Big Man Japan

Going on their cinematic output the strangest countries in the world seem to be Canada and Japan. And Japan makes Canada look like tame in the wacky stakes. Hitoshi Matsumoto’s Big Man Japan is about a Daisato (played by director, one of Japan's best-loved comedians and who also co-wrote the script) whose livelihood depends on him using vast amounts of electricity to change into a giant superhero with purple briefs and sporting sponsor slogans anda hairdo to put Don King to shame  who then battles psychopathic monsters, his exploits being the basis of a long-running TV show. Like all Big Things however, his novelty has worn off and with falling ratings and complaints about his destruction of public property his career is on the downward spiral. Meanwhile a TV documentary crew are following his day-to-day activities.

Perhaps to Japanese audiences this story has some significance but to Westerners it’s not likely to mean much and can only be considered interesting according to some kind of inverted criteria (which, as indicated, may be quite normal in Japan which has a monster movie tradition that stretches back to Godzilla). What appeal the film has will probably be in the fight sequences when Daisato turns in to a gi-normous superhero and battles the assortment of malevolent "baddies", and the overall sense of the off-kilter world that this fallen star inhabits. Big Man Japan is not big on substance but for odd-ball value it is it huge.

DVD Extras: Original Trailers; Stills Gallery

Available from: Madman

 

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