Movie review: Dai-Nipponjin aka Big Japanese Man (2008)

WARNING:  Contains spoilers!!

OVERALL: 6.8/10

Plot: 7/10
Cinematography: 6.5/10
Entertainment value: 6.7/10
Movie to wait for DVD: Unfortunately…YEAH
Rewatchability: Once in a while…
Movie to purchase: Yes

I heard about this film last year while reading through my program book at the TIFF’07(Toronto International Film Festival) and quickly went online to find info about this movie.  Now this is what I’ve read about the film at the time.  It’s a Comedy/Mockumentary about the life of a japanese superhero that transforms into a giant and battles monsters.(I know it sounds odd, but what can you say it’s a Japanese film.)  So that definitely grabbed my attention to go and find a trailer for this film.  I finally found it on a Japanese site and watched it and it made me even more interested now wanting to check this film out.  Unfortunately, I missed it last year, but I got a chance to see it a couple of nights ago, so here goes.

The story starts off with a camera crew and a voice of the interviewer asking the public about Big Japanese Man then immediately cuts to following what appears to be a semi-homeless man, with a terrible taste of 70s fashion, long black hair walking and talking on the streets.  Describing how he loves Japan and the neiborhood he grew up in and all that good stuff.  In next scene you see that same homeless looking man buys some stuff at the local convience store and asks the crew to come home with him.  As the crew arrives at his shockingly poor shack of a house, with graffiti all over his fence (Cartoony drawings of Ultraman saying “DIE”) and trash all over his front yard.  By this point, you as the audience know that this is our hero and he has lots to talk about/explain regarding his lifestyle.  The interviewer’s questions in the film seems to be very harsh, comedic and rude.  But our main character just takes it one dose at a time until 1/4 through you realize that in this story, a superhero’s personal life isn’t what you or I could have dreamt it to be.  As the movie progresses, the more verbal beating our character gets about himself. Which just makes you look at this man with pity.  Through out the entire film you are introduced to some other important characters: like his gold digging manager who only cares about the contents of her wallets/sponsors, his pretty wife whom he is now separated from and considering a divorce because she fell in love with her boss/friend, a grandfather who was a honorable and well praised 4th generation superhero now living in a retirement home, and lastly his loving daughter whom he misses and treasures a lot.  Oh let’s not for get about his cat as well.  The movie goes on for a bit of Q&As with a few cut scenes of him turning into a giant running around the city of Japan in his purple underwear and a pathetic little stick which he uses to beat his opponents up with.

I have to say that some scenes in the film tends to drag, but that’s the documentary part of it.  I think the film was done through improvsation, which helped add realism to it.  The monster battling scenes were enjoyable if you like cheesy CGI with pictures of cities from japan slapped as the background and watching a godzilla-like monsters get crazy atomic wegies in the middle of the city.  The movie is enjoyable in my opinion because it is something different and some what bizarre in a funny way.  Basically, if you are into something funny and odd you should check this movie out.