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Takashi Miike takes a shot at the tokusatsu genre and gives us the entertaining Zebraman.
In Yachio-ward strange events are happening. Birds are dying, bearded seals are migrating and aliens are hiding in the school. Oh, and there's a man dressed as a crab, running around with some scissors. During this unusual time, unpopular school-teacher Mr. Ichikawa has a rather strange form of escapism.
Back in the 70's, Ichikawa was a fan of a TV show called Zebraman. Unfortunately as less than 2% of the population tuned in to watch, the show soon got cancelled.
At night Ichikawa dons the titular costume and leaps around his house and pretends to fight criminals, and it's not to long until he decides to venture outside. Although, falling off the roof of his house was a poor start to proceedings. Before long Zebraman encounters Crabman and with the help of a wheelchair-bound student called Shinpei, he begins to realise that his dream of becoming a superhero may be attainable.
Being a superhero isn't easy though, especially for Ichikawa. Not only does he have problems at work but his family life is less than idyllic. His son is bullied, his daughter has become sexually aware and has very bad taste in men and his wife is cheating. And of course there are aliens to deal with...small, green, gooey aliens. Still, he does have a plethora of special moves available, including the Zebra-screw-punch.
This is a great little film with a message to tell of 'believe in yourself.' Strangely enough, I did wonder how much the creators of Kick Ass were influenced by this film as there are a few similarities and seeing as this film was made in 2004, it was definitely first. Most notable similarity is the story of a guy wanting to be a superhero especially a scene where Ichikawa, dressed in his costume is striking poses in front of his mirror before exclaiming (well, according to the subtitles) "Kick ass."
Either way, I enjoyed this and just found it to be a very entertaining and fun movie. Now I just need to watch the sequel. I just wish I could get the theme tune out of my head...shalalala, shalalalala, shalalala...
score 8/10
markmovienerd 24 May 2012
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2616165/ |
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21-3-2021 11:18:07