Hollywood superhero movies are often not only thrill rides with flights and fights designed to elicit a collective "wow" but comments on the rotten state of society, metaphors for the fallen nature of humankind, and so on. Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker as a psychotic in "The Dark Knight" won him the sort of posthumous accolades, including an Oscar for best supporting actor, usually reserved for actors in serious dramas, not crowd-pleasing entertainments.
Takashi Miike's "Yattaman" (titled "Yatterman" for overseas distribution, for some reason) goes in precisely the opposite direction: the film is a wild, goofy, unapologetically entertaining romp with no darkly ironic messages delivered or tortured souls on display.
The anime on which "Yattaman" is based, broadcast in Japan for two years from 1977 for a total of 108 episodes, was a big hit with children, both here and abroad. The film targets the under-12 demographic as well, but Miike has larded it with pop-culture references from the '70s and earlier — from store signs to soundtrack tunes — that will raise smiles from over-30s but probably fly right over the heads of their offspring.
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