Whiteout

A mega-hit in Japan, this fairly spectacular adaptation of a pulp novel by co-scripter Shimpo is a Japanese Die Hard set in a mountain blizzard. The power plant next to Japan's largest dam is seized by terrorists from the Red Moon group, ostensibly to demand freedom for imprisoned colleagues, but actually because the leader Utsugi (Sato) wants to bury the group (and his own former idealism) and flee with crates of cash. The only man who can save the dam is plucky engineer Togashi (Oda), not yet over the self-sacrificing death of his best friend, but seemingly immune to frostbite and hypothermia. The action-suspense set-pieces follow the Hollywood template, but the film is more intriguing when it's most Japanese: no US blockbuster would go for such a boyish, grief-stricken hero, or waste time on the dead man's mistakenly resentful fiancée (Matsushima).