Hideki Takeuchi
THERMÆ ROMÆ

THE REVIEW

You are a Roman architect, one of the most promising and sought-after, in the service of Emperor Hadrian. An architect who has dedicated so much ingenuity and passion to the precious Baths of the city of Rome, the center of the people's well-being, making them easier to control.

Unfortunately, a creative crisis blocks you, halts your ideas, no scent of innovation. Nothing.

How to avoid soon falling into oblivion among the countless engineering minds that have contributed to the empire's welfare? Simple: by seeking refuge and peace for your thoughts in the muffled silence of water, during a thermal bath.

Instead of refuge, though, you're swallowed by a vortex that catapults you into modern-day Japan.

This is the plot of the film, decidedly original and promising. It doesn't matter much if Lucius (with continuous space-time back and forth between 130 A.D. and the present) doesn't have features too Japanese-looking to be part of ancient Rome, and speaks Latin only when he leaps two thousand years forward in time; let's say that Hideki Takeuchi (directing) gave it his all, and along with his team also delivers an excellent reconstruction of Rome.

Lucius, amazed by the technology of what he believes to be a superior civilization (the "elongated eyes"), decides to transplant into the reality of the Empire (passing everything off as his own work, contrary to what his conscience and pride suggest) a series of inventions and gadgets, making the Baths an even more prestigious and essential place; thanks to this artistic resurrection, he will earn the favor of the Emperor until the glorious finale.

Based on a Japanese Manga, which I didn't know, in this film version it turns out to be an amusing surprise. There wasn't a review. Now there is.