Big Man Japan

After a nice serial killer movie it always good to cleanse your pallet with something in the fantasy/comedy vein or choose something so strange and different that it pushes all the violent images right out of your head. I had to go and choose something that not only cleaned out my brain but also deposited its own form of messed up weirdness. Leave it to the Japanese to come up with another batshit crazy monster movie unlike anything you have ever seen. The Japanese have a tradition of movies about creatures who grow to enormous size due to the radioactive fallout from the atomic bomb blasts at the end of WW II. Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and now BIG MAN JAPAN. With hair like North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and his purples underwear he is the last line of defence for the monster ravaged islands of Japan. Trust me, you have never seen a movie quite like this. Its like if every Power Rangers episode was put into a blender and mixed to create a smoothy. Then you drank the smoothy and whatever came out the other end was a movie. Like 'Robot Chicken' only live action. Does that make any sense? No? Well it shouldn't? No matter how long I live I will never understand the culture that could create something so craptastically great as this. The film begins with a lone man being interviewed documentary style about his mundane day to day life. If I didn't see the trailer and knew what was coming I may have stopped watching the movie early on since this guy's life is not very interesting. You wonder why anyone would be interviewing this sad sack in the first place. However, we soon see how unique he really is and what job he performs in society. He uses electricity to grow 60 feet tall so that he can fight monsters threatening his nation (didn't see that one coming did you?). Clad only in a purple pair of underwear and carrying a big stick, 'Big Man Japan' is ready to put his tattooed body between the monsters and the innocents they threaten. Radio and television warn the population not to get to close or do anything to 'disturb his mood' lest he turn on them - a common theme is many Godzilla movies. The movie spoofs both the giant monster genre and superheroes in general but does it in a totally earnest way. They play the situations as if it was totally normal for these things to happen. 'Big Man Japan' is depressed about his life and job but like most of us he just carries on and shows up for work when called upon. He even has a manager to keep all his appointments with sponsors straight. Even though his battles are broadcast all over the country, they are shown during 'dead time' early in the morning so his ratings are low. This is just one more thing he is down about. When asked by the interviewer how he changes back to normal size his manager nonchalantly answers, "If you ignore him he will come back down to size". Just another day at the office for 'Big Man Japan' (which could also be one of the coolest names for a superhero ever). The monsters he fights are creatures out of some bad acid trip (like the slinky monster with the bad comb over who likes to tear down building). I know I had to check to see if someone had spiked my vodka when they first started to appear. I love the way they use archival footage to show that our hero is just another 'Big Man' in a long line of protectors going back to the end of the Second World War. Only his generation has it much harder than in his grandfather's time. He laments the poor quality of the monsters he is charged to fight and blames it on the economy. I guess no one wants to be a monster anymore or a monster killer. There is just no money in it. He even has to take the train just to go meet the monsters. Seem they don't like to travel and prefer another part of the country far from his home town. Just when you think things couldn't get any stranger...well...the giant baby shows up. You just can't make shit like this up and I am glad to have once again taken a chance on something obscure only to be delighted. Now all I need is my 'Big Man Japan' action figure.