Asian Film Review: "Ballad" (BALLAD 名もなき恋のうた, 2009)

On my flight up from HK I watched a DVD rip on my iPad of a 2009 Japanese film with the unimaginative title "Ballad".  It's mostly Family friendly fantasy fun about a kid who gets magically transported back in time to feudal Japan's warring states period. In addition to marveling the locals with his modern gadgets, he also befriends a Samurai played by that guy from SMAP (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, aka the other guy from SMAP) and the local princess he secretly loves (I guess that's where the 'ballad' part comes in).

Eventually the kid (and his parents who also go back in time to find him) get caught in the middle of a love triangle inspired war between this kingdom and the next one over...  who put a siege on their castle with a much larger force.

Lots of 'gee whiz, look at this amazing future technology' scenes with a backdrop of historical bushido stuff.  Think of it as a PG rated remake of 'GI Samurai' or ' Heaven's Soldiers'.

This "Bi-ru" stuff is amazing!

Really?  dual overhead cams?  where do I put the straw? There was a decent amount of action and violence considering the earlier adolescent focus of the story. Personally as a fan of Japanese castles and their related battles, I found this climatic battle pretty cool and it's nice to see a Japanese period piece with a decent budget for the first time in a while!

Of course it's a bit frustrating to see them not fully utilize the power of having a modern SUV on the battlefield when everyone else is running around with pointed sticks and flags tied to their back, but it's obvious that this wasn't meant to be that kind of movie! :-P

Entertaining enough even if it is pretty cheesy at times with the comedy and love story elements. 6/10