It's taken forever but one of my very favorite Takashi Miike films finally hits DVD February 19th. Zebraman stars Sho Aikawa as a hapless school teacher whose only happy moments come when he retreats into the world of a childhood superhero TV show cancelled after only a handful of episodes. Forgotten by all but a few Aikawa has, nonetheless, made himself an exact replica of the suit so that he can dress up and fantasize about being a hero rather than a trod upon loser when he slowly begins to realize that the show was actually prophetic, the villains are arriving in real life and it is up to him to become the real Zebraman and save the day. It's Miike's first foray into decent budget, family friendly fare. It's very silly, very fun and Aikawa is fantastic in it.
This is the first movie I ever awarded the top score at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (where it enjoyed its World Premiere).
In retrospect that may have been a bit much, but this is still definately one of my favorite Miike movies.
The fight between Radioactive Man and "Ringu's" Sadako is priceless: first he beats the crap out of her, then she exclaims: "How dare you? I am your...MOTHER!".
And radioactive Man goes: "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!......"
Not yet 5 minutes into the movie I already had an aching stomach from laughter.
Fond memories. ZEBOLANUSS! :cheese:
AMAZING! I've said many times that I'll be the first in line, and I can finally put my money where my mouth is, I'm psyched!