The Chasing World review

I had high expectations for THE CHASING WORLD. After watching the trailer, I was hoping that this movie would contain some cool scenes of parkour. Parkour is an activity involving moving from one point to another as quickly and efficiently as possible. In CASINO ROYALE, parkour was shown during the foot chase sequence involving the two cranes.

THE CHASING WORLD (Riaru Onigokko) is about a teenage boy Tsubasa Sato who is adept at running and dodging rival gangs and bullies. He is drawn to a parallel universe where a ruthless dictator orders a deadly game of tag for seven days. The king wishes to capture and kill everyone named Sato because he wants to be the only person with that last name. The king dispatches troops with weird looking leather masks to hunt down all the Sato’s. The troops are “It” and equipped with GPS and a wire knife, in case any Sato struggles in an attempt to escape before they are loaded into a van. Tsubasa discovers that when someone dies in the parallel universe then they die in his home universe. As the numbers dwindle, the lethal game of tag becomes more difficult as there are more hunters per Sato. Tsubasa is forced to team with some familiar faces from his own universe in order to survive the game and unravel the king’s plot.

My problem with this film is that there wasn’t enough chasing scenes to whet my appetite. For a movie titled THE CHASING WORLD I assumed that there would have been longer sequences involving vaulting over obstacles or jumping off of buildings. The chases that they did film were spectacular as the empty streets of Tokyo provided a great backdrop for the running duel between hunter and prey. Although the hunters dressed silly, they were eerie at the same time.

I think that the filmmakers tried to legitimize a story that was structurally weak and confusing. The explanation behind the game and king’s motives didn’t make much sense. I have a feeling that the novel written by Yusuke Yamada might have contained more substance. The concept to make a really good movie was there, but the execution failed. It should have been a faster paced, adrenaline pumping movie instead of being bogged down by a convoluted story.

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