Review: Jun-Roh, The Wolf Brigade

[jeriendhal]

In an alternate mid-50's Japan, where the nation was occupied after "The War" by Germany, [1] a fascist government on the verge of a breakdown of public order creates the "Capitol Police" a unit of para-military cops equipped with primitive powered armor and heavy machine guns to fight the ongoing rebellion. One of these police, Constable Fuse, finds himself shaken after a young girl detonates the explosives she was smuggling right in front of him, vaporizing herself and leaving him pondering why such a girl would do such a horrific thing.



Though it is beautifully animated, with a dark and moody pallette and a very film noir feel to it's gradually unraveling onion of multiple plots and conspiracies, at the heart of things Jun Roh is an extended riff on "Little Red Riding Hood", with Fuse as the hidden wolf, and a poor girl masquerading as the sister of the dead bomb smuggler as Red. And like the original Brothers Grimm tale, it does not end happily. Remember that going in and you should be all right. But if that isn't your thing you're likely to be annoyed.

Also, the Nazi-inspired powered armor is more of a gimmick than a plot point. It's actually used very sparingly and in a more or less realistic manner during the movie, as it's limitations are pointed out glaringly in a training exercise. It serves to terrorize its opponents, not to serve as the ultimate weapon (though against unarmored opponents it's fairly devastating.)

Oh, and one more thing about the animation. Lots of it (especially the riot at the beginning of the film) appears to be rotoscoped. Except in this case (unlike Ralph Bakshi) the animators actually knew what they were doing. The characters are drawn very realistically, to the point where this is one of the few anime where the Japanese characters actually look Japanese rather than stylized out of any ethnicity at all.

[1] It's a bit confusing as to which war is being referred to in the movie. Judging from the armor and weapons shown it would appear to be Nazi Germany, except that seems problematical given how wildly unlikely even an alternate "Nazi's Won" universe Germany could cross the Pacific to take the country. More to the point, why would they ever give it back? I'm guessing a more likely scenario is that Japan was occupied after WWI (or maybe even the Russo-Japanese War), and then left on it's own afterward.

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Since Japan was on the winning side in WWI, a post-WWI occupation implies a very different world (Or maybe they guessed wrong and allied with the Central Powers).

I kind of like the idea of an ATL where the events leading up to the Sinmiyangyo play out very differently and Korea modernizes as Japan did in the 19th century. Not only is there no Treaty of Ganghwa but Korea briefly occupies all or part of Japan at one point. Probably an unworkable timeline, though.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I rather like that last one as well.

Further review of the beginning info-dump seems to indicate that Germany dropped it's own atomic bomb on Japan at the end of WWII. Which still doesn't answer why they'd turn on an ally like that (or what's happening in the rest of the world.)

Otherwise Japan's history follows the RW post-occupation timeline more or less, with massive industrialization and social disorder from far left groups. In this case the latter spiraling out of control to the point of the massive riots that cause the creation of the Capitol Police.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Not that Korea didn't modernize in OTL.