It stars Takeshi Kaneshiro and Anne Suzuki, who must team up in present-day Japan to prevent an alien race from invading Earth.

It reportedly aspired "to be a combination of Mission: Impossible, The Matrix and Leon", and exercised 300 computer-generated shots, as well as wire fu.

It received generally negative reviews from critics, with most attacking the screenplay and perceived lack of originality, although some praised the acting, action sequences, and visual effects.

The portal sends her to 2002, where her mission is to kill the first Daggra, who faked a crash landing, and stop him from signaling his invasion fleet.

Milly lands in the aftermath of a shootout in Tokyo Bay, where a hitman named Miyamoto holds the murderous Triad mobster Mizoguchi at gunpoint.

He shows these to his weapons supplier Shi Zhi Tang, who tells him it is an elaborate trick the Triads would not waste their time on.

Before they can figure out where the force field came from, a Daggra craft, disguised as a Boeing 747-400 airliner arrives, having received the alien's distress signal.

[5][6] All music is composed by Akihiko MatsumotoReturner had its worldwide premiere at Shibuya Public Hall on August 19, 2002,[7] where it was reportedly attended by 2,000 people and the key cast members also gave a "stage greeting".

[1] Toho released a 4K remaster of the film on a limited theatrical run in Japan on November 29, 2024, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Yamazaki's directorial career.

[15] It premiered at number one in the Japanese box office on its release, beating The Cat Returns, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Resident Evil.

[16] Overall, the film grossed ¥1.29 billion ($11 million) in Japan,[3] $73,060 in the United States,[17] and $340,920 in Hong Kong,[17] making its global box office total approximately $11,413,980.

[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 36 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

[20] Derek Elley of Variety wrote in his review that "Kaneshiro is all long flowing locks and smoldering disdain, the visual F/X are only so-so, and pacing [sic] is almost brisk enough to hide the plot holes.

It clumsily combines a fish-out-of-water story with bits lifted from sources including the Terminator movies, Star Wars, Starman, Close Encounters, a couple of Pink Floyd albums and H. G.

"[23] Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle offered qualified praise, but also noted that "only subtitles and a few borrowed ideas from the Japan-born video game Metal Gear Solid prevent the movie from looking like an American Film Institute clip show".

[24] Manohla Dargis said in her review for the Los Angeles Times: "Like all good B-movies, Returner comes loaded with enough eccentric touches to give the recycling a whiff of freshness and, as is often the case with many above-par follies, it's the cast that takes the whole thing to another level.