A wolf in sheep's clothes is still a wolf.
Set in an alternate history of Japan, Constable Fuse (Michael Dobson) is part of an elite special forces unit known as the Capital Police whose mission is to maintain peace during a time of civil unrest. Battling with guerillas deep within the underground tunnels of the city, Fuse encounters a young girl armed with explosives. Hesitating to the stop the girl, the terrorist triggers the explosive killing herself and injuring Fuse. Sent for retraining, Fuse searches for the reason behind his and why her image continues to haunt him. Upon a chance meeting with the terrorist's sister, Fuse becomes entangled in a web of intrigue and politics between the Capital Police, the government intelligence bureau, and a secret society known as Jin-roh - the Wolf Brigade - with the lives of those he cares most at stake.
Special Agent Matti
The cold war.
Jin-roh is a story about small cogs in a very big machine. It is also about politics played at the most deadly level, where people are simply cogs in a big machine. The reason I say it's like the cold war (between the USSR and the West) is that it captures the brutal pointlessness of the political game and the utter hopelessness of the pawns. The exemplar of that state (this century) is the spy games played between the various intelligence agencies, to the point that words like "friend" and "enemy" have no real meaning.
To that extent, Jin-roh will have little appeal to the action freak: there is a little but it is as much a metaphor for violence as it is a violent end. You will need to be able to enjoy the less popular emotions, like angst, betrayal and sadness, in order to enjoy the film. It's a cerebral thing.
On the technical side, the animation is a little jerky and the human motion is stilted, an annoyance to anyone who has become familiar with the computer generated smoothness of Hollywood. Just as annoying are the American voices issuing vaguely from the direction of Japanese mouths, but it's a choice of American voices of American subtitles, which is no choice at all. That said, the soundscape is awesome. Anyone who is interested in sound should see it just for that aspect.
All in all Jin-roh is worth seeing, almost but not quite up there with Metropolis.
MA 15+ (Medium level violence)
98 minutes (1:38 hours)
Film: 24 October 2002 - WA
Film: 14 November 2002 - NSW
Film: 5 December 2002 - VIC
DVD retail: 7 April 2003
DVD rental: 18 July 2007 - Special edition
DVD retail: 18 July 2007 - Special edition