I Am a Hero (2015)

A manga artist assistant is surprised by a zombie apocalypse.

Director:

Shinsuke Sato

Writers:

Kengo Hanazawa (manga), Akiko Nogi (screenplay)

Stars:

Yô Ôizumi, Kasumi Arimura, Masami Nagasawa

8 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Yô Ôizumi	...	Hideo Suzuki
Kasumi Arimura	...	Hiromi
Masami Nagasawa	...	Tsugumi Oda
Hisashi Yoshizawa	...	Iura
Yoshinori Okada	...	Sango
Nana Katase	...	Tekko
Jin Katagiri	...	Korori Nakada
Makita Sports	...	Matsuo
Muga Tsukaji	...	Mitani
Yu Tokui	...	Abe
Tôru Kazama	...	Chikura
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Natsu Andô
Ryôsuke Hagiwara
Miho Harita
Kazunori Kaneko

Storyline

One day, after returning from work late in the evening, Hideo witnesses a traffic accident in which a car crashes into a nearby pedestrian, killing the victim instantly. However, despite severe injuries including a broken neck, the victim's body stands up and walks away. Hideo questions whether this is another one of his hallucinations, but strange events begin happening around him.

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Plot Keywords:

based on manga | zombie | undead | japanese girl | shot gun | 

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Horror

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

23 April 2016 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Soy hèroe

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$13,770,528

Company Credits

Production Co:

Avex Pictures, Dentsu, East Japan Marketing & Communications Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

126 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Outlet Mall scene was filmed entirely at the mall in South Korea that went out of business few years ago. Due to the strict gun law of Japan, the government did not allow producers to use the gun for the movie.

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Connections

Featured in Document - I Am a Hero (2016)

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Soundtracks

Home on the Range
Music by Daniel E. Kelley and lyrics by Brewster M. Higley
Performed by Allie Goertz

User Reviews

Japanese meditation on the collapse of the status quo.

Just as Ringu was a social metaphor of its times, I am a Hero stabs post 3/11 Japan, after earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear meltdown stripped it of the comfort it took for granted and threw it out into a world where things stopped making sense. The movie follows the average near jobless modern Japanese thirty something's journey through a disheveled society deprived of the civilities his preceding generations have taken for granted where he is left with the ultimate choice to adapt or die.

I am a Hero is my favorite zombie movie next to Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland!! It hacks the manga it's based on and blends it into a movie satisfyingly. A lot of character development goes through the window, but enough is left to make you imagine the rest. Half the staff is Korean whom we can thank for the superior effects, and the script is surprisingly tight for a Japanese production of this budget. Blood flows by the gallon, it has the best panic scene I've seen in any disaster movie, and the ZQN (zombies) are the scariest thing that's been put to film to date because they retain their former selves. None of the cast lets the film down. My sole complaint is an unimaginative crucial scene which feels more metaphorical than physical--removing some of the immediate threat I wished it would convey, but it is a mere skipped beat in a heart pounding sequence which still concludes with a powerful image. If you are familiar with the original work, I must tell you to stay away from the manga till you see the movie though, some of the stuff left out might be harder to swallow with a fresh memory. The movie keeps the main character's imagination, but leaves out the supernatural beyond the early ZQNs--it focuses on the early books, allowing it to stand alone as a zombie movie.