Nostalgia, kitsch, and video game pleasure for everyone

Polaris_DiB

A man dresses as his favorite childhood superhero, Zebraman, from a television show that was canceled after only a few episodes. His love of Zebraman is shared by a third-grade student in his class of which he is an unsuccessful teacher, and that student turns out to have the admiration and warmth the man can't get from his family. As he runs around the night in his suit, trying to remain harmlessly escapist and yet still romantically fantasized, he starts running into the enemies from the television show. Seems the 30 year old defunct television show was actually a prophecy, and since it was canceled, Zebraman himself doesn't know how it will end. Now if only he could figure out how to fly...

This warm and nostalgia-laced movie by Takashi Miike is one of his later features, and Miike has sort of slowed down a bit. He no longer cuts corners like he used to, and in this case he doesn't feel the need (nor is there) to throw anything truly disturbing in there. Still, I've heard some people call this movie a children's show, and of course there's some very adult themes speckled throughout. However, once again Miike surprises by playing with audience expectations.

Zebraman is a superhero movie, but the moments of action and frenetic stylizations are actually quite rare and reserved. The bigger bulk of Zebraman is actually a focus on the characters, especially Zebraman and his ten-year-old side-kick as they figure out just what a superhero is supposed to do after he dons the outfit. And what an outfit! Sure to be a new staple Halloween costume for film geeks for years to come, Zebraman's costume is its own character, first because of its hilariously ironic black-and-white style and also in the way it slowly falls apart throughout the film.

Miike is also not strictly a "filmmaker", in that he throws any visual media into his stories as he desires. A love of video and television-quality kitsch is present here in the contrasts between back-alley battles and open-field fights that recall Power Rangers. The Big Boss battle becomes what literally looks like a inter-video graphic from a video game like Final Fantasy VII. But it is all fun and mostly games as the audience gets to delight in a person whose only delight is a lost (non-existent) show that for one reason or another, he unapologetically loved.

--PolarisDiB

score 7/10

Polaris_DiB 16 April 2008

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1858630/