Yattâman

A must see for any fan of Yatterman and Takashi Miike. If you like Miike's work but haven't seen the Yatterman anime or don't really care what's it all about?, avoid this movie by all means, you won't like it.

The reason why the not-fans won't like it: It's too close to the source, the movie is as weird as the anime and it has that childish humor that some love. But, this childish humor is not for children, in Japan some gropping is seen as kiddie, but for us westerns the movie should be PG-13 for a couple of scenes that I won't spoil.

The whole atmosphere and dialogue feels exactly as the anime should feel when taken to live action, this is a perfect example as how a cartoon should be translated, no matter how silly it could look. Too bad we westerns won't see a proper anime to movie translation, the Wachowskis tried it and most people bash their good effort.

Anyway, the movie is just a fun ride and it's worth a fair 6 outta 10, but it grows to a 7 because of the faithfulness to Yattâman.

So the challenge is to make a full length live action movie from an anime series which did not stray too far from "Dudly Do-Right" in scope.

One way, and this is what director Miike chooses, is to keep the visuals and story at the original "Loony-Tunes" level, but make the characters and subtext more adult. This will either work for you, or leave you aghast, depending on if you expected a kids movie or not.

It's obvious from the opening shot of Doronjo where Miike is headed with this movie. It's a kids movie for adults, not to be confused with a kids movie with jokes thrown in for adults. I enjoyed it.

Kyoko Fukada as Doronjo is hot enough to burn celluloid; the rest of the Dorombo gang is well cast, too. The Yatterman side is weaker, but probably deliberately so. The running gag of the movie is that the Dorombo gang must always lose, this is funnier if the good guys don't really seem to be worthy opponents.

There is a lot of CG animation in this movie, and while it's well done for the most part, the extended CG fight scenes get less and less interesting as the film rolls on into the second half.

Once again somebody let Miike get a hold of something originally intended for children and family audiences and let him go with it. Once again, as in "The Great Yokai War", he manages to stay true to the source while having some fun with it. There's a decent number of funny scenes and the look of the film is imaginative. While I'm sure Japanese audiences who remember the original television series can appreciate it more, other viewers can enjoy the silliness regardless.

The actors are having fun with their roles and the effects (while frequently cartoony) go with the self-conscious storyline. The few downsides are the editing which slows down by the second half and the inevitable Miike-isms which get through in this movie a bit more than "The Great Yokai War". While most of this movie can be considered a family entertainment at one point the Bad Guys create a female robot with exposed breasts that shoots bullets and missiles out of it's nipples. Whenever the robot fires, it goes into increasing orgasmic convulsions. Some might laugh that off but soon Miike has mini ant robots bite the female robot's left nipple off which results in a spray of oil out of the gash along with more orgasmic vocalizations. Suddenly the Good Guy's dog robot gets sexually aroused by the mutilation and leaps over to passionately kiss the female robot. Ichi the Killer anyone? Anyway, aside from another scene involving a girl's inner thigh (he did this in Yokai War as well), the film could have been a fun family entertainment. As it is, it's recommended for adults.

Overall it's good and be sure to watch through the credits.

This is a long form sentai (Power Rangers etc) episode, with the premise being good versus evil. The story revolves around obtaining the four pieces of the Skull Stone which, when possessed, will make dreams come true (one character wants to be with every high school girl in Japan. Its not bad). An archaeologist found one piece in Norway and was abducted, prompting his daughter Shoko to enlist the help of the two heroes in this film (one is Saki Fumada, so evil in the drama "Life" but good here). They have to beat three others with the help of Yatterman, a giant dog like creature straight out of sentai scripts. The film is good, a bit over the top, but fun. The special effects are great and the colors are vivid. Not for children, but teens and adults will like it.

Yatterman is one of those films that is best appreciated by fans of the very funny animated television series. I can't give it more than a six for that reason, but I happen to be one of the show's veteran fans and would rate it much higher at a Yatter-convention. The story is about Gan Takada, a mechanically-inclined boy and Ai Kaminari, his cute cohort who, in the original 1977 television series and its 2008 reprise, do weekly battle against the forces of evil--namely a woman named Doronjo and her two male cohorts, Boyacky and Tonzler. Behind the scenes on the evil side, there's an unseen character named Dokurobe who sends the trio through time and space on a quest for items which, if assembled, will allow him his dream of ultimate power. Each side pits a humorous array of robots and mechanisms against each other. Besides the obvious improvements in animation technology over the last thirty years, there are other differences between the two series. Gan is lazier in the new series, Ai is more possessive, and Doronjo's outfit is sexier. However, I still prefer the original series--and I'm not alone. Doronjo is the main difference. She was a much more likable character in the '70s version--and I have to admit she was one of the draws that kept me coming back to the TV every week. Takashi Miike did his best to follow the original series and, in doing so, kept the target demographic in the teen to adult range. Miike made Donojo a very likable character--and the drop-dead gorgeous Kyoko Fukada fills that character--and (you've got to see it to believe it) costume--very well. Miike also restored Boyacky to a pathetic genius with an unrequited crush on a Doronjo who plays him like a fiddle. He also restored Gan to status of willing hero and lowered Ai's maintenance level a notch. He also restored the '70s Yatter-policy of not providing real names of people or places. In this movie, for example, they travel to Ogypt and the Southern Halps. All in all, it's a fun movie and is worth seeing if it passes through your town or your video rental store.