12/13/09

Big Man Japan

(mini-review)

Just when I thought I had seen it all...Big Man Japan is a mockumentary that follows a superhero around Japan as he battles weird monsters and contends with low ratings. You see, his travails are televised. His agent tries to beef up the show's revenue by placing advertisements on his bare chest. The creatures he faces range from a hoop earring with a combover to an effeminate stink crab. Yeah. I shouldn't say anything else about the storyline. You wouldn't believe half of this shit anyway. It's ineffably uncouth. Despite the haywire premise, this is actually a bland film.

I know what you're thinking; how could an extreme oddity like Big Man Japan possibly be boring? I don't know, but it is. The bulk of the narrative is delivered through monotonous interviews. The action sequences are largely uneventful. The characters are interminably prosaic. Everything feels customary. Obviously, there are entertaining spates of absurdity, but they don't last long enough. I can say that I truly enjoyed the ending, which will bewilder any halfway involved viewer, even if you stopped paying attention at the 90-minute mark. It defies description. Literally. I mean, it defies twist endings.

I usually make a note of the running time because if a movie fails to leave me enrapt, the length of the movie seems to serve as a stern warning, a warning that I choose to ignore. Big Man Japan clocks in at 113 minutes. Oh, brother. I wanted to dig this flick, but its pace didn't match its wonky concept. These are the features of Big Man Japan. That was an in-joke.

3 comments:

  1. I'm pretty much in agreement with you on this one, although I liked it marginally more. Maybe 3 Zdars, if only for sheer batshit craziness and originality.

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  2. Im very curious for this one, but thanks for the boredom warning. Still, this movie looks insane...Ill be reviewing it at some point!

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  3. The trailer had me intrigued as well but I have been hearing nothing but bland reviews of the film. Might give it a go something out of curiosity

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