10 Things from 70s Times Square that exploitation movies need to bring back

Exploitation and grindhouse movies these days are no longer that exploitative. Sure Tarantino and Rodriguez can call their movie Grindhouse, but somehow if I'm not offended by it, it's not really exploitation. Planet Terror, Death Proof, Machete and Hobo with a Shotgun are all solid flicks but these as you would expect are sanitized Hollywood flicks for the masses.

70s Times Square could care less about the masses. They catered to the guy with the fedora, large sunglasses and trench coat. The true grindhouse films wanted to shock the shit out of you for 70 or so minutes. Bad dubbing, recut and edited foriegn flicks, and retitled films were the standard. But you'd have a wide selection of the WTF and outrageous. Movies that would offend you, test your limits and obliterate your tolerance for the absurd.

Clearly we've all grown up from our 70s scumminess and we'd hope to be a more tolerant and equal society. But a tiny part of me wants to see some exploitative absurdity, something that goes waaaay extreme that you can't believe what you just saw. A millennial Pink Flamingos if you will. 

Will we ever see any of these things/subjects ever made into a feature to call themselves real exploitation?

1.) Super duper racist films

Fight for your Life was completely nuts. Thing about this plot. 3 escaped inmates, a white trash redneck, a Mexican and an Asian violently assault a black minister. You've offended every race in America in one movie. Movies like Goodbye Uncle Tom supposedly cashed in on the blaxploitation craze but 70s grindhouse cashed in by being so offensive, you'd think a race riot would happen in the theater.


2.) Sexually violent deviousness

Ahhh clearly the 70s grindhouse could care less for women. Boobs, butts and skin all to be killed off in horrific fashion. I think of the ridiculousness of Patrick, a movie about a comatose man with psychic powers uses them to manipulate a hot nurse. The kills were wickedly hypnotizing and spawned an even more sexually violent sequel from Italy!

3.) Midgets and Freaks

Have you seen the movie Freaks? It was made in 1932 and starred actual midgets and freaks. Clearly we have to be PC about our little people and visually challenged these days. But the ironic part is this film is actually pretty good, shows them as normal people and featured a part of our society that would have been ignored.

4.) Pimps and Hookers (in Atlantic City)

The only time you see pimps and hookers is on HBO's AC Hookers. Oh what fascinating lives these two groups lead and somehow, yes somehow this could be exploited into some awesome movies if you think of it.

5.) Cannibals a Go Go

It's not like there are anymore cannibal tribes in the world anymore right? Right? I mean even if you stereotyped some tribe to be killer cannibals, it's not like they'd actually see the flick. It's the genre I miss the most. Devil white man gets comeuppance for trying to civilize the savages. It's the formula with a message and the gore.

6.) Mondo Schmondo

 Have you seen the footage of Filipinos crucifying themselves on Easter Sunday? No? Then YouTube it. This shit still happens. All countries still have some crazy, wacky rituals and I don't think we've seen them all.

7.) Experimental Surrealistic Nonsense

We all need a little Alejandro Jodorowsky in our lives.

8.) Something Japanese

Rule 34. If you've thought of something so fucked up, so nasty and so disgusting, chances are the Japanese have made a movie about it.

9.) Slashers who are plain old crazy

Luther the Geek was a movie about a carnival freak who bit the heads off chickens and drinks their blood. He then proceeds to kill random people while clucking. We need more films like this.

10.) The New Christina Lindberg

We need a movie where a girl next door vixen gets violated and then goes all revenge served cold. This is an untapped genre begging and pleading to resurface.

What 70s/80s subgenres from the olden days do you miss? Will we ever see any of these highly offensive subgenres/topics/things ever made in the Hollywood machine or the indie underground?

Chime in!

Categories: 70s grindhouse, Alejandro Jodorowsky films, blaxploitation, cannibal films, christina lindberg, exploitation, japanese exploitation, luther the geek, slasher films, times square

Karate Robo Zaborgar (Review)

Karate Robo Zaborgar

Karate Robo Zaborgar (2011)

Directed by Noboru Iguchi

[part of the NYAFF 2011, NEW YORK PREMIERE]

See? The Japanese are just like Hollywood. Sometimes you run out of ideas and have to remake old TV shows. You didn't think America was the only country to take a cheesy 70s television show and remake it for the big screen did you?

Karate Robo Zaborgar from the outtakes at then end of the film seemed like a 60s Batman meets robot anime kind of TV show. Who else but Noboru Iguchi
would remake this into a full fledged movie. Iguchi who has given us RoboGeisha and The Machine Girl (whose trailer went viral in America) is not new to the half robot half human dynamic. It's a Japanese WTF film pure and simple. You either love em or hate em.

I absolutely enjoyed the shit out of The Machine Girl but somehow KRZ is a little too wacky and cheesy in my book. That's not to say it doesn't have it's moments. Full of flying robots, human/borg hybrids, 90 foot tall Japanese teenage girl cyborg and bulldog tanks, I was fully awe inspired by the idiot-tacracy of it all. But I thought back to recent Japanese WTF films which I thought blew my mind. Big Man Japan is an absolute classic awesome WTF film that is coherent at it is crazy.

KRZ is also way to long running at 140 minutes! What you are essentially watching is 2 hour long episodes of a remade TV show. KRZ is 50% wacky and 25% absurd and 25% WTF. You have to make sure you brain is shut off to enjoy the film and when you do, it somehow gives you laughs you are shocked that you enjoy.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Daimon (Yasuhisa Furuhara) and his motorcycle/robot pal/karate expert, Zaborgar, protect the citizens of Japan from flying cyborg heads and samurai kissing monsters. But when Daimon falls in love with the villainous Miss Borg (Mami Yamasaki), the two buds have a falling out that could ruin everything. Any further summary would read like the scribblings of the world’s coolest, most cracked-out 13 year old: the plot is a 50 car pile-up of smackdowns, wild comedy and robot rugby girls with chest dragons. Iguchi, finally armed with a real budget, packs the screen with gonzo spectacle and delivers the kind of movie that leaves your ribs bruised from giggling and your face aching from grinning too much.

It’s not all wine and robots, though: when the film jumps ahead 25 years to show what happens when a hero is forgotten, Iguchi’s not kidding around. Like all of the wildest dreamers, he wants you to believe as much as he does. As Daimon himself, now a slouching schlub with an aching back (Itsuji Itao), proclaims, “Though diabetic…though over the hill…if one keeps trying, one can fight until the last moment.” That’s the spirit, and it’s the message of Iguchi’s joyously retro rock-out.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

You read the plot above? Go ahead I'll wait. Done? OK good.

Basically set as a 2 part episode, KRZ follows young Daimon and his adventures with his motorcycle transforming Zaborgar as they battle the evil Sigma who wants to basically destroy Japan. Dr. Akunomiya is the evil mastermind behind Sigma and he has a beautiful Miss Borg as his #1. As we see Daimon and ZABORGAR!!!! (who he can order to change into a motorcycle and fight in various martial arts styles) battle the evil henchmen, he also has to decide which is the greater evil. Sigma who murdered his father or the Japanese bureaucracy who are evil and greedy as well.

From bulldog tanks, football robot vixens to diarrhea robots, Daimon and Zaborgar battle with quirky karate and flying boomerang blades. I mean the fembots have monster demon heads coming out of their boobs and butt. You kind of know what the deal is when it comes to the Japanese. They love over the top cheesiness. It makes Troma look like a Michael Bay film.

The movie jumps 25 years later and the world is again threatened by Sigma. But now he's battling his son and his daughter, a unforeseen union by Miss Borg and himself. More wackiness ensues climaxed by Akiko his daughter being transformed into a skyscraper tall half robot half human killing machine.

The movie follows what seems to be the plot of the TV children's show. In the outtakes at the end, we see the same scenes from the movie as they were first aired on the TV show. It's hilarious bad in terms of quality but this is from the same industry that had a man in a dinosaur suit smashing cardboard cutouts of a city.

I'll admit, I liked KRZ for it's inexplicable way it can show me something I've never seen before. I indeed laughed a few times at some crude jokes as well as some timely social pop culture humor. Also seeing a giant robot muy thai another robot makes me smile. We often watch something on YouTube that comes from Japan and we usually go "Oh those wacky Japanese!" Well this is a movie where Western audiences will overload in all that is completely wacky and fun about fighting robot motorcycle transformers.

Like I said, it's a little too long and there really is so much you can take when you have to watch 2+ hours of this. Karate Robo Zaborgar is Sushi Typhoon and Iguchi's wink to Western cult audiences. You watch the trailer and you say "I gotta see this crazy Japanese movie! It looks fuckin awesome!" And it's clearly as awesome as advertised. But then you also realize the jokes are corny and the humor a little tasteless. And it's really really over the top.

It starts to remind you of a certain American robot movie.

See?

American and Japan aren't so different after all.

Gore-ipedia

Some light arterial spraying

WTF moment

Diarrhea monster?

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

NYAFF 2011 film festival opens on 7/1. I've created a list of films to check out at this year's festival.

Head over to the official site for more info.

The Vitals

• The official site via NYAFF 2011

Rating:


Check out the trailer.

Categories: cyborgs, japanese, japanese anime, japanese exploitation, machine girl, Noburu Iguchi, robots, sukeban boy, wtf films

Insano Steve’s One Sentence Reviews-O-Matic (Perverted Japanese Edition)

It's this week's Insano Steve's one sentence review-o-matics. If you missed the previous edition, check it out here. I tasked Insano Steve to review every movie in his DVD collection but instead he gave one sentence reviews (lazy bastard).

This week's edition: Perverted Japanese Edition! Enjoy.

• Bounce Ko Girls - a fun story about 3 underage girls as they: 1.) entrap pedophiles on the internet, 2.) run from the Yakuza, and of course, 3.) sell their used underwear to perverts at a profit.
  
  
• Zero Woman series - a Japanese secret agent that fights crime armed only with giant breasts. Series stars a different girl in each movie. Her mission: to infiltrate and destroy an international sex slave cartel. Lots of nudity. Minimal plot. Comical action.
  
  
• Perfect Education series - The story of some sicko, who kidnaps a promiscuous young girl, so that she may be reformed through the cleansing power of rape. a common theme in Japanese film.
  
  
• Red Room 1 & 2 - the story of a Japanese game show where contestants rape and kill each other. very much fucked up. mtv is currently working on an American version.
  
  
• Sharkskin Man and Peach Hip Girl - a Japanese hipster saves a girl from certain incestuous peril. Bonnie and Clyde hijinks ensue.
  
  
• Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 - Japanese grindhouse movie. a female in prison escapes to kill again. Features random stabbings in Tokyo streets. Awesome movie.
  
  
• Pinocchio 964 - the black & white Japanese cyberpunk classic. in the near future, a cyborg sex slave is lobotomized and thrown out in the streets by it's owners after failing to maintain an erection. The cyborg then meets a criminally insane homeless girl. Complete and absolute insanity ensues.
  

Categories: insano steve, japan av stars, japan av stars nude, japanese, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, japanese porn, red room, Sharkskin Man and Peach Hip Girl

Insano Steve’s One Sentence Reviews-O-Matic (Japanese Militant Edition)

I'm introducing a new feature. This one is Insano Steve's one sentence review o matics. I tasked Insano Steve to review every movie in his DVD collection but instead he gave one sentence reviews (lazy bastard).

They're still hilarious when broken down into different editions. This will definitely be a reoccuring segement on the jaded viewer. This week's edition: Japanese Militant Edition! Enjoy.

• Kichiku - Militant Japanese students fuck and kill each other. yes, in that order, you sicko. has some graphic hari kari scenes! very underrated.
• Fudoh: The New Generation - a girl shoots poison darts out of her vagina. otherwise, it's the usual Miike manga inspired madness
• Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 - Japanese grindhouse movie. a female in prison escapes to kill again. features random stabbings in Tokyo streets. awesome movie!
• Battle Royale series - part 1 was great. part 2 sucked. the idea's been copied to death. i own both movies....on vcd!
• Female Inquisitor - a Japanese "interrogation company" uses rape and torture to acquire sensitive information from targets. with all parties involved having big breasts.
  

Categories: battle royale, battle royale review, insano steve, japanese, japanese exploitation, japanese horror, takashi miike, ultraviolent japanese action movie

Things I Learned Researching Japanese Genki Porn on the Internet

After my random discovery of this YouTube subculture that embraces sick and twisted fucked up films, I have to say I applaud some of them for owning the sickest shit I've ever heard of. I mean many films on their list are now commonplace in the world of mainstream underground horror. Guinea Pig Series, August Underground trilogy and your standard rape and revenge flicks are now readily available for purchase. Back in the day, the only way to get these flicks was through horror trading and conventions.

Call me a fuddy duddy, but it was a little exciting back in the day to get these movies via VHS through a 3rd generation dub, but with the advent of the intertubes anybody can download them from a torrent site or through eBay.

But it seems even the hardcore of the hardcore obtain films that have not made it yet to the mainstreemy underground. Most of the YouTubers mentioned owning Genki porno films. I was vaguely familiar with this Japanese subgenre but it seems its just standard for these hardcore underground enthusiasts.

Japanese have their scat porn and their genki porn. It's a double whammy and honestly I've seen neither. I do not want to actually see this and my only viewing of shit eating was everybody's shared YouTube experience of 2 Girls, 1 Cup. So let's talk about the latter. Genki porn is the genius of Daikichi Amano who takes this fetish so far off the edge, I can't believe this actually exists on Planet Earth.

Daikichi started off doing straight Japanese AV, moved on to dog on human female porn then to bug eating and fish insertion in the hoohaa porn. But my discovery of the site where you can view this sick shit is mesmerizing to say the least.

Genki-Genki.com

I implore you to not click on this link if you're not prepared to see photos of some of the grossest shit ever put on the web. Thank the horror gods the videos are pay to see. One of the most interesting and hilarious things on the site are the Engrish translations of the titles.

• The crunch a cockroach and abuse it with lechery

• The red iron is eroded by a beating cockroach and earthworm
  

• The insect that a cockroach makes noise in witty greed
  

• The cockroach is jealous of an earthworm in a vagina to dislike

• The helpless eyes by the neck torture

• The earthworm is vagina in an adhering to desire and a spiral

• Obscene doll that fritters white sigh and drops to black dripping

• The tragedy that earthworm is bitten to skin and shouted
  

OK that's a few of these insane titles. The pictures that accompany the movies are dry heaves that will make even the most jaded viewer squirm. And squirmfest you will. Yikes. Never in my wildest imagination would this type of porn be a turn on.

But to each his own. If you ever said to yourself "Hey I always wanted to have eels and fish eggs inserted into my vagina or asshole" YOU to can star in your very own Genki!!! All you have to do is fill out a form. Ahhh the simplicity of the internet. Connecting fucked up porn fetish enthusiasts together.

"If you want to remain anonymous on film we will find a way to do that."

See? They're concerned about your privacy! Not like those bastards at Facebook. I mean your face is not going to be in most of the movie y'know?

I mean wouldn't you want to tell your parents you were in an actual motion picture?

Daikichi Amano is a weirdo.

Daikichi Amano is an odd man himself. His photos are quirky weird to say the least as you can see by clicking here to head to his official site. Lots of eel on woman, eel on man, cocoons, dolls and just overall weirdness. I mean his photos are sometimes happy. See happy Japanese girl eating earthworms!!!




Some are cute with a hint of yucky.



Then some are just outright vomitorium pics.




And finally others are just WTF?!?!




An Inside Look into Daikichi Amano and his world of Japanese eel porn.

Finally, the most informative thing I found was Viceland's video of Daikichi with a group of Americans as they got an inside tour of Japan and their obsession with anime and genki. This video gives a behind the scene look of Daikichi's creation of his "pornos"





If the video doesn't work, click here to watch it.

So now you know what I know. Are you now ill and feel nauseous now? Jeez, I am. I mean I feel like some of these photos are burned into my brain. The one final question you might be asking is:

WHAT THE HELL DOES GENKI MEAN?

Well this dude happily gives us the definition.





Well isn't that ironic. It means happy and full of life. I thought it meant "fucked up fuckedupness". Be genki!!!

Sorry folks, there will probably no reviews for genki porn on the jaded viewer. It's a line that I won't cross. What's yours?

Categories: genki, japan av stars, japan av stars nude, japanese, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, nudity, porn, pornstar

When Roommates Attack: 2LDK (Watch the entire film!)

How do I find some of the movies I watch? It's usually via 6 degrees. You watch one film from a director (in this case Kitamura) and that leads to another film which leads to another, etc. Or then again, I ask Insano Steve what he's been watching.

2LDK is one of those films.

Part of the Duel Project (read about that here) Yukihiko Tsutsumi's 70 minute roommate versus movie is part black humor part chick on chick violence. And it's fuckin awesome on so many levels.

So what's this about?

Nozomi and Lana share an apartment in Tokyo. They have both auditioned for the same role in a movie, and know that the shortlist has been cut down to just the two of them. As they wait the night before finding out who will get the role, their personality clashes erupt into an all-out battle.

Just pure hatred by Nozomi and Lana as they fuck up each other's shit and battle until the last woman is standing. Seriously, this is a hilarious, twisted flick on so many levels. If you've ever had a roommate, you know what its like to have somebody get under your skin. But usually it doesn't involve katanas, chainsaws and knives.....or does it?

Enough talk. Somebody has put the entire movie (with English subtitles!) on YouTube. Shhhhhhhhhhhh. Now you can watch it too. I've posted all the parts below. Get your katana out and slice and dice!

First, the trailer.





OK here is the entire movie. Tell me what you think if you watch the entire movie. It's only 70 min!

Categories: 2ldk, arterial spraying, gore, japanese, japanese bullying, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, ryuhei kitamura, splatter

The Legend of Red Room

Sometimes an underground film becomes legendary becomes it avalanches into something more.

During Insano Steve and myself's heyday of looking for the most fucked up films to watch, we'd have to make contact with horror traders to get our fix. I documented this in a post about Horror Trading circa 2002. It was a weird time and the standard protocol was this:

• You'd dub a movie on VHS in SP mode and make sure to tell your trading counterpart the quality (1st generation dub, 2nd, 3rd, etc)
• You'd trade lists and each person would choose what they wanted (this would entail 1 for 1's, 2 for 2's and sometimes 5 for 5's)
• Send it out as quickly as possible

Of course there were bad traders that burned you (you'd send them stuff but they wouldn't or take their sweet fuckin time to send the tapes to you), but your reputation grew on news groups and message boards if you were a prolific trader. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED was a term you wanted.

But this brings us to how we got two Japanese films called Red Room and Red Room 2. After searching for this movie at horror conventions, we met up up with a one GoreMaggot (a legendary trader) at Chiller. After getting his trading list, many trades were initiated. But I believe Insano Steve initiated a trade for the Red Room double.

Trade for a fucked up Japanese film we've never heard of? Yes we want that! The fact we traded for a movie with no subs and was only in Japanese made it exciting.

Here was my original review from my trading list:

you want underground mofo? this is it. straight from the motherland of sick shit...Japan. holy depravity batman! let's start off by saying this flick had no english subs, no dubbed version...just straight Japanese language. so this negates what i know of the real plot. the movie starts off with an extreme closeup of 2 women french kissing while a guy watches and you know what. anyway 4 people (3 girls and a guy) are trapped in a "red room" and seemingly are talking, arguing and playing a card game. the game consists of 4 cards 3 of which are numbered 1,2, and 3 and the 4th has a crown on it. they each pick a card. the person who selects the crown card gets to order 2 participants to do very sexual and depraved shit to each other. this is where we enter guinea pig territory.

***SPOILERS AHEAD!!!***

a woman is twirled on a chair until she blows chunks, a man has a hair dryer inserted into his mouth and hot air blows into his brain, the man inserts a screwdriver and bulb into a woman's ummm...well you know. guy beats the crap out of a woman and then rapes her. mr. wang gets separated from mr. rapist guy. and more fucked up shit then imaginably possible.

downright disturbing. totally fucked up. sicko perverted atrocities. the insanity of a movie with no morals. lowest common denominator appeal. underground, bootleg, cancerous disgusting. this is it. guinea pig is still the pinnacle but red room has its moments.

This was one of the movies that had THIS company send me a cease and desist e-mail! After I got this movie I had added it to my horror trading list which led to some bullshit copyright crap. In any case, the legend of Red Room was born.

A ridiculous Japanese gore movie, a horror trade, watching a movie without subs and a cease and desist letter. That is the Legend of Red Room.

Intrigued by this movie? Well here is the trailer and now you'll know why we had to see it!





Isn't that just uber fucked up?

Categories: gore, horror trades, japanese, japanese atrocities, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, japanese horror, red room, splatter, underground horror, underground horror movies, underground splatter

Shogun Assassin (Review)

Directed by Robert Houston, Kenji Misumi

Insano Steve says: Greatest samurai movie of all time, action-wise. Shogun-less samurai wanders countryside with infant boy in baby carriage in search of redemption, revenge and gore. Our samurai cuts and kills people with such efficiency, O.J. Simpson would be proud.

No samurai flick has as much splatter, not to mention the awesome killer cart the baby rides in and some of the coolest bad guys in any movie (3 badasses with pointy straw hats - there is no cooler accessory than a pointy straw hat). Shogun wants samurai dead and has hundreds of men, but samurai is a bad mother fucker with no conscience.

The benchmark to which all other swordplay movies will be judged.

HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.

Rating:
The Trailer

Categories: japanese, japanese atrocities, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, samurai

Ringu & Ringu 2 (Review)

Ringu

Directed by Hideo Nakata, Chisui Takigawa

Insano Steve says: The wildly popular Ring is the story of an urban legend where the watching of a certain videotape will cause you to die within a week's time. Female journalist tries to find the existence of this tape and how it came to being. Assisting her is psychic friend who has sight beyond sight which leads to a mysterious island where the secret is revealed. Atmospheric horror neo-classic has unforgettably chilling ending. Be wary of tapes given to you by strangers who have died recently.

See the Japanese version of this film before Hollywood bastardizes the shit out of it.
(oh wait they did and according to Insano Steve, the American version was better!)

Rating:





Ringu 2

Directed by Hideo Nakata

Insano Steve says: Sequel to the Ring explores more of the historical part of the urban legend. Better than the original in many ways, we see a new female investigator trying a bring an end to this curse once and for all. You'd think people would stop watching that tape after so many people died but there probably isn't a whole lot to watch on TV in Japan.

At least Japan is still making quality horror flicks unlike the films defecated out of Hollywood.

Rating:

1/2

The Trailer

Categories: japanese, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, japanese horror, the ring

Audition (Review)

Directed by Takashi Miike

Insano Steve says: Old widower decides he'd like to remarry now in his old age and has his friend (a movie producer) hold a bogus movie audition to find his perfect mate. Old guy finds woman of his dreams but low and behold, she's crazy. Very exciting ending and extremely well crafted thriller. Departure from the usual Miike insanity. Slow but worth the wait.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Rating:

The Trailer

Categories: audition, japanese, japanese atrocities, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, japanese horror, takashi miike

Fudoh: The New Generation (Review)

Directed by Takashi Miike

Insano Steve says: Teenage Yakuza Riki Fudoh has his underage crime syndicate running like clockwork. His team features child assassins and women who shoot vaginal blowgun darts and the usual assortment of misfits. But to claim control of Kyushu island, he must off his father who is the leader of the controlling Yakuza. Fortunately, this can only be achieved violently with as much bloodshed as possible.

Based on a Manga. Gratuitous beheadings, acid burning and hermaphrodites (God bless those sexually gifted freaks) are always appreciated.

Rating:
The Trailer

Categories: horror trading lists, japanese, japanese exploitation, japanese horror, takashi miike

Assault Girls (Trailer)

Screw Legion! The Japanese have their own versions of angels vs demons and it may out legion, Legion. Directed by Mamoru Oshii who gave us Ghost in a Shell and Sky Crawlers, we may have our first international feud in this heaven vs hell subgenre of scifi/horror.

Check out the teaser below.





Compared to Legion (Red Band trailer below), which do you think will be more megapocalyptic? Hey, you know for a fact, Tyrese will shoot a gun in Legion.

Categories: assault girls, assault girls teaser trailer, japanese, japanese anime, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, legion red band trailer

Big Man Japan (Review)

Big Man Japan

Big Man Japan (2007)

Directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto

Everybody talks about trying to get to know somebody else's culture. We Americans talk big, we want to know what life is like outside our borders. But in the end, we mock whats different to us. However, we sometimes embrace other cultures and blend them into our own.

So we can sometimes "get" that dry British humor or add in a Mexican phrase into our lexicon. But I gotta admit, I believe I've only glimpsed the pop culture world of Japan. So after watching Big Man Japan the fact that I know exactly what they are trying to mock makes it totally universal.

Big Man Japan is the ultimate mockumentary of the big monster/Ultraman/superhero subgenre in Japanese subcultures. And it's unbelievably brilliant.

Working off that Office-y feel and throwing in CGI monster battles to boot, I've never seen anything like Big Man Japan. It's a blend of sentimental sadness, hilarious spoof-a-rama and an ending of Monty Python like proportions.

I cannot contain myself with how wonderful and uber-funny Big Man Japan is. Tears streamed from my eyes from continuous laughter.....which ultimately in my book equate to 3 spinkicks of HA HA HA.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

A middle-aged slacker living in a rundown, graffiti-ridden slum, Daisato’s job involves being shocked by bolts of electricity that transform him into a stocky, stick-wielding giant several stories high who is entrusted with defending Japan from a host of bizarre monsters.

But while his predecessors were national heroes, he is a pariah among the citizens he protects, who bitterly complain about the noise and destruction of property he causes. And Daisato has his own problems - an agent insistent on branding him with sponsor advertisements, an Alzheimer-afflicted grandfather who transforms into a giant in dirty underwear, and a family who is embarrassed by his often cowardly exploits.

A wickedly deadpan spin on the giant Japanese superhero, BIG MAN JAPAN is an outrageous portrait of a pathetic but truly unique hero.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

I am not going to go scene by scene as I usually do when I start ranting about a flick I love. Suffice it to say, you need to watch this movie squeaky clean to get the full effect.

But I will tell you a few tidbits to get this on your Netflix or torrent que.

Told in a documentary style gimmick, we meet Daisato. An unseen reporter asks Daisato about his work....which of course entails being Big Man Japan. The questions are often unintentionally (or intentionally) funny and give many moments of pause to Daisato who contemplates his answers like a B list celebrity making sure he gets the best press possible.

The first hour is devoted to this characterology. We see where he lives, what he eats, what others think of him and how he works. Interspliced in all this, we are shown the epic battles between BMJ and the various monsters on the prowl. These include the strangest monsters ever conceived. You have to see it to believe it. Strangler monster, Leaping monster, Stink monster and big red monster are just a few that must battle our hero.

BMJ also has a few people in his life. These include his dog worshipping agent, his grandfather "the fourth" who also served as a Big Man. We also meet his ex wife and a TV blurred daughter who, well let's say has parts of her dad in her.

All this is told in that sympathetic Japanese way, where we are made to care about Daisato. We also discover he doesn't make alot of money, his TV ratings are poor and he has to put sponsored advertisements on his body. This is not your average salaryman.

Every aspect of the movie works perfectly, though sometimes trudges a little long. At 113 minutes, this is a heavyweight of a film where the movie gets you immersed into a land of make believe, one that is so prepostrous I loved every minute of it.

The movie goes back and forth between heartfelt drama and slapstick comedy, to some it may be confusing and may get you film-seasick. But each scene, each moment is so perfectly crafted by Matsumoto, that the fact this was 5 years in the making was time well spent.

Are you still there? You still reading? Well my vagueness is a good thing for this review because the ending is by far the most hilarious scenes I've ever witnessed.

Let me just say this. When you see the "live version" of our favorite TV show Big Man Japan, it was like a moment of clarity.

Everything made sense and it just H-bombed my mind.

Big Man Japan's courage to mock the big robot/radiation spawned monsters of it's pop culture TV and film world is to be applauded. America has done the same to our "grindhouse" culture but Matsumoto does it without being so vicious and curveballing us by making Daisato so puppy doggish you care about him.

But not everybody does. Even though people hate him, he destroys buildings, kills a monster baby and wreaks constant havoc....our hero never wavers, never gives up and always protects his country.

Well actually he didn't do that.

Nevermind.


Gore-ipedia/Nude-ipedia

None of course

WTF moment

The ending. By far one of the funniest endings I've ever seen.

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

The Big Man Japan DVD hits American shores via Magnolia Home Entertainment on July 28th. When it does, get your hands on it. It's culturally universal though I think if you've seen some Ultraman, some Godzilla and some Gamera it would help in noticing the trend of mocks.

Evil Adam will also be posting a review of this and I'll be sending you his take on this awesome flick when its up.

As we Americans do not have a monster subculture (Clover-crap doesn't count) to make fun of, I'm pretty sure this is remake proof.

But remember like I said, we tend to make fun of things we don't understand or sometimes we embrace them. However most of the time, we just steal the idea.

It's the American way.

Check out the official US site.

Rating:

1/2

The Trailer









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big man japan, big man japan trailer , godzilla , cosplay, japanese manga, japan anime, the calamari wrestler, monster movie, japan comedy, big man japan review, ultraman,

Categories: big man japan, big man japan review, big man japan trailer, Dai-Nipponjin, godzilla, japanese, japanese exploitation