22 Apr 2009

252 Signal of Life

Director: Nobuo Mizuta

Language: In Japanese with subtitles

Starring: Ito Hideaki, Uchino Masaaki, Takayuki Yamada, You Kashii, Yuichi Kimura

Release: 2009-04-22

252 Signal of Life is such a dumb and cheesy action film, it makes The International (see review above) look like a potential Oscar winner.

Directed with supreme idiocy by Nobuo Mizuta, 252 Signal of Life tells the story of a group of rescuers from the Tokyo Fire Department who are dispatched to save survivors trapped in subway station after a giant tidal wave floods the city's underground network. Faced with an impossible mission, the rescuers do some of the stupidest things possible - so stupid, in fact, that we'd rather you see them for yourselves.

Indeed, if we had a dollar for every time an audience member at the press screening laughed at the stupidity of the rescuers, we would have enough to pay for a weekend getaway in Langkawi for the entire Fridae office.

This is bad, bad, bad. Director Nobuo Mizuta should be hanged by the reels of his film.