5: SHIN KAMEN RIDER (2023)

DIRECTOR: HIDEAKI ANNO

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

(TW: Light discussion of Nazis, Eugenics, and Cults)

Five movies in, and we’re already starting to go around the world! The term “foreign film” is kind of odd to me, as well as “international film”. It kind of makes the country that calls every other film outside of its country feel superior, and as a person that lives in America, I don’t need another fake-ass reason why we’re superior. The truth is, we have films from all over the world. France, Korea, Russia, and Greece have had all types of Film movements named after them and these countries have risen in popularity at many different times in the history of general cinema. But no country has had quite the rise in popularity for its cinema, or just media as a whole, quite like Japan. For this specific review, and hopefully a lot more, we’re gonna be talking about a sub-genre that made it big in Japan, but doesn’t nearly have as much impact as it does currently in America; Tokusatsu.

Now, you might have scrolled down to the bottom of this review and saw the poster for this movie. It features a guy in a suit, over a trenchcoat, with a helmet representing an animal, and he looks like a superhero. Does that framing bring up anything familiar, it should! Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993–1996) started as Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (1992) (pronounced Key-Yor-Ree-you Sen-tie Joo-Ranger) and Zyuranger is the 16th season of a long running series in Japan called Super Sentai. Where Power Rangers started in the 90s and has lasted for a little over 30 years, Super Sentai started in the 70s and is currently on its 48th Season! That show was created by a Manga-Ka named Shotaro Ishinimori, and his original idea for the show was to have 5 similar versions of a superhero that he made roughly 5 years before the first Sentai team; Kamen Rider.

Kamen Rider has its own incredibly lengthy 50+ year time span, which is why the Kamen Rider brand has become incredibly successful today. Like Power Rangers, there are so many different Riders. One of them is a car, one of them is a ghost, another one is a doctor AND a gamer, and another one is basically Jesus Christ with the power of fruits. But no Rider look is more iconic than the original Ichigo suit from way back in 1971. Not just the suit, the man behind the helmet, Hongo Takeshi, who’s actor would later become gaming icon Segata Sanshiro (seriously look up any commercials under that name they are fucking hilarious), he was Japan’s biggest superhero, and the guy who laid down the groundwork for every Kamen Rider afterward. So it makes total sense that Hideaki Anno, the director behind Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–1996) and his “Shin” series of films, would create a film celebrating the 50th anniversary of the superhero who’s costume he wore to his wedding; lo and behold, Shin Kamen Rider.

This movie takes inspiration from the first few episodes of the show, the original Manga that Ishinimori made, current day political subtext, and real life events that actually occurred when the series was being made. For right now, I want to focus on that last bit, because I think it goes to show how much of a fucking die hard Hideaki Anno is to, not just Kamen Rider, but Tokusatsu as a whole. In the current day, seasons of Kamen Rider would have multiple Riders for one season. Hell, most of Kamen Rider Ryuki (2002–2003) doesn’t have any main evil antagonists that aren’t Kamen Riders themselves. But what’s crazy is that the shear concept of adding extra Riders into a season started because of an accident.

For the first few episodes of the original show, Hiroshi Fujioka, the actor who played Kamen Rider Ichigo, would do his own stunts, something they would later nix because Fujioka shattered his leg when he was performing a stunt. In the show they made it so that Hongo Takeshi had to leave for some off-screen reason, and Hayato Ichimonji took his place as Kamen Rider Nigo. Now, 50+ years later, in this movie, Ichimonji is brainwashed by S.H.O.C.K.E.R, which we’ll get into in a second, and has a fight with Hongo. A fight that ends with Ichimonji BREAKING HONGO’S LEG. After Ruriko, a character that’s been helping Hongo and has ties to the main villain, frees him from his brainwashing, he has to do all the self-realization shit when it comes to being a Kamen Rider, and fights against a Triple Augmented Demon by himself. Ichimonji starts his character arc because of HONGO’S LEG INJURY. That is some fantastic storytelling. When I saw this as a Fathom Event at my movie theater, I freaked out.

Let’s talk about the many villains that this film has. In the original TV Show, Kamen Rider Ichigo fought against Shocker, without an acronym, it’s a global organization that was made by Nazis. The show used Shocker, and its framing of monsters as perfect beings, to bring about themes of Nazi style Eugenics and white supremacy. It’s genuinely crazy to me how people in cheesy rubber monster suits can bring political subtext to the table. Speaking of which, the film goes down an extremely relevant route as Anno makes S.H.O.C.K.E.R, WITH an acronym. S.H.O.C.K.E.R stands for Sustainable Happiness Organization with Computational Knowledge Embedded Remodeling.

Instead of Nazism, the movie makes the bad guy organization into an allegory for Happy Science, a real life cult that is basically Japanese Scientology. Each of the villains take on their forms, known as Augments, and use it as a conduit to fulfill some sort of manufactured happiness like how The Wasp Augment thinks she can become happy by creating a hive mind that serves her, or how The Bat Augment believes that happiness comes in…infecting people with a virus because epidemics make the most impact in human expectancy…The fact that this was made during COVID is very funny. I mean it’s a plot line for the second episode but still it’s very funny.

This movie is not perfect however, there are a bunch of fights that take place in complete darkness. There’s a fight scene where Hongo and Ichimonji go up against Shocker Riders in a tunnel that’s completely dark. There are a few scenes like it, where I did feel that the people behind the film definitely wanted to cut some costs. There is a lot of shaky cam, and it totally works for a few scenes. But when you’re bombarded with it, especially when it’s used in fight scenes, I don’t think it gives that chaotic nature of the scenes all that much justice.

Speaking of over abundance…the dialogue. Hideaki Anno LOVES dialogue. Probably way too much. I know it’s his auteur staple, and he doesn’t add in too much to make it feel distracting, but the fact is, the exposition feels over-explained. I get that Ruriko is basically a Huma-Gear (That’s a Kamen Rider Zero-One (2019–2020) reference for those that aren’t in the know) but that doesn’t mean she should mostly be relegated to the exposition.

But with all of this movie’s faults there are like 20 other positives that I could mention. The CGI that mostly does work, the costumes, the ridiculous fight scenes that aren’t nauseatingly fast, the way that Hongo just JUMPS OUT OF AN AIRPLANE FOR NO REASON, this movie is insane and I loved every second of it. Even with the faults being a tad abundant.

Cinema is a thing that’s cherished all over the world, and one of my goals in life is to learn about as many cultures as I can, and watch as many movies as I can from all over the world. I chose Shin Kamen Rider as the starting point to this around-the-world conversation because the franchise, and Tokusatsu as a whole, is a much bigger cornerstone of Japanese Cinema and Television than most people realize. I’ve talked a lot about how Kamen Rider is responsible for stuff like Power Rangers, but Kamen Rider wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Godzilla (1954), and one of ITS inspirations, King Kong (1933). I’ll get into why those connections are important at a later time, but to wrap all of this up, one of the things I’m interested in is culture. Modern culture, ancient culture, lore and mythology, etc. having cultural analyses about the world we live in makes us understand it more, it can help you answer those “why” questions you have in your head; and while some people may see a cringey looking guy in Grasshopper fetish wear beating up cheesy monster outfits, other people see it as allegories for cults or Nazism.

9.3/10

-Charlie :)