Zebraman (2004)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Takashi Miike

Writer:

Kankurô Kudô (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 August 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Being a failure as a teacher and a familyman, Shinichi tries to escape everyday live by dressing up as "Zebraman"...

Plot Keywords:

Superhero | Teacher | Teacher Student Relationship | Nurse | Suicide

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Sho Aikawa	...	Shin'ichi Ichikawa / Zeburâman
Kyoka Suzuki	...	Kana Asano
Atsuro Watabe	...	Oikawa at the Defence Agency
Yui Ichikawa	...	Midori, Shin'ichi's daughter
Koen Kondo	...	Segawa
Naoki Yasukôchi
Makiko Watanabe
Keisuke Mishima
Yu Tokui
Yoji Tanaka
Arata Furuta	...	Owner of Candy Shop
Kumiko Aso	...	Newscaster
Akira Emoto	...	Kani-Otoko
Yoshihiko Hakamada
Ryo Iwamatsu	...	Kanda

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Filming Locations:

Mitsukaido City, Ibaraki, Japan

Company:

Bingo Y.K.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs "Kamen Raidâ" (1971)

Not among Miike's best films

In fact, I might call it his worst, or at least it's close to it. Miike is actually a very good director-for-hire, but he never seems to feel comfortable when he's directing a movie for younger audiences. Like The Great Yokai War and Andromedia, the two other Miike films of this type I've seen, Miike keeps the worst part of his normal aesthetic – that is, the incredibly drawn out, Asian art-house dialogue scenes. It can work well in dramas or in suspense pictures, but these three films lack anything that could be considered suspenseful. Miike's not allowed, I would guess, to push the boundaries much, so he can't create any memorable setpieces. He works a lot with computer effects in Zebraman, but they're extremely poor. They wouldn't have been acceptable ten years ago in the United States. The film concerns an ineffectual teacher and father, played by Sho Aikawa, who longs to become a super hero he remembers from TV when he was a kid. He is soon endowed with the powers he wishes for so he can fight an alien invasion. Sho Aikawa is very good in the lead, and there are a couple of good sequences. But, all in all, it's a bore.