Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Zebraman

Japan 2004
produced by
Akio Hattori, Makoto Okada, Takashi Hirano (executive), Mitsuru Kurosawa (executive) for Toei/Tokyo Broadcasting System (= TBS)
directed by Takashi Miike
starring Sho Aikawa, Kumiko Aso, Ryo Iwamatsu, Akira Emoto, Ren Osugi, Hideki Sone, Atsuro Watabe, Arata Furuta, Yui Ichikawa, Miyako Kawahara, Koen Kondo, Yu Tokui, Teruyoshi Uchimura, Makiko Watanabe, Naoki Yasukochi
written by Kankuro Kudo, music by Koji Endo

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
3rd grade teacher Ichikawa (Sho Aikawa) is an underdog who has neither the respect of his studnts nor of his family, where his wife fools around with other men, his 15-year old daughter dates a Yakuza & his son Kazuki detests him because all the other kids hate him for being a teacher's son. So, in his sparetime, Ichikawa dreams about being Zebraman, a superhero from a 1970's TV-show.

Ichikawa's mood is lifted however when a transfer student, wheelchair-bound Shinpei Asano is sent to his class ... & the boy proves to be a fan of Zebraman, too. So one night, Ichikawa hits the streets in a self-made Zebraman costume, just to show it Shinpei, but instead he gets involved with a masked maniac who was about to commit a sex-crime, & the 2 battle ... & during the battle it turns out Zebraman/Ichikawa really has superpowers ... but for Segawa & Oikawa, the 2 incompetent agents from the defence agency investigating the case, it also turns out that the maniac was actually an alien invader ...

In Shinpei, who triggered his super-heroism, & his widowed mother Ichikawa soon finds a substitute-family he prefers to his own & he starts spending more & more time with them while fighting more alien invaders as Zebraman. Soon though it turns out that Shinpei might have something to do with the invasion (this subplot though is eventually dropped), that the aliens invade by possessing people by means of a green slime (don't ask), & all of this slime seems to have its origin under the school Ichikawa works at. & what's worse, even Kazuki, Ichikawa's real son, is eventually possessed by the alien slime - his Zebraman father does save him though.

After the principal of the school falls victim to the aliens too, Zebraman, Shinpei & his mother do some investigating about the man's backbground & find out that he is actually a benevolent alien who wrote the Zebraman tv-shows back in the 70's in order to warn mankind of thwe invasion & has predicted everything so far quite accurately ... But what about the unfilmed episodes, including the grand finale ?

Zebraman finds out that he will be killed by the alien queen, simply because he cannot fly - but, as the principal once said if you really believe in it it will come true. From now on Zebraman practices flying, but with painful results, as he doesn't manage to convince himself that he can fly ...

In the final fight - that comes way too soon for our hero - all seems lost when the alien queen proves to be a storey-high being made of green slime, able to transform at will & shoot laserbeams. It is only when paralized Shinpei shows that he can stand up if he really believes that Zebraman realizes everything is possible ... & takes off, fighiting the alien queen with everything he's got, & even turning into a winged zebra at one stage (though I'm not quite sure how this will improve his fighting abilities).

I think you won't have any trouble guessing who will win in the end so I stop my synopsis here.

 

It's hard not to find Japanese 1970's live action superhero tv-shows (from Kamen Rider down) at least somehow charming & funny. 

This hommage to the genre by Takashi Miike doesn't work quite at all though as it neither manages to stay really true to the source (which might have been weird anyways) nor infuse the story with some clever second thought - instead it's just another story of an underdog rising to grandesse when need arises (which is a worn cliché since at least the original Spiderman-comics from 1961, though it might reach back much further), blended with some fashionable but meaningless conspiracy-theory-story that is told in a way too sketchy manner to really grip the audience, making this movie - despite the great title & our hero's campy outfit - a big disappointment.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Zebraman
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Zebraman here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find Zebraman at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!