The versatile, prolific and erratic oeuvre of Takashi Miike has more trash than treasure in it, but when a glistening gem comes to the surface, it’s usually a beauty. So it is with Shield of Straw, a swiftly-paced crime drama focussing on a team of trusted police officers escorting a murderous paedophile across Japan.
Miike keeps the story moving with multiple changes in transport modes and several stunning set pieces
Three months after his seven-year-old granddaughter is raped and murdered, aging media magnate Ninagawa (Yamazaki Tsutomo) offers a billion Yen to anyone who can kill the alleged perpetrator, Kiyomaru Kunhide (Fujiwara Tatsuya). The impact of the reward turns a sizeable slice of the Japanese population into potential killers. So isolated and exposed is Kiyomaru that despite having recently emerged from jail for an earlier sexual offence, Kiyomaru turns himself into Fukuoka’s police headquarters for his own safety. Unfortunately for Kiyomaru, the danger is scarcely lessened by being in custody; many police are just as tempted by the huge reward as the rest of the Japanese population. In response to the wave of vigilantism, Prefectural and National police forces co-operate to assemble a team of its most trustworthy officers to escort the accused from Fukuoka to Tokyo.
Head of the team is prematurely widowed Tokyo detective, Mekari Kazuki (Osawa Takao), who is an embodiment of the honourable Japanese tradition of fairness and etiquette as well as being a crack shot. His rival on the Tokyo force, Shiraiwa Atsuko (Matsushima Nanako), an expert markswoman, is also selected. The duo are paired with Prefectural cops, hot-headed Sekiya Kenji (Ibu Masato) and his more even-tempered mentor Okamura Takeshi (Kishitani Goro).
When an airport mechanic sabotages a plane, the group decide to move Kiyomaru via an armoured vehicle surrounded by a many car-deep convoy. However, this not only attracts unwanted attention, but the wall of police vehicles has the unwanted effect of providing a cover for maverick officers who wish to take the law (and the reward) into their own hands.
Working from a novel by Kuichi Kazuhiro, adapted by Hayashi Tamio, Miike keeps the story moving with multiple changes in transport modes and several stunning set pieces including a bullet-bouncing shoot-out in the corridors of a shinkansen train and a Duel-like attack by a rampaging truck.
A cornerstone of the film’s tension is Fujiwara’s malevolent performance as the paedophile. Swooningly sweet-faced and carrying an air of vulnerability, Fujiwara also convincingly communicates the predatory nature of his sickness and his lack of empathy about anything beyond his own needs and desires.
While Fujiwara offers a unifying persona to fear and despise, the film also creates an air of mutual suspicion as it becomes apparent that one of the quartet of protectors is secretly leaking their location and vehicle information to media magnate Ninagawa. Ninagawa then uses the information on his media outlets to incite the Japanese population to attack. The observant will realise relatively early as to the identity of the traitor, but Miike keeps things moving so fast that the knowledge does little to impede the plot’s momentum or the film’s enjoyment. Shield of Straw is a confronting crime thriller that strikes at the heart of the dysfunctional desires that lurk underneath Japan’s ordered surface. And it cracks like a whip.
