Tokyo Revengers

Adapted from the Weekly Shonen Magazine manga of the same name, Tsutomu Hanabusa’s Tokyo Revengers is an action-packed high-school drama featuring time travel, gang rivalry and a love story. The same day that 20-something loser Takemichi finds out that his high-school sweetheart and her brother have been killed, he’s pushed in front of a subway train. But instead of dying, Takemichi winds up 10 years into the past. With sprawling gang fights, a twisting narrative, odd hairstyles and a heavy dose of humour, the film is a feast of fantastically frenetic storytelling.

‘Tsutomu Hanabusa is one of those Japanese directors, like Takashi Miike and Keishi Ohtomo, who has specialized in this type of adaptation, with his prowess being quite visible in Tokyo Revengers, both in context and in cinematic terms. To begin with, the presentation of going back in time to change the present is one of the best ever to appear in a movie, particularly since Hanabusa manages to make it appear logical, without any ridiculous hyperboles, even in this sci-fi setting. Furthermore, through these elements, the concepts of friendship, love, regret, second chance, and the way small choices can actually affect the whole lives of people, are rather well communicated, even if through a subtle, secondary approach.’

Panos Kotzathanasis – Asian Movie Pulse