Shin Masked Rider

Shin Kamen Rider is a fun kitschy throwback to the1970s style tokusatsu genre, a meta re-telling of the Kamen Rider origin story, as part of his Shin Japan Heroes Universe tribute series.

Shin Kamen Rider is a silly piece of nostalgic cheese that might not be for everyone. Hideaki Anno's straight-faced direction will come off as a quirky spin exclusively for fans who grew up on the old Kamen Rider shows. However, first-timers may feel completely alienated trying to get in on the joke.

At its two-hour runtime, the script is episodic, equivalent to roughly four 30-minute episodes on TV, each complete with its villain.

The deadpan acting style that Hideaki Anno has maintained through these 3 Shin films remains an odd choice; the actors seem to be performing experimental theater or in a Yorgo Lanthimos film.

Every feeling the characters have is blatantly stated out loud, and as a result, the film feels more told than shown, focused on the plot, not the characters. I don't recall the acting in old Tokusatsu shows being this way, so it's not a matter of tribute. It's as if Anno is stripping these established cultural icons to their bare skeleton and just presenting them through chilled museum glass.

This cold bland performance style does work better here for Kamen Rider than in Godzilla or Ultraman. Anno builds in quiet meditative moments of the Kamen Rider contemplating his power and responsibilities that worked well. If deconstruction was indeed Hideaki Anno's goal, this is the closest he's achieved it.

The magic kicks in during the action sequences. The old-school special effects, monster makeup, and the theme song all work together and in these short moments, I was whisked away back to my childhood. It was a simpler time when watching actors don silly masks and fight stuntmen dressed in rubber monster costumes on TV was sufficient entertainment.

Once it gets going, it doesn't matter that it's cheesy, the effects are shoddy, or that Kamen Rider uses the same technique to finish off the monsters every time. Those moments are quite fun.

Everything else in between, however, is quite the endurance test.

One can't step very far into exploring Japanese film or television without stumbling across 'Kamen Rider' and related tokusatsu fare. Finding a suitable point of entry for the neophyte is another matter, though, and with that in mind, I do not envy Anno Hideaki for the task he took up with this movie. Rebooting a major, fifty-year old franchise, with many series and off-shoot features, retaining core qualities while updating it for modern audiences, providing ample elucidation of necessary plot and lore (or at least, interpretation thereof), and keeping it all fast-paced and action-packed: more famous filmmakers with bigger budgets have attempted much the same, to very mixed results. There are many paths by which to pursue such goals, however, and I wonder if Anno didn't actually choose the smartest one. I'm not saying that 'Shin Kamen Rider' is perfect or essential, and I'm not familiar enough with the previous works in the franchise to fully remark on faithfulness, but overall I'm quite pleased with how well made this is, and I think it's a pretty good time!

The secret to Anno's success here can be summed up as "just go for it." We're thrown headlong into the plot from the very start with one big action scene, then an even bigger one, and then loads of exposition, all within the first twenty minutes or so. This flick has no care for grandiosity, emphasis of snarky humor, or nods to the past; it is unflinchingly direct and straightforward, offers subtle, cheeky wit only occasionally and in passing, and charges ahead without looking back. Partnerships are formed without question, and information is divulged without blinking; lines are delivered very drily, fundamental movements are executed with cold-eyed precision, and stunts and actions are performed flawlessly. And through it all, the picture carries an unyielding deadpan tone - like John Carpenter's 'Ghosts of Mars,' but without the winking sensibility. Rather, this is the devil-may-care, fun-loving, yet nevertheless carefully crafted equivalent of a flustered worker forthrightly discharging their responsibility by throwing it at their superior, in this case the audience: "You want Kamen Rider? This is what you want? Fine, have it. It's all yours."

Such thoughts quite extend to or are reflected in everything in these two hours. We meet our two primary characters right from the start, too, and while Hongo Takeshi may be the superhero, leading lady Midorikawa Ruriko is the one who is ALWAYS prepared, and has an answer to every problem. In turn, star Ikematsu Sosuke is allowed to demonstrate some human emotion, while co-star Hamabe Minami is as unwaveringly straitlaced and brusque as Anno's writing and direction. Often elaborate stunts, fight choreography, and practical effects look fantastic; visuals rendered in post-production range from "decent," on the high end, to "I dare you to hate this," and always with a thousand-yard stare. And the latter verbiage readily applies to most all else, including the cinematography, editing, costume design, hair, makeup, sound effects, and music. Scenes that in another title would be played up or drawn out for dramatic effect sail past smoothly and quickly with the effortlessness and confidence of seeing the enemy was defeated and the story beat recorded. Appearing as Scorpion-Aug, Nagasawa Masami is an especial joy because she is so enthusiastically unhinged in her ham-fisted performance. And so on, and so on.

Whether Anno's approach to this reboot is something that one can remotely get behind depends completely on personal preferences; I can understand how it will not appeal to all. Yet even as the movie embraces abject, unfettered, ham-handed outrageousness - well in keeping in its own way with the spirit of classic tokusatsu, truthfully - it knows exactly what it's doing, and 'Shin Kamen Rider' really well made such as it is. Every last trace of the screenplay might be dispensed with the dead-eyed, curt efficiency of a shark pursuing its prey, but there are deliciously flavorful, imaginative ideas all throughout that are ripe for cinematic storytelling. The costume design, hair, and makeup erally are sharp and fetching across the board. Iwasaki Taku's varied, dynamic original score goes hard, supplying the wholehearted (and over the top) vitality that is broadly, deliberately withheld from the proceedings otherwise. The cast give committed, spirited, admirable performances even within the tenor of unabashed, tersely dispensed nonsense, including Hamabe; Nishino Nanase, portraying Wasp-Aug with a sly playfulness, is a definite highlight. I repeat that all tangible goods and action sequences, including the production design and art direction, really are swell; every now and again the digital artists worked extra hard to make a specific moment look good, and they ably do so if and when they want to.

It's a wild, somewhat peculiar ride, alternately artful, artistic, and artless; clever, and brazen. In the latter half 'Shin Kamen Rider' finds a little time to even try a bit of earnestness amidst all the stone-faced bombast - and still that slant is foremost, informing the whole from beginning to end. For those who are open to what it's doing, though, it's also splendidly entertaining, to the extent that I wouldn't mind if there were more to come. It's hardly the sort of film that demands viewership, but if you're at all receptive to the space it plays in, this is worth checking out and I'm glad to give it my recommendation.

As a long time Kamen Rider fan(real riders not the late heisei/reiwa stuff) this bring so muc joy for me.

There's some flaws for sure.. like the pacing, some actions feels a little off, and how a certain character(no spoilers) pretty much carried the later parts of the movie. But it really captures how a Kamen Rider should be, Ilove the visuals, and I don't mind the violence because if you read the manga that's how it is, how strong the rider. And it's obvious this movie isn't for kids unlike the tv shows. All in all it feels like a love letter to us old fans.

Those who watched the original series and read the manga will definitely love this, to me it's everything it needs to be. Ishinomori sensei would be proud.

Here's hoping for a sequel, perhaps with V3 being introduced.

Shin Kamen Rider (2023) is a movie that I recently watched on Prime. The storyline follows a motorcycle racer who is kidnapped by a man who wants to take over the world. The motorcycle racer escapes but not before getting infected and turned into a super hero mutant driver. With his new powers he will try to stop his kidnapper from taking over the world.

This movie is directed by Hideaki Anno (Shin Godzilla) and stars Sôsuke Ikematsu (The Last Samurai), Minami Hamabe (Let Me Eat Your Pancreas), Tasuku Emoto (And Your Bird Can Sing) and Shin'ya Tsukamoto (Tokyo Fist).

The characters and universe for this picture are perfectly set up. The action scenes initially are great with fantastic kill scenes, gore, flying body parts, everything you'd want from a Kamen Rider picture. The villain had potential too. Unfortunately the content gets a bit too over the top, a bit too over done, and ran out of gas for me. I did enjoy watching it unfold, but it didn't have the same magic as Shin Godzilla.

Overall, this movie had enough worthwhile elements to make it worth a watch but isn't as good as Shin Godzilla. I would score this a 6/10 and recommend watching it once.

This is a very old-school tribute to the Kamen Rider character or that is what I felt from watching this without actually knowing the history. The way the design of the suit and action scenes can be directly placed in the 70s and won't make a difference is immediately juxtaposed with the amount of bloody violence and the introspection about it that comes right after that. There are a lot of themes that are very familiar through Anno's previous works but it never felt anything more than surface level. For the most part, it felt like a straight-up superhero story that is low-budget. But the episodic entry of characters, the monologues about happiness etc feels like it needs more time to have any heft to it amongst this campy action. As someone who doesn't have any idea about the character, this felt like it would have worked a lot better as an anime series. A lot of it is directed like an anime with the kind of shots and dialogues used but as it is not an anime, it doesn't have the same power. Also, the action would have been cooler and the cool music would have suited more in anime form.