SECURITY POLICE: THE MOTION PICTURE (2010)

In Japanese with English & Chinese Subtitles
Genre: Drama/Action
Director: Takafumi Hatano
Cast: Shinichi Tsutumi, Junichi Okada, Yoko Maki, Teruyuki Kagawa, Satoru Matsuo, Yu Kamio, Toru Nomaguchi, Keisuke Horibe, Kentaro Furuyama
RunTime: 1 hr 38 mins
Released By: GV
Rating: PG
Official Website: http://www.sp-movie.com

Opening Day: 14 April 2011

Synopsis: When Kaoru Inoue (Junichi Okada) opposes Soichiro Ogata (Shin'ichi Tsutsumi), Soichiro makes the cryptic remark "It couldn't be helped. It was for a greater cause ..."

One month later, at an event hall in Roppongi Hills, there is a charity event for landmine eradication. Kaoru does security with Security Police officers Soichiro Ogata, Eri Sasamoto (Yoko Maki), Takahumi Yamamoto (Satoru Matsuo) and Mitsuo Ishida (Yu Kamio). Kaoru Inoue senses a threatening existence and starts to suffer a severe headache and becomes dizzy. When Kaoru was young, his parents were killed by terrorists and that incident has had an traumatic effect on Kaoru since.

Inside the event hall, Kaoru Inoue replies to Ogata calls that everything is fine. The Secretary of Japan then appears on stage and Inoue again senses a threatening existence. Kaoru has a premonition of what will happen in the future. Right after, Kaoru finds a man in a suit holding an umbrella, even though the weather is clear, and starts running towards him. The man approaches the stage and Kaoru is blocked from reaching him by other spectators. Kaoru Inoue warns Eri Sasamoto about the man. As the man attempts to push a button on the umbrella, Kaoru and Eri are able to restrain him and take the umbrella away. The man slips away and runs off.

Kaoru Inoue chases the man to the center of the city and arrests him near the subway platform. The chase was covered by the media. The chief of SP, Yoshiharu Nakao (Shingo Egami), later stares down at Kaoru and tells him a pipe bomb was discovered in the umbrella which could have caused severe damage. Prime Minister Yuzou Asada (Kei Yamamoto) and other higher government officials gave Inoue favorable reviews, but Kaoru, nevertheless, crossed proper protocols and should refrain from such excessive behavior in the future.

That evening, a campaign fund raising event is held in support of of Secretary General Kunio Date (Teruyuki Kagawa). After the fund raising event, the secretary for the Ministry of Defense Takikawa (Takehiro Hira), who was a member of the same university political club that Soichiro Ogata attended at Tokyo University, chief international terror agent at the Ministiry of Foreign Affairs Anzai (Kazuki Namioka), Metropolitan Police Department member Mitsuhiko Kaziyama (Satoru Date) and Soichiro Ogata gather together in a suite room of the hotel with Kunio Date.

There Takikawa tells Soichiro Ogata that its time to perform the plan. Takikawa affirm that the soft landing way pushed by Yuji Nishijima (Kisuke Iida) will not be effective to build up the country. Anzai insists a crisis is needed to change people's values. Kunio Date promises to support them and orders Soichiro Ogata to carry out their plan.

Around that time, Ichiro Tanaka (Toru Nomaguchi) investigates the relationships between Kunio Date, Kunio Date, Kaziyama and the suicide of government official Yuji Nishijima. A few days later, Soichiro Ogata calls Kaoru Inoue at night to the meet at the park. The park was the same place where tragedy met Kaoru Inoue's parents some twenty years ago. Soichiro Ogata begins to tell a shocking truth, while Kaoru Inoue can't understand his intentions.

The next day Soichiro Ogata assigns to Security Police officer in the #4 Security Section an assignment to guard Kunio Date. After guarding Kunio Date that night, the terrorist plot finally begins attacking Kaoru Inoue and his colleagues.

Movie Review:

“SP: The Motion Picture” is the continuation of the successful television drama of the same name, “SP” (Security Police), which fetched an above average television rating. It is also among one of the top dramas in the season, which swept away a total of 3 awards at the 56th Television Drama Academy Awards, namely Best Drama, Best Actor (Junichi Okada of V6) and Best Director. It is thus no wonder filmmaker would take hold of the golden opportunity to propel the commercial success to greater heights to bring in more cash into the pockets.

The film opens with the event at the Roppongi Hills, making an intriguing yet concise introduction of SP as a special line of service and the team to the unfamiliar viewers. Kaoru Inoue (Junichi Okada), the presumably isolated individual, wows the crowd as he sense the terrorist threat with his hyper sensory abilities. It was as though he could foretell the future. As expected of this strong-headed character, it drove him to perform more than what his work entail. The bomb threat is nullified and he goes on to pursue the terrorist which create some drama that follows.

The pursuit is an enthralling one, jam-packed with action. However, it is nothing gratifying. It does not even take an expert to tell that the cuts are rather disjoint and messy, which perturbs one’s viewing experience. The computer generated imagery is so raw that it is jarring; it is not used to its optimum. This possibly makes the cut for an episode of the television drama, but it is not enough when it is projected onto the silver screen. Having it on the big screen will only magnify its weaknesses, which in this case, are entirely exposed. As viewers are getting increasingly sophisticated, such sloppiness is not very tolerable.

The story continues to unfold as the conspirators take action to act on their “revolution”. The director successfully used the contrast of the conspirators and their false fronts at the social event, as opposed to their true selves during their secret meeting. This gave the film a boost as the transition is elegant and viewers get to observe and watch their interactions. Nothing is spelt out exactly, but you get to the truth by taking hints from their non-verbals, and that is the joy of watching it.

In the next arc of the story, the SP team were called up in the middle of the night to perform a special duty to escort the politician to the Prime Minister’s office due to a threat to national security. Expect another round of action sequences as they get hijacked time and time again. Still, as mentioned earlier, these are not gratifying. The action sequences lack adventure. It seem like it is too careful and conscientious, hence evoking little excitement.

As the other members of the SP team gets injured and taken down by the hijackers, Inoue is the only person that follows through the mission and continues to escort the politician. His stamina is stunningly good, so much so that he gets reduced to a two-dimensional character in the movie; another drawback of the movie.

You will discover soon enough that the hijackers’ main target is not the politician, but Inoue who chose to stand by what he believes. As the movie comes to an end, your senses get heightened again as you wonder what happen upon Inoue’s completion of his duty. This provides a cliff hanger to Part II of the movie that is on its way to our shores.

P.S.: Unfortunately, viewers in Singapore are not as privileged as the Japanese who can watch a televised prequel to this motion picture, Kakumei Zenjitsu. Thus we may not be able to grasp the full context and background of the movie. So be comfortable with the ambiguity!

Movie Rating:



(It’s baffling… perhaps it’s the idol formula that brought this film much commercial success. Watch out for Part II if you’re interested!)

Review by Tho Shu Ling