Review: Big Man Japan (2007)

I posted the trailer to this film back in March. It released here in the States in May. I've finally had a chance to check it out.

BIG MAN JAPAN (大日本人) is the story of a Japanese man, Daisato ("big Sato") Masaru. The film begins in a documentary style, following this man around town and back into his home. He lives alone with a cat. His wife has left with his only child. His grandfather is in a nursing home due to dementia. He doesn't have or make much money. He is not accepted in society and is often taunted or ridiculed by his community.

His post is at the "Department of Monster Prevention." It's plausible because of the way the movie was shot and a huge help comes from on-screen talent who effectively sell this silly (silly = good at Inland Empirical) premise; aside from the fight scenes, it does feel like a genuine documentary.

So it breaks down like this, Daisato gets a call from the Ministry of Defense whenever a large monster (kaiju) attacks Japan. Daisato makes his way to the nearest power plant to harness electricity via his nipples. The electricity makes his body gigantic and he becomes a superhero or a monster or neither, he is Big Man Japan (Dai Nipponjin) towering over the city, battling visiting monsters with a stick. He has no real power other than the stick and an inherited ability to become a giant. He is the 6th in his paternal line to hold this position and with each generation, it has lost quite a bit of prestige. Japan, if they take notice at all, look down on him as merely another civil servant and an ineffective one at that.

This is a strange film (I can't stress this enough) with a great premise, but I often found myself distracted. It was a downer of a movie. The protagonist never really pulls himself out of his sad but completely ordinary life. And where he might have had a chance to shine--being Big Man Japan--he is only burdened. I was amazed that such a film could be so dull but it was exactly what it was supposed to be when actor/director Matsumoto Hitoshi wrote his screenplay. It is a boring masterpiece.

Fight scenes with The Strangling Monster, The Evil Stare Monster, The Stink Monster, etc. are great. They're disturbing and odd and funny. These are the bits of excitement that are more in line with what you've already seen in the trailer.

I've mentioned it here before (I think, when I did my Tokyo Zombie writeup), but the Japanese sense of humor is different than what we know here in the U.S. I'm sure this film will be that much harder for Americans to understand. BUT, if you are a fan of the big monster/kaiju films, things Japanese, bizarre stuff, then definitely check this one out. Towa Tei did the music--you love that. Big Man Japan did, at certain points, make me want to go back to Japan and/or pause the film and roll things up Katamari-style on the Playstation.

Cheers.