Fly with the Gold / 黄金を抱いて翔べ / Ogon O Daite Tobe

Industry hack Kazuyuki Izutsu brings a workmanlike efficiency to caper film,  Fly with the Gold. It’s a classic setup. A team of robbers makes plans to steal the gold from the big bank. Along the way there are some issues and problems and when the big heist happens there’s cool efficiency countered with several Snafus, but ultimately the good/bad guys get away. Izutsu was smart enough to cast Fly with the Gold with a couple of A-listers, Satoshi Tsumabaki and Tadanobu Asano, a couple of good character actors, Kenta Kiritani and Toshiyuki Nishida, and a couple of heartthrobs, Junpei Mizobata and Shim Chang-Min. The fact that they’re basically a bunch of amateurs and that one (Chang-Min) is a North Korean spy gives the romp a certain frisson. When the break-in happens, it’s all by the numbers. Not that it’s badly directed, but tearing pages out of Dassin’s or Melville’s books, the film doesn’t reach beyond.  For solid, if slightly uninspired dumb fun, Fly with the Gold, works. Plus, lots of things get blown up!

Originally published in EL Magazine, November 2012.