Ryu Aoba: The Movie

Ryu Aoba: The Movie, known in Europe as simply Ryu Aoba, and in the US and Canada as The Ryu Aoba Movie, is a 2019 Malichkan computer-animated science fiction family comedy film directed by Marko Dugandžić and featuring his son, Malichkan singer Stanford Bačovnik-Dugandžić, as his fictional on-stage character Ryu Aoba.

The film grossed 120 million Malichka dollars nationally. It was Marko's first film in nine years after being kicked out of his position as Prime Minister.

Plot
Ryu Aoba is a master of weaponry and a pro assassin living in near-future Tokyo who goes bot-fighting for a living. He has since lost an eye to a gunfight (hence his trademark cybernetic eye). His girlfriend, Mayuko, sells lab-grown hybrid flowers for a living as well. Thirteen years later and they have a baby boy which they name Yoshio early into the film's runtime. Yoshio eventually grows up into a child prodigy, becoming skilled in all fields of technology and science, and dreams of becoming an artificial intelligence specialist.

On the night of December 10th, 2031, Mayuko's ex-boyfriend, Ken, is murdered by a notorious street gang. As Mayuko tries to intervene, she almost gets shot, but Ryu protects her from getting killed and kills two gang members with his laser beam. The police arrive and escort the Aoba family to the police station, where Ryu describes, through his cybernetic vision, the description of Ken's murderers.

At Ken's house, they find strange marks and a book with a strange alien-like symbol on the front, but are found by the street gang. As the leader commands his comrades to come after them, Ryu flees with Mayuko and Yoshio in the family car (somewhat like a Bugatti Veyron) and drives around the streets of Neo Tokyo, avoiding everyone that comes in its way (including Margrethe Tormann, who appears in a cameo). Ryu lures the gang members' cars into the Mitsuba Bay, drowning them.

Ryu finds the gang leader to be Yoshio's science teacher Shinji, and the alien symbol to be the logo of the street gang. Mayuko assumes that Shinji's death in an explosion at the science fair and the emergence of the street gang are linked. Yoshio suddenly has flashbacks of Shinji and tells them it really was him who is the gang leader, and is calling himself "Lord Aobozu" after the Japanese boogeyman creature aobozu.

To make matters worse, Ryu realizes that Ken is a close friend of his mother, Sora, the CEO of the robotics company RoboRyze, which is being threatened by Shinji as revenge for apparently murdering his entire family in a bungled teleportation experiment, and that Shinji's next target is the company chairman Yukari, who was also Yoshio's mathematics teacher. Realizing this, they infiltrate a RoboRyze trade show, and find him sabotaging the event and confronting Sora before threatening to murder her.

Ryu attempts to stop Shinji from killing Sora and her accomplice Yukari through throwing them into the same portal where the Arimas disappeared into. However, he backs out and leads to an epic battle, with Ryu gaining the upper hand, and rescues Shinji's family from the portal, leaving behind Yoshio and Mayuko. Ryu returns from the portal carrying the bodies of the Arimas (Naomi, Shinzo, Yukina and Kakashi), who wake up as if from a dream. He tearfully reunites with the rest of his family while Ryu watches on in satisfaction.

A year later, Mayuko gives birth to a baby girl named Mariko, and Shinji disbands the street gang and returns to his history of teaching. At school, Shinji asks anyone if they did anything over the winter break. Only Yoshio stands up and tells him that they had an adventure where he and his family were the heroes and Shinji was the villain. The latter smiles at Yoshio and forgives him, telling him he was just mad at his grandmother.

Voice cast

 * Ryu Aoba as himself, portrayed as a loving father and a vigilante. The main protagonist of the film.
 * Denise Fiander as Mayuko Aoba, Ryu's wife and Yoshio's mother, a florist who sells lab-grown hybrid flowers, her most famous being the rose-orchid hybrid called the Bararan. The tritagonist of the film.
 * Quinn Davis as Yoshio Aoba, Ryu and Mayuko's child who dreams of becoming an AI specialist. The film's deuteragonist and Ryu's sidekick.
 * Marija Kocijančič as Sora Aoba, Ryu's mother and the CEO of RoboRyze, who is being coveted by Shinji and is wanting to kill her as revenge for "murdering" his family in a teleportation accident.
 * Ben Tran as Shinji Arima, the main antagonist of the film, known mostly by the alias Lord Aobozu and the leader of the terrorist group The Yokai Clan. Redeemed in the end and reverts to his old ways.
 * Theresa Hendren as Yukari Shibuya, the chairman of RoboRyze. Is one of the targets for being murdered by Shinji and the Yokai Clan.
 * Leroy Tay as Ken Shibuya, one of the Yokai Clan's murder victims.
 * Sarah Geronimo as Naomi Arima, Shinji's mother.
 * Eric Hyles as Shinzo Arima, Shinji's father.
 * Emilija Janša as Yukina Arima, Shinji's wife.
 * Mark Maglasang as Kakashi Arima, an only child of Yukina and Shinji.
 * Ryan Williams as a police officer who questions Ryu about the murder.
 * Margrethe Tormann (in cameo) as an old lady crossing the street in the chase scene.

Production
The film's animation was made with Disney's Hyperion technology by RTVM's animation division. The film has a near-similar plot to the 2014 Disney film Big Hero 6, as well as the background of the movie's villain, Shinji.

Premiere
The film's world premiere was on May 19th, 2019, at the RTVM Theater in Dvoreki's arts and cultural district (25 Decembra). Present at the world premiere were Stanford, his father Marko (who directed the film), and mother Margrethe, Duchess of Devetzmajev (who wrote the film's story and made a cameo in the chase scene).