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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Modernist Japan under the spotlight, 10 Dec 2009
Big Man Japan, Is a "reallife" type documentary of the living day to day of a monster hunter. It looks inot all aspects of the monster hunterrs life and explores some of his repressed feeligsa round what he is forced by fate to have to do. This film has been through the review mill but the subtle pointers to American / Japanese post war relatioships, the general state of sciety and global decay in popular Japanese pop culture. There are many comical elements in the monster genre, and Japan is the centre of monster buff culture. So what is ground-breaking here ? and why view this movie over and above other films of this genre. Our Central character - the big man opitimises the modern middle aged man who in society has lost his place / status due to sexual equality and globalisastion, huis particular skill is "monster bashing",. The movie attemps to make a paraody of his life in comparision to the old times / culture of respect heroes where in the time honoured tradition the great "warriors" would go out and defend the people and cities against hienious demonic invasion. The difference here is that the big man, is no longer a reveared hero of the people but a public nuisance. The general public are de-sensitised by the constant stream of monsters and have low expectation of the impact and damage they can cause on there lives. This desentisisation leads to all all out dispresect to the work of the "big man" in destroying demons to the point (in paraody fo the way in modern warfare we now respond to civilian death) where he is activly pursued by pressure groups and the public over various rights to live as well as the ensuing fallout from a monster battle - collateral damage. The relationship he has with the previous monster bashing her "the forth" as well leaves an impact on our big man. The forth represents he golden age of monster bashing due to his age and status and despite senile dementia still wields respect that the current big man cannot. the Big man lives a hand to mouth life of denial over his relationship breakdown and his lack of interst from his daughter. He is in fact a victim of society's expectation abd the failure of his family life being a result of this. Th egrand finale of the film is a quipsical influx of amiercan supeheroism where the role of the big man is thoroughly underminded. This symbolises the power of American over japanese pop media and trivialises the plight of a "real" man with a "real life" portraying him as a comic book type caption hero. The big man longs to be free of his responsabilities and in fact the ending does that. he , a symbol of janese popular utlure is untterly trivialised and uindermined by the american super hero family this is cleverly done by falsyfing the film set with cheap costumes and a joke city . its clever and makes an underlying point that at the end of it we care little about what is realy or not we just want to see a good show full of action without paying any attention to the emotional position of those in the key roles. You cannot help but feel sorry for the Big Man and his lot in life, in the way he tries to trivialise and push aside emotions through to accepting his fate and lot in life as someone who just cannot make it. not through his own action s mind you more to do with attitudes to who / what he is. It is a tease at discrimination and a poke at how society reacts against a handicap. there are hugh comical moments to be had but the underlying base of the film is about the impact of social change and discrimination.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easy a big 5!, 30 Aug 2009
Watched this last night - for the second time.
I can't believe how very very good this one is.
I have read comments elsewhere, and the reception it gets has been varied. While it's funny, and other reviewers here call it "hilarious", I would add the warning that a lot of this film had a subtle, under-stated humour. I have read others calling it "slow", and I can actually accept some might find it so. The non-monster fighting sequences are subtle, and for me incredible. It's a long way from slapstick farce.
For me none of this was a problem - I just went along with it and had a good time. And it IS a good time, it has to be one of the best films I've seen in the last year.
And that final 15 minutes? Irreverent, mad, brilliant, and crazy! Finally the film does go straight for the laughs, and it worked wonderfully.
If you see this and are tempted to turn it off after 10 minutes, please stick with it. It's a slow burner, with a terrific pay-off.
The end? Makes barely a lick of sense. So don't rack your brain trying to figure it out, just go along with it. It's like you're getting a high-budget, and low-budget version of the film in one go. --LOL--
Amazing flick!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Both hilarous and touching - a true original, 12 Aug 2009
I saw this film a while back at the Sci-Fi London Festival and it completely blew me away.
this film is a true original, with some hilarious CGI monster battle scenes and a final 15 minutes that just has to be seen to be believed..
Essentially it's a mockumentary about the current 'Dai-Nipponjin' (aka Big Man Japan), a man who is fated to prevent Japan from being mashed up by a whole slew of CGI monsters. He leads a humdrum existence, but when needed is is called to a nearby power station and transformed into a 40 foot tall giant with Troll like hair and then goes to battle with several monsters over the course of the film..
Sweet, touching, extremely funny and truly bizarre, this is one film to amaze all your friends with and keep to watch again and again...
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