Friday, July 17, 2015

In Brief: Strayer's Chronicle (2015) Japan Cuts 2015

From director Takahisa Zeze who's Heaven's Story played at Japan Cuts in 2011 come STRAYER'S CHRONICLE which is based on Takayoshi Honda’s best selling novel about an X-Men like team battling for the future of mankind.

Actually the film concerns two groups of super powered young people. One group was created by traumatizing the parents of the future off spring so the stress hormone would make the children open to limitless adaption. The other group was genetically engineered. The stress created group works for a government agency while the engineered group wanders around free after escaping. The two groups eventually collide and join up....

I'm not sure what else to say. The film is kind of there. More character driven then action driven the film doesn't really have a plot line as plot pencils. Things happen and then are kind of pushed aside for other things. The short life span of the kids gets a great deal of play. The X-Men moniker is there because of the super powers and the guy in a wheelchair but the comparisons end there. The X-Men are all action, these kids are just angsty kids who mope around until they fight - I don't know to what end since the reasons behind it all really aren't there.

The film plays Sunday as one of the final films at Japan Cuts and while it's not bad, I wouldn't go out of my way to see it unless you're a big fan of the book or X-Men like stories. (You'll be fine when this hits home video)

For more information on the Japan Cuts screening go here.

(The film also plays August 2nd at Fantasia in Montreal- for info on that screening go here.)

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