True Machination (film)

True Machination (Japanese: 真の機械加工, Hepburn: Shin no kikai kakō) is a 2006 Japanese animated action-thriller film based upon Ryotaro Sekizawa's 1991 manga of the same name. The film was directed by Katsuhito Akiyama, written by Sekizawa and Hideki Kakinuma, and produced by Anime International Company. Featuring the voices of Chiwa Saito, Jurota Kosugi, Ken Narita, Mamoru Miyano, Romi Park, Emi Shinohara, Koji Tsujitani and Fumihiko Tachiki, the film's story centers on a girl named Mika Yamazaki who gets caught in the middle of a conspiracy plot ran by a terrorist named Jiro Nonoka, and she learns that she might be the central link in order to foil his plan.

Produced over a four year period beginning in 2002, True Machination was released in Japan on August 12, 2006, where it received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed ¥470 million against a budget of ¥125 million. The film was picked up for international distribution by Paramount Pictures after a very successful showing at the 31st Toronto International Film Festival, where it was dubbed into English with a stunt voice cast. Paramount then invested $26 million to open the film in wide release in the United States on June 15, 2007, where it ultimately grossed $50.3 million at the domestic box office with similarly positive critical reception.

Plot
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Production
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Release
True Machination had it's premiere at the Tokyo Square Cinema on July 29, 2006 and was released in a wide release in Japan by Toho on August 12, 2006.

International release
Almost a month after the film's Japanese theatrical release, the film was screened with English subtitles at the 31st Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness section on September 8, 2006 with Ryotaro Sekizawa in attendance. Sekizawa was initially unsure of how the film would perform at the festival, for because of it's subject matter, he felt the film would more than likely get a very limited theatrical release in the United States at best or a straight to DVD release at worst. The film's screening at the festival turned out to be a big success, and ultimately caught the attention of Paramount Pictures, who paid $6 million to acquire the worldwide distribution rights (excluding Asia) to the film with the intent of a wide theatrical release the following year.

For Paramount's international release, the film was dubbed into English with an all star voice cast to give the film more marketing value. The cast included Emma Roberts, Bruce Willis, Bob Hoskins, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Hutcherson, Nicole Kidman and Clancy Brown. Sekizawa himself co-wrote the English screenplay with Lost creator Jeffrey Lieber. In addition, a select few edits were made to the film, which included replacing the Japanese titles with new ones in English, along with few new sound effects and foley being recorded and either replacing some of the original sound effects or being added in. The Japanese credits song, Redemption by Gackt, was also replaced in the international release with Life of a Stranger by Nadia.

In the United States, Paramount released the film in a wide release of 2,478 theaters on June 15, 2007, with a $26 million marketing cost. An English theatrical trailer premiered before the release of Dreamgirls on December 15, 2006, and another one premiered before Shooter on March 23, 2007, the latter of which included the song Face Down by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

Home media
True Machination was released on DVD and HD-DVD by Bandai Visual on May 23, 2007. The DVD release came in both a standard edition, and a three disc "Collector's Edition", with the first disc containing the movie itself, cast interviews and the Japanese trailers, the second disc containing several storyboards, an interview with Ryotaro Sekizawa and an art gallery, while the third disc is a CD Rom containing 35 stills from the movie. A DVD book of the movie's storyboards was also included. The film was later released on Blu-ray on July 16, 2008.

In the United States, Paramount Home Entertainment released the film on DVD and HD-DVD on October 9, 2007. The DVD release came in three editions, two standard editions, one in full screen and the other in widescreen, and a widescreen two disc "Special Edition". The standard edition/first disc's bonus features consist of a subtitled commentary track from the filmmakers and the choices of English, Japanese and Spanish audio tracks, while the second disc features two featurettes on the English version, the interview from the Japanese home video release, a separate stills gallery and the English trailers. The HD-DVD release was only available as this "Special Edition" release. Paramount released the film on Blu-ray on March 17, 2009, which included a trailer for The Eternal Idol.

Box Office
True Machination made back a total of ¥470 million at the Japanese box office, drawing in about over 300,000 people during it's run.

Critical Reception
True Machination received generally positive reviews from critics. It holds a 80% "Certified Fresh" approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 178 reviews, with an average rating of 7.30/10 and the consensus reading, "With some impressive animation, fun action and strong vocal performances, this adaptation of Ryotaro Sekizawa's manga proves it is possible to make an animated action thriller with very similar spectacle as it's live action counterparts." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 77 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." It was also nominated for the Best Feature Length Theatrical Anime Award at the sixth-annual Tokyo Anime Awards during the 2007 Tokyo International Anime Fair, but lost to Satoshi Kon's Paprika.