Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

During a violent riot in an alternate 1950’s Japan, Kazuki Fuse, a member of the elite Keberos Special Unit, fails to kill a young, female terrorist bomber, who in turn kills herself in front of him.  Removed from duty, Fuse encounters a girl named Kei, sister of the girl who died before his very eyes.  As a bond develops between the two, Fuse seems to question his place in the Special Unit.  All the while, a plot is brewing to eliminate the Keberos and Fuse may be the key to making this a reality.  Torn between duty and love, Fuse must chose the path of a human or the path of a beast.

Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade is another brainchild of the brilliance that is Mamoru Oshii.  Actually, it’s the third feature in his often overlooked Keberos Saga, following two live action features-The Red Spectacles and Stray Dog: Panzer Keberos Cops.  And while Oshii himself doesn’t direct the film (he did write the screenplay), Jin Roh still bears much of his signature storytelling.  Factor in some amazing talent from Production IG and you’ve got a very classy, if a little confusing, Anime feature of the very mature variety.

When I say mature, im not just talking about the subject matter. Visually, this film is as close as Anime gets sometimes to a live action film.  It actually wouldn’t shock me if Oshii initially wanted Jin Roh to be a third live action film in the Keberos Saga.  In lew of that, there looks to be a lot of time spent in making the alternate 1950’s setting look as legitimate as possible.  It’s not Ralph Baskhi rotoscoping, but the world and characters feel very lifelike.  There are other Oshii-isms that pop up here and there in the production.  The slow camera pans across long city streets echo Patlabor or Ghost in the Shell.  And while it may not be Kenji Kawaii composing the beats, Hajime Mizoguchi (Co Composer on The Vision of Escaflowne Soundtrack with Yoko Kanno, both the series and the movie), gives a sweeping score that’s thought provoking, incredibly intense and at times, pretty scary.  Oh and the action?  For a poster with a bad ass soldier on the front there’s very little but what there is, wow its brutal.  Bullets fly not in a manner of overkill but rather being incredibly thurough.  Much like Red Spectacles or Stray Dogs, whenever someone dons the Keberos Armor, whoever gets in their way isn’t living to tell the tale about their encounter.  The way Fuse stalks his prey in the sewers is very wolf like, fitting of the title, and his execution is almost like that of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator.  And yet that isn’t the scariest moment on the film, more on that in a moment.

So Jin Roh looks and sounds incredible but how does the story, a more or less real world look at the old Red Riding Hood tale, work for the movie?  Well, it’s both fascinating and a bit of a hinderance.  For what it’s worth, the screenwriters aren’t playing Disney adaptations with the Grimm Fairy Tale.  It’s a bold, hard look that isn’t afraid to play with the subject matter in unexpected ways.  I said above that the scariest moment of the movie isn’t how Fuse kills his enemies, but rather it’s a nightmare he has about a wolf pack mauling Kei to death.  Kids stuff, this movie is not.  As powerful as that scene might be, it is hindered by the fact that the movie tends to bombard you with the parallels between Fuse and Kei and the Wolf and Red Riding Hood of the Grimm Fairy Tale, albeit with an older, more romantic approach.  The first couple of references are fine (Fuse being the Wolf and Kei being Red Riding Hood), as are the few made during the films finale (when Fuse the Wolf is finally unleashed), but the middle portion is where things get a bit repetitive when they need to be moving at a brisker pace, not weighed down by nods.  Also, maybe it’s just me but Fuse feels so cold and detached sometimes its strange to think of Kei ever being interested in him, her being such a free spirit, though with a morbid fascination with real world truths.  Maybe that’s the point?

And then there’s the political drama.  Jin Roh takes place a couple of decades before The Red Spectacles and Stray Dog.  While you don’t need to see those two films to enjoy this one, there is a sense of set up going through each scene involving Fuse’s superiors.  This leads to a very complex, cat and mouse game between two rival groups.  We do get to a point where we find out one side has been playing the other all along but it all feels sometimes like it belongs in it’s own film, whereas the doomed romance between Fuse and Kei could have been its own.  The political side is kind of interesting, maybe not Clancy level interesting but it fits with other Oshii tales.  And in the end, the two plotlines do converge to give a very effective and solid finale.  Still, the mix isn’t as strong as it could be.  Thankfully, the film is pretty enough to keep interest where the story does falter.

Jin Roh is considered a classic by many and I will agree to that.  In an age where ones common take on Anime is either over the top violence or zany adventures, Jin Roh offers mature storytelling with a hard, real world edge that rivals most Hollywood film projects.  The story might not be tight but the animation, music and action are all top notch and then some.  Having seen the other two films in this series, I can say Jin Roh is my favorite as I did think Red Spectacles and Stray Dog were kind of boring.  Jin Roh always had my interest from beginning to end, even in the slower parts and bits that left me confused.  I’d recommend giving it a watch.  If Akira showed the world what Anime was capable of pushing the limits of the imagination, Jin Roh is a good example of how even Anime can make the real world feel more real than it already is.

8/10