I Am a Hero

For so long we only have English zombies and Chinese zombies, then this year we got our first Korean zombies and now we welcome the first appearance of Japanese zombies. The zombie apocalypse genre is excessively tried and tired. How Japan, having some of the most crowded cities in the world, hasn't gotten into the act is one mystifying mystery. Shinsuke Sato, adapting Kengo Hanazawa's massively popular manga of the same name, understands the source material and totally transpose the addictive page-turning frenzy onto the cinematic medium. This is one crackerjack of a movie and if you have to force me to make decision, I would choose to watch this again over Train to Busan.

Hideo Suzuki (Yô Ôizumi) is a manga artist still twiddling along long after his sell-by date. He lives with his wife who is tired of waiting for Hideo to score his first success at serialising his comic. Every night Hideo draws and stares at his self-made post-it notes of encouragement - "you rock" and "one day a street will be named after you". If that doesn't work, he will take out his shotgun for skeet shooting and pose in front of a full length mirror. He only stops short at muttering the infamous words of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. One night he is thrown out of the house and all hell breaks loose. Together with the quintessential school girl (Kasumi Arimura) in short skirt, they go on to Mt Fuji for safety because they read in one urgent posting on the internet - zombies can't survive in high altitude.

The moment the zombie epidemic starts, I am a Hero careens into one giddy blood- soaked adrenaline rush. The film doesn't push the zombie genre to new directions, but it takes the established tropes and gives it a fresh twist and out comes one sicko and satisfying monster-tainer. I love the opening establishing and main character building scenes - Hideo represents the typical male gazer, your favourite type of loser. His name notwithstanding, you know you will be watching an extreme character arc of a loser becoming a hero. How many times have you seen that in a zombie film? He is a pacifist in a cutthroat world of running zombies. How long can he stay that way in this world? Pretty long, I have to say. When the heroic moment finally arrives, and he steps up to the plate, a big smile was plastered on my face.

How else did the movie remixed the zombie tropes? Imagine zombies moving and gesticulating in Sadako (Ringu) style; zombies retaining one memory from their lifetime or a muscle memory that they repeat and repeat till someone blasts their brains out. I had a good laugh at one zombie muttering he is a taxi-driver who has won many awards for never being involved in any accident and for being the most courteous driver, and of course you know what happens next. The dark humour is just awesome. Some of them skewers the working class system and I couldn't stop myself from laughing at the absurdity of it all. In fact, I think I was the first one who started giggling. Then my wife caught the cue. Before long the audience in my section was laughing away. The dark humour was spot-on perfect and it works because you recognise the plight of the working class.

The visual effects are stellar - blackening veins, clouding eye-balls and gristly cracking noises. They move and contort like crabs and insects, which gave me the creeps. This is zombies J-pop horror style. The mass chaos on the city streets is superbly shot. Imagine people coming from all directions and you are not sure who are the infected until they get nearer. One particular action sequence on a highway is an adrenaline rush.

The middle act slows down a fair bit as Hideo and the girl reach a duty free mall at the foot of Mt Fuji. I am guessing that some of you who are true zombie aficionados would at this point cry "George Romero's Dawn of the Dead" - my respect to you if you did. But watch how the film puts a Lord of the Flies twist to it and this act comes up smelling like roses. I also love how Hideo's gun serves as a metaphor of his evolvement from zero to hero.

The film's narrative may feel familiar and a little long, but it is still one helluva inventive monster ride and Hideo is a wonderfully drawn character that will slowly but surely capture your imagination. The movie shamelessly sets itself up for a sequel but I can tell you I am so looking forward to another gore fest.

Struggling manga artist Hideo Suzuki (Yô Ôizumi) finds himself fighting for survival during a zombie outbreak.

For those who felt that Korean zombie flick Train to Busan was just a little too tame when it came to the blood and guts, here is another recent Asian zombie film (this one hailing from Japan) that should more than satisfy any viewer's blood-lust. The middle third might be a tad dry, as protagonist Hideo and schoolgirl Hiromi (Kasumi Arimura) attempt to integrate with a group of survivors at a shopping outlet, but the rest of the film is gloriously gory, the finale in particular featuring more exploding heads than I could keep track of, the titular hero more than proving his worth with a shotgun. However, it's not just the gore that makes this one so much fun…

The basic structure of I Am A Hero is much like any other regular zombie film: first there is the chaotic outbreak, then there is the desperate struggle for survival, and finally the all-out onslaught of the undead as barriers fall and the zombies wreak havoc. But the familiarity of the basic set-up matters not: director Shinsuke Sato keeps things moving along at a cracking pace, the cast is perfect, and the editing stylish without being too showy. The zombies are also very memorable, looking suitable yucky with their cloudy eyes and nasty complexion, and repeatedly speaking phrases that they would have said before death. CGI is used for much of the carnage, but it's good CGI, which makes all the difference.

Like Train to Busan, the film is perhaps a little longer than necessary, but even at just over two hours, I highly recommend I Am A Hero to fans of the genre. This is one of the good ones! 8.5 out of 10, rounded up to 9 for IMDb.

"I am a Hero" was a movie that just came out of nowhere and would have slipped past me unnoticed, if I hadn't happened to come across it by some sheer cosmic luck. And what is more impressive is that the fact that this is a zombie movie, and still it almost managed to elude me, especially since I am huge fan of everything zombiesque.

This 2015 movie actually turns out to be one of the more entertaining and solid of Japanese zombie movies. Japan has a tendency of combining the zombie genre with too much comedy, which often makes for a somewhat questionable result. Or they tend to have very poor special effects, which usually makes it painful to watch on the screen. "I am a Hero", however, didn't fall into these traps, and that was a refreshing change of pace.

The movie starts out in an adequate pace, but it quickly escalates into a much more fast paced movie and storyline, which did suit the movie quite well.

As a zombie movie, it is quite important that the special effects are good and believable, and luckily "I am a Hero" had just that. The movie combines the traditional shambling decaying walking animated corpses with something new. But it was a nice approach and a nice angle to the genre, and as such it was a refreshing change of pace for the zombie genre. Lots of great special effects and zombie make-up.

There is a good amount of action throughout the course of the movie, spiced up with some drama and just a pinch of comedy, which made for a rather enjoyable cocktail.

A zombie movie must have blood and guts. There is also a good amount of blood and gore in "I am a Hero", which is definitely a crucial thing for a zombie movie to have.

"I am Hero" also have some really intense scenes where the audience get their adrenaline pumping. Such scenes are, for example, the scene with the zombie in the taxi, and also the scene exiting the mall.

All in all, then "I am a Hero" is a rather entertaining and enjoyable movie. It is a fast paced story that mixed elements from different genres quite well. And "I am a Hero" puts Japan solidly on the world map of zombie movies. And if you enjoy zombie movies, then you should definitely take the time to check out "I am a Hero", and if you enjoy Asian cinema, well then you get a double up on goodies here.

I saw this movie at the Stockholm International Filmfest. today and I really enjoyed it.

If I had to sum it up in a brief sentence i'd say it's as if the guy who wrote the "The Walking Dead" comic had written a Shaun of the Dead comic, and they made a movie out of that (I haven't read the manga this film is based on, but I assume that's more or less what it is).

It looks pretty expensive and has good effects and action, it's very well directed and acted, making the aesthetic of the film really paint its own manga-inspired universe.

The parts I didn't like is whenever it attempts to do somewhat serious drama, when it does it just seems entirely tone-deaf and alien. I'd give this movie a 3/5 and if they skipped the 20% of attempted drama and replace it with more over-the-top zombie comedy/action it'd be a 4/5.

I'd recommend this movie to most people and for zombie/nerd culture fans it's a must-see and likely a cult classic.

Maybe its because I've read the manga that I didn't like this movie that much, but the beginning was promising and I had hope for it but it fumbled at the middle and end.

The plot deviates from the manga but its still the same thing. Hideo is still the same but Hiromi doesn't do anything for the movie, you could have removed her from the movie and nothing will have changed. In general characters lack development and its hard to get invested in them. The ending is bad, we don't really understand what will happen to the characters, in particular what is with Hiromi.

Read the manga you will not regret it but the movie its just another bad Japanese live action.