Another blind buy, I was under the impression that ‘Top Knot Detective’ was going to be just some random Japanese sci-fi samurai flick. Something with just the right level of crazy to help while away 90 or so minutes this memorial day weekend.

It is in fact a bit more involved than that. This is in fact a mockumentary coveirng the cultural phenominon that was ‘Top Knot Detective’ and its spiritual sister show ‘Timestryker’ 2 shows that ran between 1988 and 1992 in Japan before scandles, rumours and even grimmer topics forced it off the air…where it would remain for around 10 years until, randomly, VHS quality copies were broadcast on australian television leading to renewed interest in the series.

through the documentary we learn about the origins of the show, we get first hand accounts of life on set from surviving cast members, we explore the companies that promoted the show, the scandles that took it off (and returned it) to air. and a chunk of the film is dedicated to trying to hunt down the ‘Top Knot Detective’ Himself ‘Takashi Takamoto’ who dissapeared under mysterious circumstances shortly after the show was cancelled in 1992.

Now, as a bit of an achillies heel, reviewing documentary (and by extension Mockumentary) is not my strongest suit. But what I can say is that this one really pleasently suprised me. the pacings a little on the slow side, and I think the core concept just about overstayed its welcome by the time of the end credits. But he journey through these two shows history is very well handled, the humour is fantastic across the runtime, and despite it not ACTUALLY being a japanese crazy sci-fi samurai picture, theres enough clips of our cast doing crazy Japanese sci-fi Samurai picture stuff that it still scratched the itch.

A lot of the footage in this film is on mixed formats, and I think they handle the direction of the archive media superbly, quite honestly, for the first 10 or so minutes of this film I was truely wondering if this show really had existed. they that accurately copy Japanese television from the late 80s and early 90s…With only a handful of CGI moments ultimately pulling it out of place.

The cast all come across as genuine and belivable, and given the budget and scope. I was honestly really quite impressed with just how accurate to ‘talking head’ nostalgia docs this thing managed to get iteself.

An absolute must watch if you enjoy asian cinema, Toei style ‘Kamen rider’ serielized shows or just love a bit of strangeness. I had a really good time with ‘Top Knot Detective’, and its definitely one I can recommend.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/top-knot-detective/