A woman with the power to start fires with her mind searches for revenge for the murder of her friend by men above the law.A woman with the power to start fires with her mind searches for revenge for the murder of her friend by men above the law.A woman with the power to start fires with her mind searches for revenge for the murder of her friend by men above the law.
Hisashi Yoshizawa
- Kouichi Kido
- (as Yû Yoshizawa)
Norman England
- Surprised Man in Restaurant
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- ConnectionsReferences The Human Vapor (1960)
Featured review
Interesting variation on "Firestarter" and "ESPY"
"Firestarter" we all know that one even if you haven't seen it. A girl who can control fire is used and persecuted because of her special powers. "ESPY"? That's an obscure one. It's a 1970's Japanese film about an elite team of telekinetics who fight an evil cult of telekinetics who are trying to enslave mankind. Shusuke Kaneko, who turned the laughable Gamera kaiju series into possibly the best giant monster movies ever made, reaches into the Japanese movie genre box and comes up with an entertaining if flawed "B" movie.
Simply put, the plot involves a woman with pyrokinetic powers who is on a quest to destroy a gang of sociopaths who torture and kill young woman. She comes under the protection of a mysterious man with different telekinetic powers who receives orders from someone else. Along the way we follow two oddball police detectives as they try to capture the gang and figure out who is crisping the gang to death.
Convoluted is a nice way to describe the twists and turns of the plot. There are a couple of scenes that don't make sense within the story. Some of the plot requires you to accept absurd coincidences and make ridiculous leaps of faith. The film "ESPY" had the same problems but as a movie it had a energy that made the problems go away while you watched it. Unfortunately, "Pyrokenesis" is not done that way, it's paced for a standard crime drama not a crazy action film. But overall it is very watchable.
Why? The characters are almost all very interesting and the actors are all very good. The female detective is a funny character. You wouldn't think it but cramming a half a dozen different film genres into the film actually helps it. The special effects are mostly excellent. Kaneko really has a way with special effects and integrating them into his films. The only let downs are the human burning scenes that repeat the same kind of effects over and over. In "Firestarter" every bad guy got burned in a different way.
It's entertaining, not great but fun.
Simply put, the plot involves a woman with pyrokinetic powers who is on a quest to destroy a gang of sociopaths who torture and kill young woman. She comes under the protection of a mysterious man with different telekinetic powers who receives orders from someone else. Along the way we follow two oddball police detectives as they try to capture the gang and figure out who is crisping the gang to death.
Convoluted is a nice way to describe the twists and turns of the plot. There are a couple of scenes that don't make sense within the story. Some of the plot requires you to accept absurd coincidences and make ridiculous leaps of faith. The film "ESPY" had the same problems but as a movie it had a energy that made the problems go away while you watched it. Unfortunately, "Pyrokenesis" is not done that way, it's paced for a standard crime drama not a crazy action film. But overall it is very watchable.
Why? The characters are almost all very interesting and the actors are all very good. The female detective is a funny character. You wouldn't think it but cramming a half a dozen different film genres into the film actually helps it. The special effects are mostly excellent. Kaneko really has a way with special effects and integrating them into his films. The only let downs are the human burning scenes that repeat the same kind of effects over and over. In "Firestarter" every bad guy got burned in a different way.
It's entertaining, not great but fun.
helpful•52
- ChungMo
- Jul 14, 2006
Details
Box office
- Budget
- ¥4,500,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 55 minutes
- Color
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