Jinzô ningen Hakaidâ

From the guy that direct Kamen Rider ZO and Kamen Rider J two very entertaining tokusatsu flick that too bad never made into an actual series so I expected nothing more than a cheesy action-fest from Hakaider and after a few up and down moments in the end the movie actually make my day a bit brighter.The plot may utterly horrible and there not much meat in the main character Hakaider beside the usual emotionless and badass attitude of an anti hero plus the horrendious English dubbing only make it more worse that it already is but the movie never bother me one bit cause I'm too busy being in awe about how over the top and fun this movie is with the costume and practical effects.The stop motion fight between Hakaider and the weird robot got me quite confused cause the introduction of it very out of nowhere but apparently Mechanical Violator Hakaider is also a spin off of the metal hero series Kikaider so that may explain something

Even though Hakaider is a decent (but sadly rather short) movie with good action scenes and imagery, the thing that shined most was Yasuaki Honda. He is quite a beautiful, as well as calm and detirmined actor (I wish to see original Japanese version. Seen only Spanish verson). I also like his costume and appearance. He looks so angelic and wicked at the same time. I only wished he had more screentime though.... ....Oh well. At least Keita Amemiya shines his stuff with intricate storytelling and lovely imagery as usual.

Hakaider is about some robot on a quest to stop some fruit-loop from turning everyone into retards. The action, the visual effects and cinematography is where the movie shines. The action is very well crafted that contains some karate action and gun shooting $#!+ with exploding heads and dismemberment and some bloody crap. I know, I'm compulsive. I liked the effects particularly when the white cyborgs blew up and bled feathers for that heavenly look. The letdowns were the story and pacing. Though the concept is actually great which is about a religious coercion through an insertion of a micro chip into the cortex to make people retardedly subservient, the storytelling was derivative and stupid with these meaningless flashbacks and some annoying characterization. And pacing is inconsistent with the action scenes being fast and the dialogue scenes being slower than sloth sex. Overall the pros out weigh the cons, hence, I liked it.

After encountering a group of rebels in the autocratic pseudo-utopia of Jesus Town, a vengeful cyborg battles the forces of the town's angelic/demonic self-righteous despot. I watched English-subbed version of this henshin action-fest 'cold', having no familiarity with the television program on which it was based and found the film visually interesting but a bit boring, the latter due to the overly long and repetitive action set pieces. The perpetually scowling Hakaider was just another in a long line of similar looking über-mecha and there seemed little logic or consistency in his toggling back and forth between wetware and hardware or his resistance/susceptibility to various weapons. There is an interesting 'angel' motif woven through the imagery, both Gurjev, the leader of Jesus Town and Michael, his android head of security have wings (sort of) and clouds of white feathers feature prominently at times. The script and acting are drama-school at best (at least when watched dubbed) but the special effects are well executed although the designs seem derivative, resembling everything from Kamen Rider to Robocop. I especially liked the climactic stop-action work. All-in-all: OK but likely more appealing to fans of the original TV show or of the 'mecha-henshin' genre in general (of which I am not, I am just check-boxing my way through a lengthy list of live-action Japanese sci-fi films).

This movie here has to probably Keita Amemiya's most beautifully done film he has ever made (pays some respect to Ishinomori-san).

Hakaider has to do with the main cybernetic hero (with the same name as the movie) getting re-discovered by a gang from Jesus town,which was formerly the Holy Land in the Middle East.However,Hakaider lost all of his memory and starts blowing people apart.This all stops when he meets the pretty Kaoru (which looks like a Japanese double of Cyndi Lauper).Kaoru tells him about the evil that the handsome,if mavolent seraph Girjev and his servant,Mikhail has brought onto the town.In many beautiful(if albeit eery) dream like sequences that Kaoru has, Hakaider must not fight for himself,but for the people of Jesus Town as well.

The most original parts of this film is that,like I said,the good guy wears black and the bad guys wear white.It's really true,see it for yourself!

NOTE:This was also one of Amemiya's more controversial films,due to some imagery of shattered Jesus and Virgin Mary statues,plus the bad guys being rather "Angelic" looking.Watch only if you are not easily offended by the dark depiction of the Jewish/Christian faith.