Kidô keisatsu patorebâ: The Movie (1989)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Mamoru Oshii

Writers:

Kazunori Itô (writer)
Masami Yûki (comic)

Release Date:

July 1989 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A mysterious suicide and strange robot malfunctions are clues to a devastating sabotage plot that Special Vehicle Unit 2 must stop.

Plot Keywords:

Robot | Suicide | Police | Sabotage | Japan

Cast

Toshio Furukawa	...	Asuma Shinohara (voice)
Mîna Tominaga	...	Noa Izumi (voice)
Ryûnosuke Ôbayashi	...	Kiichi Gotoh (voice)
Yoshiko Sakakibara	...	Shinobu Nagumo (voice)
Yô Inoue	...	Kanuka Clancy (voice)
Michihiro Ikemizu	...	Isao Ohta (voice)
Issei Futamata	...	Mikiyasu Shinshi (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shigeru Chiba	...	Shigeo Shiba (voice)
William Dufries	...	Kataoka (voice: English version)
Lisa Enochs	...	Kanuka Clancy (voice: English version)
Doug Erholtz	...	Asuma Shinohara (voice: English version)
Blair Fairman	...	Sakaki (voice: English version)
Don Fellows	...	Jitsuyama (voice: English version)
Michael Fitzpatrick	...	Hiromi (voice: English version)
Briony Glassco	...	Noa (voice: English version)
Edward Glen	...	Shige (voice: English version)
Daisuke Gôri	...	Hiromi Yamazaki (voice)
Megumi Hayashibara	...	Weather forecaster (voice)
Megan Hollingshead	...	Shinobu Nagumo (voice: English version) (as Karen Thompson)
Tamsin Hollo	...	Kanuka (voice: English version)
Sharon Holm	...	Shinobu Nagumo (voice: English version)
David Jarvis	...	Asuma (voice: English version)
Ron Lepaz	...	Shinsi (voice: English version)
Joey Lotsko	...	Mikiyasu Shinshi (voice: English version)
Mac MacDonald	...	Matsui (English version) (voice: English version)
Peter Marinker	...	Kiichi Goto (voice: English version)
Martin McDougall	...	Ota (voice: English version)
C.J. Mills	...	Yamazaki (voice: English version)
Tomomichi Nishimura	...	Detective Matsui (voice)
Shinji Ogawa	...	Fukushima (voice)
Sam Riegel	...	Isao Oota Noa Izumi (voice: English version) (as Sam Regal)
William Roberts	...	Fukushima (voice: English version) (as Bill Roberts)
Osamu Saka	...	Seitaro Sakaki (voice)
Roger Craig Smith	...	Keiichi Gotoh (voice: English version) (as Roger C. Smith)
Julie Ann Taylor	...	Noa Izumi (voice: English version)

Also Known As:

Mobile Police Patlabor
PatLabor: The Mobile Police
Patlabor 1 (USA) (video box title)
Patlabor: The Movie

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | English | German

Colour:

Colour (Eastmancolor)

Certification:

Italy:T (video rating) | Singapore:PG | Australia:PG | Canada:G (TV rating) | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:Unrated | Finland:K-8

Company:

Headgear

Movie Connections:

Follows Kidô keisatsu patorebâ (1988) (V)

incredible animated movie

Japanese animation has become very popular in the past few years. Somehow, it also gained the notoriety for "extreme" sex and violence, though it's a misconception that all Japanese animation is about that. Yet, animation in general is viewed as a kids only fare.

I recommend anyone to watch Patlabor: the movie. It has a very mature storyline. When I mean mature, I meant well-thought out story that can leave you thinking.

In the future, giant industrial utility robots called labors are used throughout Japan. Those in the law enforcement department use labors called Patlabors (patrol labors). Lately, there are reports of labors running amuck on its own. From this point we follow the heroes in a detective like story.

There are no nudity, violence is pretty tame compared to your half-hour dose of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (a series also a byproduct of Japan, I know but I'm not here to discuss my distaste for the Rangers) TV show. What we have is a straight-forward mystery as the story unravels what is going on. It also explores about man and technology and how it's like the Tower of Babel in biblical literature.

The movie is based on the tv show and comic. I only got to see a few episodes of the show. The movie, like the show, do not have the robots dominating the story, thus focusing more on the human characters. Watching the movie, I almost feel like I'm watching a PG/PG-13 live-action movie. Akira and Ghost in the Shell also have a deep story in them, it's not as involving perhaps they were covered so much cinematic effects (and sex and violence?). Patlabor blew me away in that it successfully simply told an honest-to-goodness story without being covered in so much effects.

The verdict: 5 of 5 stars.