if you want). The English dubbing makes the characters lose a lot of feeling and it's much better in it's original form.I really loved this film. There was a lot of action but not so much that you turned off to what was happening in the rest of the film.I give it a 10.
disdressed12 Ritana aka Returner,is a Japanese action,sc/fi adventure.its basic premise is that Milly,a young girl from 82 years in the future,goes back in time to 2002, to prevent an interstellar war.she eventually recruits a man named Myamoto to help her in her quest.There is another small subplot in the movie as well.there is plenty of action,sometimes over the top,as well as some light comedy.the movie is slow for the first half and pick up by act 2.the violence is no more graphic than any north American film.there is very little foul language.there are some ludicrous situations in the movie,but again no more than your typical American movie.some time however,it feels a bot low budget.you almost feel as if you are watching a sc/fi TV show.it is however,at least from the 2nd act on,an entertaining diversion. 6/10