Who is to blame when a product is misused? I suppose it depends a bit on the product and a lot on the original intention. Can J. Robert Oppenheimer be blamed if the atomic bomb is “misused?” I think so. It’s simply too dangerous a creation to pretend that innocent outcomes are reasonable. Can Mark Zuckerberg be blamed when FaceBook is misused? Not immediately. All he wanted to do was score with chicks, not influence presidential elections on behalf of dictators.
Today’s film is more of the latter than the former, thankfully.
This non-biopic biopic is Winny, the story of Isamu Kaneko (Masahiro Higashide), the inventor of a file sharing app gone horribly wrong. Kaneko invented Winny as a computer file sharing app for friends and colleagues (or so the movie tells us), so naturally it was abused almost instantly so social lampreys could bootleg music, games, and movies.
What could perhaps have been an investigative coup devolves almost immediately into a nerd trial with the key question being: did Isamu Kaneko intend to facil
itate piracy? And, to a lesser extent, does it matter? Every day, a team of lawyers sits down with Kaneko and briefs or debriefs depending on time of day. Why, yes, this is a magical film about a character so into programming you’ll be relieved when lawyers talk. The best scenes in the film come during strategy sessions, which is a fairly sad reflection on how an audience should be entertained.
Winny is based entirely on real people and real events, so I’m not sure why the film couldn’t call itself a biopic. Maybe it didn’t want to get sued for copyright infringement.
I’m told Masahiro Higashide gained 18 kg (40 lbs.) for this role, hence it’s a shame that this performance didn’t resonate with me. I thought Masahiro never really found this character, appearing exactly as aloof or in-tuned as the direction needed him to be, yet never with any consistency. And because I had trouble judging who the man was, it became more difficult to root for him, which the movie obviously wants us to do. In the end, this is simply a police and court procedural about a subject that is fairly boring unless you own a record company. The Social Network, Snowden, and The Fifth Estate are all superior films on similar subject matter.
There once was a hacker named Isamu
Who created a way to share with your crew
In a matter of days
Illegality craze
And the nerd bit off more than he could chew
Not Rated, 127 Minutes
Director: Yusaku Matsumoto
Writer: Kentro Kishi, Yusaku Matsumoto
Genre: Movies that look like biopics, but refuse to call themselves such
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: The heirs of Isamu Kaneko
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Do you have the stomach for a nerdhunt?
