Shield of Straw

A high concept action movie which unfortunately never delivers what it should have. An old guy offering one billion yen as a reward for killing the murderer of his granddaughter and a small team having to escort him to Tokyo? Sounds like tons of action! Well... the main problem is that there isn't that much going on. The occasional clash is there but not as much as you would expect especially since the GPS location is published on a website. There is a lot of repeated exposition and too many plotholes which is a bummer. It comes down to the question of weather it's worth protecting a scumbag like that or not and well: the Japanese sense of honor. It's certainly a very commercial Miike on display (you can't tell that it's him). I'm eager to see how his first english feature will turn out. With Tom Hardy in the lead it will certainly put him in the public eye in the west - which he deserves after making that many awesome movies :o!