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

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

Strong but too long zombie flick

Some loser manga artist has a fight with his girlfriend. She kicks him out of the apartment. When he returns the next day she attacks him, she's turned into a zombie. By now most of the town is affected, those attacked turn right away into zombies. Our hero whose only remaining possession is a shotgun escapes into a cab with a school girl. Of course on their escape the cab driver crashes. Now the two are on foot and a message from someone tells them that the disease can't stand the cold so everyone should go to mount Fuji.

On the way there they run arrive at an outlet mall where humans have made a base. Plenty of zombies though haunt the court. It turns out that the school girl has been bitten by a zombie baby and she's turning into one, very slowly. Our hero claims that she's just ill and the rest of the crowd accepts it because the girl does sleep and zombies don't. Of course eventually they will find out what's going on with her.

The gang has a plan and map to reach a warehouse for supplies but not much in terms of weapons or protection, not to mention that most of them are cowards. During the mission lots of them surprisingly end up dead.

The zombies also reach the roofs of the buildings where the humans live and the remaining ones where hiding. All that forces our loser to become the hero of his dreams and of his manga stories. And 15 minutes before the end he will finally put that shotgun to good gory use.

I Am a Hero is about 30 minutes too long and too slow. But it has a good unlikely lead character, pretty girls, a decent story that at some point even gets philosophical when someone explains that the zombies live in their past and are probably happier than us. It does something that hasn't been done in a while, it gives us a zombie character that stands out--a gymnast zombie with its head smashed in who will also be the final nemesis. While funny horror movies aren't really my thing, this one is humorous and it worked. But the highlight is the exhilarating shotgun action. I Am a Hero deserves a better score that it has here, it does stand out among the dozens of forgettable zombie movies released every year.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

23 April 2016 (Japan)

Also Known As:

I Am a Hero

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