Review: Mobile Police Patlabor 2 the Movie

The War That Broke Out in a Japan Relaxed by a Fictitious Peace

The second installment of the Mobile Police Patlabor theatrical films is a serious political drama distinct from its predecessor. Produced and released in 1993 after the bubble economy burst, it captures the atmosphere of the era immediately following the enactment of the PKO Cooperation Law. It depicts a “war” that serves as a cold shower for a nation numbed by peace. Issues like the presence of U.S. forces in Japan and public indifference toward overseas wars remain strikingly relevant to contemporary Japan. Thirty years on, we revisit both the unchanging nature of “this country” and the intense passion of the animation’s attempt to rival live-action realism.

■Synopsis

1999. A Self-Defense Forces labor squadron deployed to a Southeast Asian nation as part of a PKO mission is ambushed and annihilated by local armed forces. Defying orders prohibiting firing, the squadron leader survives alone. After returning to Japan, he vanishes from public view.

2002. The Yokohama Bay Bridge, closed to traffic due to an anonymous bomb threat, explodes before the eyes of onlookers. Television footage capturing that moment showed a small image of an Air Self-Defense Force fighter jet. Was the incident not a terrorist bombing, but an accidental missile launch by a Self-Defense Force aircraft?

As the entire nation was thrown into turmoil over this incident, a man named Arakawa from the Ground Staff Office’s Special Investigation Unit appeared before Nanami and Goto of the Special Vehicles Division 2nd Squad. According to him, it wasn’t a Self-Defense Forces aircraft that attacked the Bay Bridge, but a U.S. military aircraft. It seems the original intent was merely a military threat against Japan, a nation grown complacent in peace. The actual attack wasn’t planned, but someone manipulated the information to trigger the missile launch.

A man named Tsuge emerges as the figure behind the incident. He was someone with whom Nanami had a deep-seated grudge…

■Impressions/Review

The second theatrical film in the Mobile Police Patlabor series. While technically a sequel to the previous film, the Patlabor media mix — spanning OVA, TV anime, comics, theatrical films, and live-action adaptations — seems to have slightly divergent worldviews. Consequently, this film, while appearing to extend the previous one, actually exists on a different timeline.

Released in 1993, this film is now 32 years old. When the first theatrical film debuted in 1989, Japan was deep in the bubble economy. By the time this sequel arrived, the bubble had already burst. Yet many Japanese still believed the recession was temporary. This film unintentionally captures the essence of people lingering in the intoxicating afterglow of the festival, unaware that the grand celebration had ended.

Movies are always about “this very moment.” Whether intentional or not, great filmmakers inevitably capture the spirit of their times in their work. As time passes, that spirit dissipates, yet those who lived through that era can’t help but sense it in the film. This isn’t limited to movies; it might be the same for TV dramas and pop songs.

For this film, the “Self-Defense Forces’ participation in PKO” was unquestionably a motif that captured the attention of that era. This was because Japan had dispatched its first ground Self-Defense Forces unit the previous year, following the enactment of the PKO Cooperation Law. Debates surrounding PKO participation have long since become ancient history. Yet, the Japanese public’s indifference to wars overseas and their lack of awareness regarding the privileged status of the US military in Japan remain unchanged even now, over thirty years later. The “peace-addled Japan” depicted in this film remains exactly as it was back then.

Yet what feels most contemporary about this film is the ambition and obsession with animation pushing the boundaries of live-action expression. It was precisely this obsession that allowed Oshii’s works from this period to exert such a powerful influence on filmmakers overseas. Could AI video achieve that?

(Japanese Original Title: Kido-Kesatsu Patlabor 2 the movie)

United Cinemas Aqua City Odaiba (4 screens)
Distributed by: Filmarks
Cooperation: Bandai Namco Filmworks
1993 | 1 hour 53 minutes | Japan | Color
Official Website: https://patlabor.tokyo/news/1621/
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124770/