Daikessen! Chô urutora 8 kyôdai (2008)

Director:

Takeshi Yagi

Writer:

Kei'ichi Hasegawa (writer)

Release Date:

13 September 2008 (Japan)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Ultraman Moebius is joined once again by Ultraman, Ultra Seven, Ultraman Jack, and Ultraman Ace, as well as three later Ultramen (Tiga, Dyna, and Gaia) to fight more powerful versions of familiar Ultra Monsters. |

Plot Keywords:

Ultraman | Monster | Ultra Seven | Superhero | Giant

Cast

Hiroshi Nagano	...	Daigo Madoka / Ultraman Tiga
Takeshi Tsuruno	...	Shin Asuka / Ultraman Dyna
Takeshi Yoshioka	...	Gamu Takayama / Ultraman Gaia
Shunji Igarashi	...	Mirai Hibino / Ultraman Moebius
Susumu Kurobe	...	Shin Hayata / Ultraman
Kôji Moritsugu	...	Dan Moroboshi / Ultra Seven
Jiro Dan	...	Hideki Gô / Ultraman Jack
Keiji Takamine	...	Seiji Hokuto / Ultraman Ace
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shiko	...	Nanami Hokuto

Also Known As:

Great Decisive Battle! The Super 8 Ultra Brothers (Japan: English title)
Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers (International: English title)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Company:

Tsuburaya Productions

Another Ultra-movie!

I first saw THE SUPER 8 ULTRA BROTHERS on opening day in Japan, then twice more the following week. The film has gone on to gross more than 800,000,000 Yen (US $8,000,000) at the box office, making it the most successful film in the 42 year history of the Ultraman franchise.

THE SUPER 8 ULTRA BROTHERS sees Ultraman Mebius slip through into an alternate universe where monsters don't exist, and where Ultraman exists only as a TV series. Real monsters soon begin appearing in this world, and a mysterious "red shoed girl" tells Mebius that he must awaken the "seven heroes" in order to save it. But after Mebius is put out of action, it's up to his new friend Daigo to find the heroes.

I admit I was somewhat doubtful upon hearing the film would take place in a parallel universe, ultimately for the amount of time that would have to be spent re-establishing all these characters. Fortunately, it actually works rather well.

The ultimate premise is very similar to the previous film, ULTRAMAN MEBIUS & ULTRAMAN BROTHERS. Both films were written by Ultraman veteran Keiichi Hasegawa, featuring a gathering of Ultra heroes joining forces to defeat an assortment of monsters both old and new. However, at the core they are two very different movies.

ULTRAMAN MEBIUS & ULTRAMAN BROTHERS was really an event movie, hailing the return of the original 4 Ultra Brothers to the screen. The movie was carried by a rather weak story about a young boy Takuto who had lost faith in Ultraman, which played out almost as filler between the monster sequences.

THE SUPER 8 ULTRA BROTHERS centres only around the human alter-egos of the Ultramen, in dealing with their reality falling apart at the hands of the monsters and in their path to discovering their true identities. There is a much greater unity between the human drama and the monster sequences that really makes this a stronger movie altogether.

Long-time TV series director Takeshi Yagi makes his feature film debut, taking on a dual role as both Director and Director of Special FX. Though I have always enjoyed Kazuya Konaka's direction on the Ultraman films, Yagi provides something a little more fresh. The cinematography alone is very impressive, and the film as a whole feels a little more kinetic.

The film's music was composed by Toshihiko Sahashi, who scored the previous film, as well as the ULTRAMAN MEBIUS, ULTRAMAN GAIA and various entries in the KAMEN RIDER TV series. I wasn't really sure what to make of Sahashi's score at first. Upon subsequent viewings and hearing the soundtrack CD, I think perhaps his pre-title tracks are so good that they overshadow the music in the rest of the film. Altogether, it's a pretty solid score at least on par with ULTRAMAN MEBIUS & ULTRAMAN BROTHERS, with a couple of really astounding tracks thrown in.

Also worthy of mention, this was the Ultraman film shot entirely in HD. This difference is quite apparent (at least on the big screen) when the film inter-cuts with "flashback" footage from the previous film. I'm looking forward to see how the film looks on the Blu-ray Disc release later this month.

Though perhaps an odd comment to make, I also loved the color pallet. After the 1970s, film series such as GODZILLA tended to move more towards "reality", and as such the color pallets started to become dominated with greys, browns and blacks. Both THE SUPER 8 ULTRA BROTHERS and ULTRAMAN MEBIUS & ULTRAMAN BROTHERS have presented really vibrant imagery reminiscent of the golden age of monster movies in Japan.

Overall, I found this to be one of the best of the Ultraman features, alongside ULTRAMAN: THE NEXT and ULTRAMAN GAIA: BATTLE IN HYPERSPACE, and certainly looking forward to watching it again. A shame the bloated, big budgeted GODZILLA: FINAL WARS couldn't produce a monster battle royale as well as the last two Ultraman features.