When I watched and subsequently reviewed Shin Godzilla back in 2016 (man, remember when it felt like that year was the worst that things could get? Good times…), I didn’t think a whole lot of it. Cheap special effects, wordy bureaucratic story, general lack of engaging material; what little I do recall of the film itself isn’t all that positive.
What I certainly wouldn’t have anticipated is that that film would be the origin point for its own cinematic universe: The Shin Japan Heroes Universe as spearheaded by Shin Godzilla’s co-director, writer, and co-editor Hideaki Anno. This universe thus far consists of Godzilla, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time (and yet, for some reason, none of the other Rebuild Of Evangelion movies), along with today’s subject. And honestly, just based on this latest entry, not only am I looking forward to where this cinematic universe goes, but I might even give Shin Godzilla another honest go at some point.
Like with Shin Godzilla, this film’s take on the classic kaiju superhero Ultraman involves a lot of thematic deconstruction, examining how such a high-concept sci-fi conceit would actually play out in the real world. However, where most deconstruction efforts go for the grim, gritty, and edgy path to show light-hearted entertainment of yore being contorted and twisted into something more ‘mature’, this thankfully takes a different approach. Rather than doubling-down on grimness for grimness’ sake, and instead looks at the idea of how world governments (the Japanese government especially) would react to the presence of kaiju and giant dimension-hopping aliens… and embraces how ridiculous that very idea is.
The story is mainly told from the POV of the S-Class Species Suppression Protocol (SSSP), a government arm that was formed specifically to deal with the now-rising prevalence of kaiju in the wake of Godzilla’s rampage. In-between the theorising about specific power sets, strategies to take them down, and other such geek fodder, there’s a prominent vein of dry humour to how deadpan such a reality-shaking catastrophe would be reacted to. Hidetoshi Nishijima as Kimio Tamura, the head of the SSSP, in particular gets this across, with many an aside about how giant inhuman monsters wrecking shit all over Japan is… a bit of a problem. Combined with the many showings of political deals being made over the alien technology that gives Ultraman his size and even unions with other species, there’s a healthy showing of self-aware silliness here.
Not that this exists solely to dissect the very idea of Ultraman. Instead, many of the production values here zero-in on the kitsch of the original ‘60s TV show and its size-changing hero, and simply uses modern-day cinema technology to bring back those same sensations. The cinematography, credited to seven different DPs including Anno and director Shinji Higuchi, makes use of a lot of unorthodox camera angles, usually involving characters being obscured by objects in the foreground, so that even the plainer conversation scenes come across as quite dynamic. The effects work from Shirogumi Inc. gives a surprising amount of texture to the CGI monsters and monster-fighting alien superheroes, echoing the original’s use of rubber suits to create a nice Uncanny effect that adds to the surreality of the plot and the framing thereof. Even the music works that balance between older kitsch and newer grandeur, combining stock soundtracks from Kunio Miyauchi (complete with tinny made-for-old-TV sound mixing) with some more modern orchestral pieces, rock guitars, and even some glitchy electronics that always seem to win me over. Liquid noise runs through these veins.
The writing ain’t half bad either. On top of Anno’s deconstructionist take on the superhero genre, same as he did with kaiju in Godzilla and mecha in Evangelion, his approach to narrative structure feels a bit Silver Age in how compressed it is. The story is framed by Ultraman (or Shinji Kaminaga, as played by Takumi Saitoh doing a damn good Klaatu impression) encountering three different alien foes, all of whom want to interfere with the human race but for (ostensibly) different reasons. The first wants to trick humanity into wiping itself out, the second wants to exploit the population to create weapons, and the third just wants us all dead. At face value, this is the kind of narrative I would expect to be stretched out over several episodes of a TV show, or maybe even separate seasons focusing on each different antagonist, but this manages to make it all fit smoothly in under two hours. Not only that, but each villain adds to the political absurdism of the human interactions, highlighting those who wish to subjugate the population, albeit under different guises. Control under any other name is still control.
From there, the way it delves in Ultraman as a character, an alien-human hybrid trying to understand the human animal, hits a lot of points to do with the classic ideal of the superhero. A being somewhere between ordinary humanity, and something otherworldly and extraordinary, who chooses to aid humanity because they see the potential for good that exists within us. And as anchored by Ultraman’s connection to SSSP analyst Hiroko Asami (Masami Nagasawa), the script’s feigned-outsider perspective on humanity can be rather clumsy but still makes for some poignant material. I’m not saying that a film all about a giant silver alien shooting lasers at drill squids necessarily needs deep thematic nuances to work, but the presence of genuine inspirational ideals and the odd game of consensual grab-ass doesn’t hurt either.
Although, on that last point, I am quite curious as to why Asami is so damn fixated on grabbing butts in this movie, particularly her own at the most random moments possible. Even in a film this knowingly silly, that’s a bit of a weird inclusion.
But all the same, this is really damn good. The film craft is terrific, the production values rejuvenate ‘60s-era sci-fi camp while simultaneously embracing it and poking fun at it all the while, the acting is rock-solid, and as someone who likes reading deeper into superhero films and kaiju films, this provided some very intriguing material on both fronts. It might take a minute before I get to the next instalment of the Shin Japan Heroes Universe with Shin Kamen Rider, but I promise it’ll be before the end of the year because I am all kinds of game for more of this.
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