Aoshiman (Oda Yuji) does his maverick-like thing and gets busy solving crimes in Wangan in Bayside Shakedown 3.

Onda, Waku and Aoshima (Fukatsu Eri, Oda Yuji and Ito Atsushi) ham it up for the camera again in the Japanese box office hit, Bayside Shakedown 3.

Things aren't going so well in the Wangan station for Aoshima and Onda (Oda Yuji and Fukatsu Eri) in Bayside Shakedown 3.

Japan is feeling the financial pinch just like everyone else, reports Elizabeth Kerr.

You can tell the world has truly been globalized when the exact same illness that plagues Hollywood is plaguing a mature film industry half way around the world. The industry in Japan is, like Hollywood, dividing itself into haves and have-nots, with the ultra low-budget surviving the current financial climate and scrapping away like it always does, and the ultra high budget doing just fine. The middle ground, also known as the majority of Japanese filmmaking though, is suffering. Financing is hard, and getting people to see your film is even harder.

Add to that a (some say) dearth of interesting filmmakers. Until recently, Japan had been the traditional cinema powerhouse in the region. It had all the money and for a long time it seemed, all the talent. Not so anymore. With the exception of Miike Takashi, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, Sabu, and Kurosawa Kiyoshi - as far as big ticket names go - the Japanese industry has been waning in the prestige factor for some time.

With little notable up and coming talent and the associated creativity that goes with it (the industry could be dead if it weren't for the pinku eiga industry), the Japanese, like the Americans, have taken to pilfering from themselves to guarantee audiences and generate revenue. Manga has always played a major part in Japanese film entertainment, but the success of the massively popular 1997 television series Bayside Shakedown was followed by a film version, which went on to become one of Japan's biggest cinematic hits. The next time the industry saw a domestic hit, it was with Bayside Shakedown 2, which grossed a shocking 10 billion yen and now ranks one of the highest grossing Japanese films in Japan of all time.

So guess what? The Wangan crew has been dusted off for another kick at the can in Bayside Shakedown: Set the Guys Loose, and distributor Toho is likely pleased as punch - as are the television station, advertisers, and other sponsors that usually make up a big Japanese budget. In its initial summer release in Japan, the film pulled in over 1 million yen in its first few days, and was projected to cross that magical 10 billion yen line too. In a cinema-going market that ranks second only to the United States, this is pretty exciting.

And now, once again, we have everyone's favorite bayside detective Aoshima Shunsaku (Oda Yuji, freakishly not looking much older than he did seven years ago), promoted to section chief of major crimes. He's saddled with a boatload of cases all at once, including a bomb threat, a hijacking, a serial murder, something to do with a cyberstalker, and last but not least, a hostage crisis involving his colleagues at the old precinct. There's really not much more to it. The original series, enjoyable though it was, was not paragon of whip-smart writing and innovative television - in any language. This third film follows a tried and true formula with Oda doing his boyish charm thing and solving the crime just in the nick of time.

BS:STGL's roots as a TV series show, in pacing, acting, and direction. There's lots of well-timed crescendo-ing music, eyeball bugging, and other good stuff often associated with J-dorama. But the story (detailing the multiple plot threads is either a waste of time or spoiler-laden depending on your point of view) is rote at its worst ... and no one's going to care. No one goes to a Bayside movie for challenging crime drama. They go for fun, to see the detective with the best hair in the world in action and telling off bad guys while being oddly polite about it. This is fantasy material at its finest.

And as such, it's not surprising that it's been such a hit at home and probably will be here too. BS:STGL is the antithesis of every gritty urban crime thriller to come from (definitely) Hong Kong, most of Europe, and the US for the last decade or so. It's bright, even at night, and even when it gets "serious" it's extremely difficult to feel anything close to anxiousness for our heroes. This is angst-free stuff all the way, and given that things are so miserable in Japan these days, it's easy to see why a little escapism is going such a long way.

Director Motohiro Katsuyuki returns for the third time and the franchise (and that's what this cash cow property has become) is in good hands. There's no flourish, no fancy swooping camera work, no excess of shaky handheld work. Motohiro knows the characters every bit as well as the actors do at this point, and manages to pull a boyish yet somehow more mature, performance out of Oda - one that suits the passage of time, on screen and off. Too often television producers and filmmakers forget that the characters and we, the audience, have aged and the silliness of the series and early films doesn't quite work any more. To BS:STGL's credit, it subtlety acknowledges that time, without every getting too heavy and dragging in unwanted subtext. The big story remains Aoshima's fractious relationship with his squad and the rigid system he's compelled to work in.

In the end it's about the yen the Bayside brand is worth. In a tough market (Hollywood 3D blockbusters are eating away at audiences for Japanese films the same way they're eating everyone else's audience) the venerable cop shop has proven an enduring favorite - that works overseas as a bonus - and as such it wouldn't be at all shocking if a Bayside 4 went into development some day. Assuming Oda can maintain his youthful looks. We don't want to feel like that much time has passed.

Bayside Shakedown: Set the Guys Loose opened in Hong Kong Thursday.

(HK Edition 10/30/2010 page4)