Zebraman (2004)

A down-and-out school teacher receives the calling to become the real life personification of an old television superhero, Zebraman.

Director:

Takashi Miike

Writer:

Kankurô Kudô (screenplay)

Stars:

Shô Aikawa, Kyôka Suzuki, Atsuro Watabe

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shô Aikawa	...	Shin'ichi Ichikawa / Zeburâman
Kyôka Suzuki	...	Kana Asano
Atsuro Watabe	...	Oikawa at the Defence Agency
Yui Ichikawa	...	Midori, Shin'ichi's daughter
Kôen Kondô	...	Segawa
Naoki Yasukôchi	...	Shinpei Asano
Makiko Watanabe
Keisuke Mishima
Yu Tokui
Yôji Tanaka
Arata Furuta	...	Owner of Candy Shop
Kumiko Asô	...	Newscaster
Akira Emoto	...	Kani-Otoko
Yoshihiko Hakamada
Ryô Iwamatsu	...	Kanda

Storyline

Being a failure as a teacher and a family man, Shinichi tries to escape everyday life by dressing up as "Zebraman", the superhero. Although the TV series was canceled after only 6 episodes, this cannot stop him from acting out his escape fantasy in a self made zebra-suit. He gets more then he could ever wish for when his black-and-white dressed alter-ego seems to be the only thing to stand between absolute (green) evil and a happy ending.

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Plot Keywords:

non comic book superhero | character name as title | zebraman character | teacher | superhero | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

15 August 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Человек-зебра

Filming Locations:

Mitsukaido City, Ibaraki, Japan

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$224,832 (Japan), 13 February 2004, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bingo Y.K., DENTSU Music And Entertainment, Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the introductory section of the film, Shinichi Ichikawa/Zebraman, is watching a parody of Super Sentai/Power Rangers where the hero fights Sadako Yamamura from "The Ring". Ironically, this seems to predict the plot of the 2007 film, "Kamen Rider: The Next", which features a Sadako-like antagonist and a plot similar to "The Ring".

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Goofs

At the end of the movie, the Colonel (the military officer in charge of the task force that is investigating the alien invasion through out the movie) refers to President Bush in his phone call when the movie takes place in 2010 (two years after Bush's last term in office).

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Quotes

Shin'ichi Ichikawa: Striping evil!

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Connections

Spoofs Kamen Rider (1971)

User Reviews

quirky and interesting, though not always compelling

This is an odd little movie. Some nebbishy teacher sews a recreation of a suit from a short-lived superhero show, and find himself dealing with aliens. The movie doesn't make a lot of sense, unless it's all this guy's fantasy, and the movie doesn't really play much with that possibility, instead just letting it all unspool. I like some sort of rationale for what happens in a film, but the audience is expected to just accept that all of this happens for no good reason at all. The silliness of the aliens and a few other things give it the quality of a kid's movie, but even kids movies generally make some attempt to explain stuff.

There are some cool things in this movie. The dead-on recreations of a cheesy Japanese TV show, the relationship between the low-key teacher and the disabled child, the final amusing superhero battle, but I was never fully invested in the story, perhaps because it lacked rationality or perhaps because it was just kind of slow moving and a bit muddled.

Neither as weird or as good as Miike's Happiness of the Katakuris, Zebraman is acceptable but not much more.