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Showing posts with label Tokusatsu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tokusatsu. Show all posts
Space Sheriff 2 In 1 Movie : Sharivan Next Generation + Shaider Next Generation
King Kong vs Godzilla (1962)
Plot
The story takes place seven years after the events of Godzilla Raids Again (1955). A U.S. nuclear submarine known as the Seahawk spots a strange light emanating from a large iceberg in the Arctic. The crew discovers that something inside it is causing the light and goes in to investigate. While submerged, the sub ends up crashing into the iceberg, accidently releasing the dreaded King of the Monsters, Godzilla, from his icy tomb. The radiactive dinosaur quickly makes his way to his Japanese homeland and destroys an attacking army base with relative ease.
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']]}Lady Battle Cop (1990)
Lady Cop looks like a female Kidou Keiji Jiban, which is a fantasy-techno-non-futurist Robocop. They are all the same thing: someone gets hurt and a ultrascret project saved their lives , turning into a robot. So its time to get a good weapon and... revenge! The camera tricks (like wearing a mask) are really bad for a movie. The special effects are low budget, but its OK. The strange thing is that doesn't look like a Toei's movie, but a Toei's series. There's a lot of theme songs and in the end of the movie appears "The battle is just beginning". Does it supposed to have a Onna Battle Cop 2? My guess is that it supposed to be a pilot for some TV series. Even the end of the movie looks like an TV tokusatsu ending (like Juspion or Kamen Rider Black, posing like great heroes on a black background).
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']]}All Monsters Attack (DVD)
Ichiro is a latch-key kid in late 1960s Japan, a country drowning in urban blight and big, nasty bullies. He escapes his dreary life by dreaming of Monster Island, a fantasy world where Godzilla rules and Ichiro is befriended by Godzilla's son, Minilla, who's experiencing his own troubles with a bully monsters, Gabara. When Ichiro is kidnapped by crooks, the lessons learned from his monster pals help him stand up for himself and fight back.
All Monsters Attack (1969) was a turning point, the first Godzilla movie for children, with scaled-down production (the monster battles are a greatest-hits reel of scenes from previous movies). Directed by Ishiro Honda, this heartfelt film is classic family entertainment and an all-out monster melee. Featuring the original Japanese-language edition with subtitles, and the English-dubbed edition known in the U.S. as Godzilla's Revenge.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• English subtitles
• Audio commentary by Richard Pusateri
• Ishiro Honda biography
• Original Japanese trailer
• Anamorphic widescreen
• Japanese version runtime: 69:17
• English dubbed version runtime: 69:12
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']]}Power Rangers: Ninja Sentai Kakuranger: The Complete Series
Four hundred years ago the Youkai (supernatural monsters from Japanese fairy tales) were at war with a group on ninja. The conflict ended when the five most powerful ninja managed to seal the Youkai leader, Nurarihyon, and all of the Youkai energy behind the mystic "Seal Door" trapping him and robbing all of the Earth's Youkai of the powers forever.
Well, maybe not forever.
Fast forward to contemporary times. When a powerless but wily Youkai, Kappa, finds two of the decedents the ninja who originally sealed away the Youkai's power, he tricks them into opening the Seal Door while the protector of the door, a young girl named Tsuruhime, isn't looking. That not only releases Nurarihyon, but also returns all of the Youkai's evil powers. After so many years hiding from humans, the Youkai decide it's time to take their rightful place at the top of the food chain... and that means destroying the human race.
The only thing that's stopping the Youkai is Tsuruhime. Luckily she knows a thing or two. Taking the two young men under her wing, she brings Saizou and Sasuke to a place where their ancestor's swords are imbedded in the ground. Once they pull them out, they receive Doron Changers that allows them to turn into Kakuranger with ninja powers and abilities. These three track down the other two decendents of the original ninja, Seikai and Jiraiya, and together they form the Kakurangers! Traveling around in a sentient food service trunk that acts and looks like a cat and is named Nekomaru (and sleeping in tents at night), the group battles the Youkai wherever they appear.
This show follows the pattern laid out by the nearly dozen and a half series that preceded it, but there are some differences that make keep things interesting. As with other Super Sentai shows, the Kakurangers have giant robots that they employ to battle their enemies: the Giant Beast Generals. One difference in this series is that the Rangers have two sets of fighting robots. The second set, that pop up several episodes into the series, are the Beast General Fighters. These more agile and lighter weapons are autonomous and do not have to be piloted by a Ranger (though they can be to gain even more power). Like other shows these Rangers also have motorcycles that they sometimes use, though for some odd reason they are modeled after sharks. This is the first Super Sentai show that has a female team leader too. It was nice to see Tsuruhime in a position of power, and the character fit the role too. She was easily the most level-headed of the five even though she is the youngest.
A monster-of-the-week show for the most part, the program keeps from getting monotonous by slowly filling in some of the background of the rangers and mixing it up with some multi-part stories and story arcs that will thread their way through several episodes. One example of the latter is Dr. Yugami, a mad scientist Youkai who creates new inventions to destroy the Kakurangers. He's first employed by Tengu, he's later taken on by a major villain, Young Noble Jr, a punk rock Youkai who causes the Kakurangers no end of trouble. (In his natural form he's a skeleton warrior named Gashadokuro that Power Ranger fans will recognize as Rita Repulsa's brother Rito Revolto.)
I have enjoyed the two previous Super Sentai shows that Shout! Factory has released, and this one is no exception. It's a lot of goofy fun. I have to admit that I wasn't as enamored of this season as I was of the previous two, but it was only by a small degree. One of the complaints that I have is that this show seems to be aimed at a much younger audience and therefore feels a bit campy (in the bad sense of the word). There is a narrator through much of the show who appears occasionally to explain just what's going on. They'll cut to him sitting behind his desk after a character turns into a monster and say something along the lines of "that guy just turned into a Youkai!" as if we didn't know. When a Youkai appears, they also put his name up on the screen, which is all well and good, but there's also an arrow pointing to him, just in case you can't figure out who they're talking about. (And more times than not, there's only one person on the screen too.) Finally, for some reason they decided to include Batman (1966) inspired written sound effects that fly across the screen during some (but thankfully not all) of the fights. These are minor qualms, but they served to remind me that I was watching a show aimed at young kids which didn't happen in the earlier shows.
There's a lot to like about this show too. Like the earlier seasons it's filled with odd and strange monsters that I really enjoy. My favorites this time around have to be the Dorodoros, the expendable foot soldiers that the rangers often fight before changing. In this series, they are patterned after the character in Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream. They have misshapen heads and ovals for eyes and a mouth and when they appear they even hold their hands near their faces as if imitating the picture. It's just so unexpected to see a reference to an Expressionist painting in a kids show that you have to love it.
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