Zebraman
Director: Takashi Miike
Writer: Kankurô Kudô
Cast: Shô Aikawa, Kyôka Suzuki, Naoki Yasukôchi, Atsurô Watabe
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

Plot:
Shin’ichi (Shô Aikawa) is a teacher with a rather sad life. He doesn’t like his job, his wife cheats on him, his kids ignore him. The only time he can escape the harsh reality is when he dresses up as Zebraman, a superhero from a short-lived TV show from the 7os. But when he meets Shinpei (Naoki Yasukôchi), a boy in a wheelchair who is as into Zebraman as Shin’ichi is, he wants to share his costume with him. But as soon as he hits the streets, something takes over Shin’ichi and actually turns him into Zebraman. And that is just in time, since an alien invasion is threatening earth.

Zebraman was incredibly campy, a little weird and a barrel full of fun, despite a few lengths in the middle.

I just loved the idea of this superhero. Zebraman. Somehow so much more ridiculous than Batman and I couldn’t even tell you why. And the scenes we got from the 70s show made me wish that it actually existed. They just looked that craptastic. [I even wondered if it didn’t really, but unfortunately no such luck.]

And Miike finds just the right tone to make all this camp work. He doesn’t take everything seriously, but he does care. Of course this only works because of Shô Aikawa who does a great job as Shin’ichi.

Despite that it got a little long around the middle – the usual part where the hero is too beaten down to work could have been a little shorter. And the aliens looked weirdly like they were from a toothpaste commercial which annoyed me a bit.

But the showdown where Zebraman turns into an actual zebra with pegasus-style wings was completely worth it. It was afuckingmazing.

Summarising: Looking very much forward to seeing Part 2.