Fantastic Fest 2009: ‘K-20 The Fiend with 20 Faces’ Review

Heikichi Endo is a circus performer, magician and all around good guy, and soon he’s going to have his entire life changed. K-20: The Fiend with 20 Faces is a super hero adventure movie from Japan that’s very much in the vein of Batman, Zorro and The Rocketeer. It takes place in an alternate 1940s where World War II never happened and now a class system rules all of Japan. You’re not allowed to change jobs, and it’s against the law to marry outside of your class system.

This world has spawned the super thief K-20, a fiendish villain who’s hell bent on destroying the class system by stealing a large energy generator invented by Nicholas Tesla to use as a weapon. K-20 is known for possibly being anyone because he’s a master of disguise. He uses this to trick our hero Endo into taking photographs of a engagement ceremony, and framing him as K-20.

With everyone on the planet thinking that Endo is K-20 he must learn all the tricks of the master thief in order to stop his plan, and clear his name. This is where the movie excels at taking the simple super hero origin story and putting a fun twist on it.

K-20 is a lot of fun. I really don’t want to give any real details away because of how awesome it was. So far this was one of the most enjoyable experiences here at Fantastic Fest. It’s just good clean fun and one of the better Super Hero films I’ve ever seen.

There’s always a mystery as to who K-20 is through the entire film and that’s part of what makes the movie so damn good. There are several suspects in question, and trying to figure out which of them is K-20 is just a blast.