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"The Big Bee" (TJFF 2016)

Updated: Dec 1, 2018

The 2016 Toronto Japanese Film Festival introduced Yukihiro Tsutsumi’s film “The Big Bee” for its Canadian premiere as it was first released in Japan back in September 2015. This nonstop thriller is based off a novel with the same name by Keigo Higashino.


“The Big Bee” is a film that focuses around the massive drone helicopter that's nicknamed ‘Big B’. In the film, August 1995 marked the complete production of the massive drone helicopter as the first advanced aircraft of its kind. Kazuaki Yuhara (Yōsuke Eguchi), an engineer who designed the helicopter, brought his family to work to celebrate the final product that took long hours away from them. Unfortunately, their family outing spiralled out of control when Yuhara’s son, Takahiko, managed to get trapped inside the helicopter as it’s being hijacked by a terrorist (Gō Ayano). As if that wasn’t enough, the terrorist positioned the massive drone helicopter so that it hovered over the Komaki Nuclear Power Plant in Aichi Prefecture. The terrorist then demanded that all of Japan’s nuclear plants be shut down or the Big B helicopter packed with explosives would fall. This would cause a massive nuclear explosion. With eight hours until the helicopter ran out of fuel, the citizens of Japan had to figure out a way to not only save young Takahiko from dropping to his death but they also had to stop a nuclear explosion from killing them all.


From the start of the film, Yuhara was a man that was dedicated to his work which had unfortunately put a damper on his relationships with his wife, Atsuko (Kei Ishibashi), and their young son, Takahiko. During the eight hour crisis, Yuhara’s priorities truly shifted as he realized what was truly important and what it really meant to fight for something to the very end.


Opposite of Yuhara was Koichi Mishima (Masahiro Motoki), the nuclear power engineer that was called upon to help divert the crisis at hand. Even though Yuhara and Mishima shared a past, that didn’t help calm the tension between them as they were on opposite sides for everything. Whether it was engineering solutions or about how to be fathers, these two men didn’t see eye to eye. The complex mystery behind Mishima only grew as the film progressed but enduring his past had left everlasting scars on him. However through the darkness, there was a light in the form of Akamine (Yukie Nakama) who brought out a more intimate side to Mishima.


With the crisis underway, there were three sets of law enforcement officers at work as they tried to catch the terrorist that was responsible for their current chaos.


At the heart of the crisis, there was Imaeda (Jiro Sato) who was the lead investigator stationed at the Komaki Nuclear Power Plant. Though he was a little anxious with the smallest of noises scaring him, he’s the reliable middleman for those directly working at the power plant to solve how to stop the helicopter and with those who were trying to catch the culprit on the outside.


From the outside, there were Kosaka (Toru Tezuka) and his partner Nomura (Hana Matsushima) who investigated the possible breech at Yukara’s work, the very company who was behind the production of the massive drone helicopter. The partners found themselves playing cat and mouse within the company’s walls as they raced to find the mole before the eight hour crisis window was up.


And finally there was Murofushi (Akira Emoto), an older detective who worked the streets of Japan as he searched for answers on the possible terrorist’s identity. Murofushi was accompanied by his young partner, Sekine (Motoki Ochiai), who was coming into his own as a detective. Together they found themselves in a dangerous situation of their own as they raced to find the missing piece they needed to help stop Big B from crashing.


From start to finish, this film kept its audience at the edge of their seats thanks to the amazing acting from the all-star cast as well as from the musical accompaniment that continued to keep the heart racing throughout the film. Not only did the film provide an action-packed story but it also explored the political ramifications behind the nuclear power industry as well as the struggling relationships for those involved as they tried to survive the terrifying predicament together.

 

Original Title: Tenkû no hachi

Director: Yukihiko Tsutsumi

Writer: Keigo Higashino (book)

Screenplay: Ichirô Kusuno

Country of Origin: Japan

Language: Japanese

Length: 138 minutes

Original Release: September 12, 2015

 

IMDb | Official Website | Official Trailer


Publication Note:

This was published for AsianWave Magazine.

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