Goemon

Japan's most celebrated and well-known cinematic export is Studio Ghibli, which scored its most mainstream success to date with this year's Ponyo. Yet, much as Japan embraces anime and manga, it also produces some exciting - if slightly leftfield - directors. Kazuaki Kiriya is a perfect example. Once a fashion photographer and a music video director, he is a visual stylist unafraid to let rip on the screen.

After making his debut with the low budget, post-apocalyptic fantasy Casshern, Kiriya returns with a lavish production of Goemon. The story is as close to Robin Hood as Ponyo is to The Little Mermaid; Goemon is a Japanese ninja bandit folk hero who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. The characters may be familiar, but the setting is radically different; here the action is placed in 16th century Japan and both the heroes and villains are superhuman.

Goemon begins specifically in 1582, as the warlord Nobunaga is assassinated and succeeded by his right-hand man. The country is being torn apart by war. The gap between rich and poor is huge and Goemon, a master thief, does his best to share his takings with those less fortunate. By chance, he steals a beautiful box from a rich merchant and gives it to a street urchin. The box is not, of course, just any old box and the new warlord's assistant puts his trusted ninja on Goemon's trail to find it.

Goemon ultimately has to choose between his freedom and his destiny - if he chooses the latter, he must avenge Nobunanga, who rescued him from bandits when he was a child. In doing so he can free Japan from eternal war. And perhaps get back together with a lost love.

Goemon is visually stunning. The heroic thief soars into the sky and plunges down cliffs; he destroys handfuls of enemies in one go. It takes the best elements of video games and comic book panache and puts them boldly on the big screen. It's also a fantasy epic about one man's individual struggle to do the right thing in a country in desperate need of a hero. If you want to look for deeper ideas behind the breathtaking fight scenes, they are floating just beneath the surface: is it better to work for or against the system, to put the individual or society first, to accept or reject betrayal? As such, it may be set in the 16th century, but Goemon is a very modern and pretty smart take on the myth of Robin Hood.