Watch Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade For Free

The Age of Commercialism

Overrated and overhyped

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

When the ending credits rolled on, I thought: 'Wow, a thriller which ain't over the top.'I was very impressed, though some loose ends were imminent, but I suppose that was because the producers wanted the viewers of concentrate on the characters rather than the setting around them. The art was very modest for an anime (which I found nice), I'm rather sick of anime movies where they rely heavily on characters whom use goofy looks and exaggerated voices to express emotion. I've also seen many movie revolve around fairy tales and fables but not as well as the situation in this one does. The original story of Red Riding Hood portrays the deadly game played by both terrorist and police forces and how the two main characters Kazuki and Kei are stuck in the middle of this seemingly hostile relationship between the two organizations. An impressive feat. The movie never had any dull moments yet wasn't over the top. This an achievement many thrillers still need to master. A superb job.

This was one of the best animated movies I have ever seen, with possibly the best animation ever (Japanese characters looking Japanese, people looking different from each other, breathing, having little human quirks, and truly wonderful urban landscapes); the story, motivations, noir/western touch of the ending etc. were also great, but such unobtrusively vivid animation I have never seen before. In addition to everything, it was one of those movies one likes to think about after having seen them, because there are many ideas and meanings yet to be discovered. It also seems to be a movie built in such a way that each further viewing will be very different from the last one, because each time, by the end of the movie, one has discovered new sides of the story that will change the meaning of the next viewing from the beginning...*Big Fat Spoilers from now on* It is important to underline that this movie is not a retelling of "The Little Red Riding Hood" in a modern context; it is a story by itself, using the Riding Hood tale to clarify elements of the plot and character features. The point of interest is not to see an updated version of the folk tale, or to see how the tale can also fit in a modern surrounding, but to use the folk tale in order to help us understand the story of the movie. Our reactions are not "oh look, there's the wolf! and there's the mother! and there's the path of pins! yes it fits, the story can be applied to a modern world!", but "the story is connected to this movie, so he must be the wolf, so the girl had always been in the presence of the wolf, she was never in the presence of the man she was in love with (the mother in the tale)!". The French tale is molded to, or chosen in order to explain the Japanese story, like a (rich and meaningful) analogy, not the other way around, like a retelling. And the way various elements of the tale were used in order to express a new story was extremely well done, as good as the way in which Leone used various elements from old westerns in order to create his "Once Upon a Time in the West". And there's another big source of inspiration used by Oshii for this movie, just as well integrated within the main narrative...What we see in this movie is a young wolf going through a rite of passage and becoming a full-grown beast. Him having visions of the various girls being chased by wolves was not him "being afraid of the beast inside", but him knowing that the beast was inside and will devour the girl, yet getting on with it because that was the only thing he knew to do.The way I saw it, this was not a movie with a message, it was just a movie that presented a story – the story of a man who was actually a wolf in human skin, and whose only place in the world was within his pack, no matter how bitter this may have tasted at times. If you want it (and, from what I saw on forums, some people really want it), it may be a movie about what it is to have an inner nature, or a prescribed social role that cannot be betrayed, but not more.I have also read somewhere that Oshii's constant preoccupation concerns "the beast that hides in the human heart", but I disagree. On the contrary, I think that he is interested more to investigate the weak, sensitive, human, warm spots that linger in the heart of the beasts, as it is the case with Motoko, Ash, Yuichi, and definitely with Fuse (though, in his case, we witness the lingering humanity flickering and dying). Anyway, in his movies, the beast is usually the first thing we see, so it is not something that could be said to be hiding. There are lots of "Vertigo" allusions in this movie, which I had not spotted until I saw a passing mention of Hitchcock's flick somewhere on this forum; and my jaw dropped – of course! The love-with-complications part of the story follows almost step-by-step the plot from Vertigo – woman being spotted by man while standing – purposefully! – by the grave of someone very reminiscent of her, her being by sent by somebody else to seduce a certain convenient male for ulterior reasons unrelated to the two of them – they were both meant to be bare pawns, her fulfilling her role even though she falls for the male, male realizing the trap and using it to counter-manipulate her, now insensible to her feelings, all ending up with him causing her death / killing her directly; there's also a "man being scarred by woman dying in front of him" part in both movies, but in Jin-Roh it takes place differently; oh and Jin-Roh also has a protagonist psychologically scarred by a sequence that takes place in the beginning of the movie, and the people behind the female decoy use precisely this psychological damage in order to fulfill their trap. And none of this is in anyway "remake-ish", because the pieces of the puzzle are being mixed up and used to build a completely different story, like I said about Leone and his "Once Upon a Time in the West". Besides, I missed completely the "Vertigo" during the movie, which can only mean that they were really well embedded in the story, and that the story was powerful enough to not get engulfed by its own sources. The "Vertigo" discovery pretty much settled it, the flick is a 10/10, the first time I go to 10 for an animated movie since I saw "Samurai Champloo", "Mushishi" and "Texhnolyze" two years ago.

One of the best film I've ever seen and one of the more readable ones from Oshii.The difficulty in reading seems to lie in the post-war history of Japan, which is hardly known to people except its economic growth.The detailed history I myself is not very clear yet. The story is mean to project the period around 60s or early 70s, when Japan still has a large group of extreme left wing "communist" activists. That is what "red hat" really are in this movie. Under American's help, the government managed to give them a bad fame among the public. They also used some secret army (the one which the hero stays) to fight against them. On the other hand, as left wingers starts to vanish, the army itself become a problem. Some politicians would like to create some scandal to clean them out. I think that is the start of the story: an abandoned army from government and a group of activists who are considered as terrorists.

Jin-Roh is a complex, brooding and dark film, and is probably not suitable for those who love Japanese Anime. For those of us who prefer quality films and who aren't fussed about Anime, the film is brilliant.The film is neither science fiction nor fantasy. It is set in an "alternative history" post-war Japan during the 1960s - but a Japan that is increasingly fracturing between leftist terrorists and the brutal tactics of a secretive and powerful police force.In the midst of this is Fuse, a member of the elite "Kerberos" Special Unit - a heavily armed counter-terrorist force that is feared by terrorists and hated by ordinary citizens. Fuse, humiliated by a mistake made in the line of duty, begins a strange yet alluring relationship with Kei. Their relationship intertwines with forces that seek to destroy the Special Unit and those that are trying to protect it.The most recognizable visual element of the film are the faceless members of the Special Unit. Protected by armour plating, these men wear Nazi-style helmets with breathing apparatus and glowing red night vision goggles. They are armed with MG42 belt-fed machine guns that can rip human beings to shreds. They are like walking tanks.Like a lot of Japanese Anime, there are occasionally moments of brutal, bloody violence but these are never gratuitous. It is not an action film, but rather a drama in which action plays a vital, but not dominant, role.One warning though - the film has an unexpected ending that will not please many viewers, but one which, when the film is taken as a whole, is entirely appropriate.