Second Trailer For Miike's ZEBRAMAN 2!

by Todd Brown, March 8, 2010 11:55 AM

Here comes stripey fury! It's a second trailer for Takashi Miike's Zebraman 2, the sequel to his 2004 hit that reunites the director with writer Kankuro Kudo and star Sho Aikawa in another very silly ode to Japanese hero culture.

Synopsis via Nippon Cinema:

In the year 2025, Tokyo has been transformed into "Zebra City". In the Zebraman's absense, a woman calling herself Zebra Queen (Riisa Naka) has formed a zebra army and instituted "Zebra Time" throughout the city by force. Shinichi Ichikawa (Show Aikawa) suddenly wakes up with no recollection of his past, but instinctively returns to his super hero ways.

Video

10 Comments

by coldesser, March 8, 2010 3:26 PM

Looks like a Lady Gaga music video. xD
This movie is going to rock my world.

by Greg Christie, March 8, 2010 5:12 PM

Hmmm. I don't think Miike excites me at all anymore. I really loved the first half of Zebraman when it was about a pathetic insecure school teacher pretending to be a superhero and escaping to a fantasy world, that in itself is an awesome story. All that business with Flubber or whatever that shit from the Robin Williams movie was lame. And that seems to be the last time Miike's done what he's best at, social satire. I could barely stand to watch Yatterman without cringing in self loathing embarrassment. Miike's done some interesting stuff 10 years ago but I think he may be the single most over-rated Asian directors idolized in the west. Why hasn't Ryu Murakami written or directed anything lately?

Todd Brown replied to comment from Greg Christie, March 8, 2010 5:19 PM

I hear what you're saying - and am not really a fan of Yatterman, either - but don't feel it to the same extreme. I think the thing to remember with Miike is that he's always considered himself a blue collar craftsman. He seldom originates his own projects and takes a fair bit of pride in simply working all the time on whatever people send him that seems interesting. We're seeing a change in his work because as he's found success he's being offered different types of projects.

That said, I really do think Crows 0 stands up with his best work - I see it as a continuation of his Young Thugs movies - and I have very high hopes for Thirteeen Assassins. I'm on the plus side for Sukiyaki as well. I suppose the dual drawback of bigger budget projects is the requirement to play more to the big budget crowd and that when projects fail they fail much more obviously and in front of great numbers of people than they did back in the day when he cranked out four or five no budget cheapies a year. Back then only one a year would be any good, usually, but nobody ever saw the bad ones.

And again, that said, HELL YES on the Murakami question. I want more, too!

ChevalierAguila replied to comment from Greg Christie, March 9, 2010 5:24 AM

Some interesting stuff 10 years ago? Some? Ten years ago? You seem to have forgotten about Gozu, Visitor Q, Happiness of the Katakuris, among others. The most overrated asian director in the west? There are plenty of candidates for that spot, plenty for sure. Miike has always appealed to just a very specific audience.

Miike hasn't lost his touch at all, he's a very diverse director and can do, and has already done, a lot of stuff in almost every genre you could think of. Boiling him down to just one type of film, of idea, of social commentary or whatever doesn't do any justice to his massive body of work. Seems to me that you're just complaining about no getting a certain type of movie.

by Agent Wax, March 8, 2010 10:40 PM

Ehhh, something wrong with the Twitch server? Or is it my computer? one of the Twitch-hosted videos can play.

Todd Brown replied to comment from Agent Wax, March 9, 2010 12:20 AM

Working fine for me.

by Agent Wax, March 9, 2010 5:52 AM

Works now. I couldn't play any of the videos hosted on Twitch earlier today. External hosted ones were fine.

by anton_es, March 9, 2010 5:58 AM

same here. none of the twitch videos plays for me. Says: on ho ! error or turn off adblocker.
auto-login also never works.

concerning Miike: like being said, for 2 good miike films/year there were 3 bad ones (and I mean: really bad). In my perception nothing changed over the years, budgets maybe but not so much the quality. I don't have to have a woman shitted upon, raped and stomped in the face every movie he does if you maybe think he lost his "edge". Crows is one of his best movies imo. Hell, I even loved yokai war.

by Bobby Fischer, March 12, 2010 12:41 AM

Crows Zero was a return to form? Are you kidding? It was horrible ... the female characters had no reason to be there at all, the fight scenes were awful ... just a poor film. Next you'll tell me that Masters of Horror was good (one of the worse films of all time).

Nevertheless, Miike has made more classics than most directors (of any race) do films in their lifetime: Bodyguard Kiba was an extremely enjoyable bit of fluff (the follow-up didn't cut it though), Full Metal Yakuza was great fun, Rainy Dog is one of the best films of all time, Young Thugs is a classic, the Dead or Alive series is a classic, Silver is a hoot ... almost addictive, N-Girls vs. Vampire should be horrible but it somehow has moments that captivate you (the vampire scenes are the letdown, but the simple scenes with the kids affect you), Audition is a horror classic, The Happiness of the Katakuris is sublime, Ley Lines is great, Deadly Outlaw Rekka ... another classic, Gozu is an all time great masterpiece, Ichi the Killer is another classic, Zebraman was amazing, The Way to Fight was very good, and I could list many more truly great films by him (mostly yakuza) but you get the gist.

Miike gives everything a shot and never seems to sleep. How he does so many films is beyond understanding. Thus, his work is hit or miss -- it sometimes just misses, and sometimes reaches the highest heights. Clearly, this guy is one of the all time great filmmakers.

ChevalierAguila replied to comment from Bobby Fischer, April 4, 2010 1:37 PM

Crows Zero was a crowd pleaser, but done well enough. No return to anything yes, but an ok movie.

It's also funny how people are just obsessed with superlatives these days, everything is either the worst thing ever or the best thing ever, nothing in between. Imprint was neither of the two, it has some great sequences, but as a whole is not that memorable.

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