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Cast/Crew
Japan
script
Ryoichi Kimizuka
cast list
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 y Lover is a Sniper" is the third part in a
series that started with two TV movies that proved popular enough to warrant
a feature on the big screen. The movie stars Miki Mizuno ("Bayside
Shakedown 2") as Kinako, a police Detective who, in the first and
second installments, investigated a string of sniper deaths that,
unbeknownst to her, were being committed by one Wong Kai Koh (Uchimura
Teruyoshi), who at the time was living with her as a house guest. Long story
short, Wong was apprehended, and that's where "My Lover is a
Sniper" Episode 3 picks up.
The film opens with a brief recap
of the previous two installments, narrated by Kinako during her morning jog.
It's a good thing Miki Mizuno is a very fit woman, because soon her
character is running all over town trying to catch a sniper who is picking
off the city's populace from rooftops. The sniper claims to be a member of
the gang that the incarcerated Wong was once a part of, and demands a hefty
payday or he'll keep killing. The Prime Minister balks, forcing the sniper
to take his blackmail public, where he asks the public to send him money in
return for their safety. The sniper, a clever bastard, sends anyone who
sends him money a "talisman" that exempts the wearer from being
shot.
Without any clues to go on, the police spring Wong
from a Chinese prison in order to use his knowledge of the sniper, a
former protégé of his, to catch the gum-chewing psychopath. Or actually,
that's how the movie starts out, because soon Wong's old gang springs him
from the Japanese prison. It seems the sniper quit the gang years ago, and
is now tarnishing the organization's name by associating it with the
blackmail scheme. Apparently being an assassins guild doesn't quite mean
you're ruthless and without honor, because the gang wants Wong to find the
sniper and take him out. Wong is more than happy to oblige, since he
doesn't want his beloved Kinako to get blood on her hands before her
wedding day to a police Captain. Will Wong and Kinako rekindle their
romance? Or better yet, where's Dirty Harry Callahan when you need him
most?
Plot-wise, "Sniper" is all over the place,
indulging in great leaps of logic unsupported by anything in the movie, as
well as some gargantuan plot contrivances that pop up out of nowhere to
help move the film forward. In one scene, Wong sort of just knows who the
mastermind behind the killings is, and proceeds to enter the mastermind's
office, inside a high rise -- and, one presumes, guarded -- building at
night with no resistance. Later, Kinako joins him after shooting a man
and, apparently, walking in the rain all night so that she's still soaking
wet when she appears at the office door.
That's another thing about "Sniper". Characters just sort of beams in and out of buildings as if by magic, and
you can never figure out how they made it out of certain situations (like
springing a prisoner out of a police department's basement, or somehow
appearing outside a police building after you just shot someone inside
the building) but,
well, they just did. Later, with about 30 minutes left and the movie's
idea of a police investigation basically consisting of Kinako running
around the city and the police department getting absolutely nowhere, plot
logic once again takes a back seat to the upcoming end of the movie. As a
result, Wong and Kinako magically show up at the killer's next sniping
position because, well, the movie needs to end soon, and the final action
sequence needs to take place about now.
Yes, "My Lover is a Sniper" really is as
illogical and random as it sounds.
Besides needing to guard their police buildings and
jail cells more efficiently, the police in "Sniper" are quite
inefficient. Even Kinako has to walk around lugging a big black purse with
her. Or maybe we should be more concern with her wardrobe, which consists
of a white long-sleeve shirt and black slacks for the entire film. I guess
the police just don't pay enough for two wardrobes. Although she's
chasing a sniper who can shoot her at any moment, Kinako never has a gun
anywhere near her. That is, until the second half, when she's required to
have a gun because, well, the script calls for her to have a gun handy at
this point in the movie. I believe this is plot contrivance #451.
At almost two hours, "My Lover is a Sniper"
is much too long, leading to some dull moments that just don't go
anywhere. As mentioned, the police investigation is completely fruitless,
as the cops don't seem to do, or seems capable of solving, much of
anything. Of course the fact that the police investigation is going
nowhere doesn't really matter, since the film has tons of moments of
sudden, out-of-thin-air revelations. In fact, they even telegraph the
identity of the criminal mastermind from a mile away. The actor mind as
well have, "Super criminal mastermind" tattooed on his forehead
when we first see him.
On the plus side, one of the film's few clever,
tongue-in-cheek elements is that the villain requires the citizens of
Japan to wear a "talisman" that marks them as having paid his
ransom. The talisman turns out to be a big yellow button with the word
"Peace" written on it. According to a character in the movie,
the original purpose of the buttons was to protest the American invasion
of Iraq. Which, if you didn't catch it, makes the peace emblem rather
ironic, since it's now the symbol of appeasement by the Japanese people
toward the killers/snipers. Whether the film meant it to be or not, one
could translate the button as a poke in the eye of people who thought
appeasing Saddam "The Butcher of Baghdad" Hussein was a good
idea.
If you can look the other way when "My Lover is
a Sniper" throws the umpteenth improbable plot contrivance at you,
then the final 30 minutes is rather entertaining, involving a series of
sniper duels between Wong and the villainous snipers. Meanwhile, Kinako
goes after the rest of the gang by her little lonesome. (I guess calling
the rest of the police force for help was just too much trouble.) This
proves to be a poor choice by Kinako, especially since she's still
suffering from having to kill a man earlier, and can't bring herself to
use her gun again. It's lucky for her, then, that the bad guys decide not
to use their sniper rifles -- they are, after all, snipers -- and
fight her hand-to-hand instead. Man, she sure is one lucky gal.
If it isn't obvious by now, not a lot about "My
Lover is a Sniper" makes sense, people do some strange and
inexplicable things, and the script isn't worth the paper it's written on.
(At one point a character is clearly shown shot and killed, but pops back
up at the end of the film because -- well, he just does. Go with it.)
Still, there are some entertaining bits, and Miki Mizuno pulls off the
physical parts quite well. And for the most part the action-packed second
half does make up somewhat for the humdrum plotting of the first hour,
which keeps itself from being a complete waste only because actress Miki
Mizuno is really appealing.
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