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Akira is a harmless, innocent young man who hasn't got a violent bone
in his body, and who even hides behind his girlfriend rather than fighting
- and so it's all the more surprising when his firend Ryou shows up out of
the blue to ask him to join him on a mission of utmost importance. You
see, Ryou has lost his father recently, after dad has set himself on fire.
Thing is, before his death, Ryou's father has found out that demons really
exist, and has allowed one to take possession of him - to a point where he
almost killed his son. So whatever of the man he once was was left in him
made him commit suicide, but not before telling his son to defend
humankind against the demons ... and here's the problem, because to fight
the demons you have to become a demon yourself, but in order to not become
one of them completely, you have to be innocent, uncorrupted, harmless
even - as harmless as Akira perhaps. Not surprisingly, Akira initially
thinks this is all a bit of bullshit, until he and Ryou are attacked by a
bunch of grotesque demons and barely make it out alive. To become
possessed, Akira and Ryou visit a nightclub where demons are known to be
on the prowl, and to lure them out, Ryou starts a bloodbath - a plan that
succeeds, as all the human patrons of the club do turn into demons soon,
including Akira ... but Devil Man, Akira's demon alter ego, turns against
the demons and brutally slashes all of them. When he's done killing, Devil
Man turns into Akira again, only to find out, to his shock, that Ryou
somehow got killed in the process. How Devil Man has become
Devil Man - now this is not essentially a bad film, but is suffers all the
letdowns of your typical origins-story: It has to set up its character in
too painful detail before anything can happen, introduces a few pointless
supporting characters, explains everyathing away in far too great detail,
and the story's ending feels more like a set-up for things to come rather
than an ending for what has previously happened. Add to this that all the
characters remain perffectly flat throughout, and you are left with ...
well, not really a trainwreck of a movie, at least there are wonderfully
grotesque creatures in here, the action scenes are handled rather
excitingly, and the gore is copious and well-placed - but at the same
time, this is anything but a must-see movie.
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