Who will save us from the scourge?

Zebraman

Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Director: Takashi Miike
Running time: 115 minutes
Language: Japanese
Currently showing

What genre conventions hasn't Takashi Miike bent, twisted or simply exploded? How about "Audition," whose tender dream of May-December love segues into an S&M nightmare? How about "Katakurike no Kofuku (The Happiness of the Katakuris)," the horror musical with the singing and dancing zombies and the Claymation interludes? Or "Dead or Alive," the gritty yakuza movie whose a climactic fight scene is straight out of a worlds-colliding Dragonball cartoon?

Now, in "Zebraman," he's tried his hand at a family movie, scripted by the red-hot Kankuro Kudo ("Go," "Ping Pong"), about a nerdy teacher who becomes a costumed superhero of the Kamen Rider (Masked Rider) and Go Ranger (Five Rangers) type.

Going in, I imagined Miike messing with the minds of all those unsuspecting 10-year-olds and their dads. But instead of the mad, bad Miike of yore, who delighted in making his audience retch in the aisles, the Miike of "Zebraman" is more like the one who gave us the hit shocker "Chakushin Ari (One Missed Call)" -- an entertainer for the mass audience who has reined in his wilder impulses, if not tamed them altogether.