HENSHIN!!!

This past Thursday afternoon, two coworkers and I were treated to an advanced screening of the new Power Rangers / Masked Rider movie that hits theaters August 5th. The screening was held at Toei Films’ headquarters in Ginza. Toei is one of the major movie studios in Japan, but they are best known in the west for their animation and superhero footage which brought Power Rangers, Masked Rider, Ultraman, and countless other cartoon anime to life abroad. Ban-Dai of America still uses Toei footage for all the modern Japan-made live-action superhero shows.

As opposed to the U.S., going to the movie theater in Japan costs a minimum of $18 no matter when you go. I was pretty upset that I wasted that money on the anime Brave Story. Likewise, I was happy that I wasn’t shelling out the Yen to see this new flick. We were all handed a glossy movie flyer that explained the history and back stories of these two series and were instructed to sit in a medium sized theater room. Power Rangers (known as the Go Go Super Sentai series in Japan - 轟轟スーパー戦隊) celebrates its 30th Anniversary this year, while the Masked Rider series (仮面ライダー) is 35 years old. Both series are still going strong in Japan. A worker from Toei briefly introduced the films and we were off and running.

The movie was actually divided up into a 30-minute Power Rangers episode and a separate one hour and ten minute Masked Rider movie. The Power Rangers short was exactly what I expected; mediocre acting and special effects equal to (but not exceeding) that of the television shows I watched as a kid. The blue ranger had an annoyingly eschew tooth that I couldn’t take my eye off of. The format of Power Rangers is always the same (whether in the U.S. or Japan). There is a bad guy, the rangers morph and fight the evil monster only to have him grow to gigantic proportions, requiring the rangers to use their giant transforming karate fighting, gun blazing mega-zord robot to lay the evil monster to rest and save the world.

While Power Rangers was a nostalgic piece of fluff, I was pleasantly surprised by the Masked Rider movie, entitled,“God Speed Love.” You could tell this movie was targeted at 20-something-year-olds; there was fake blood and a love interest and everything.

For those who don’t know, The Masked Rider is a human who uses advanced corporate technology from the Zynex Company to transform into a beetle-themed bug-powered super soldier. The character rides around on a super-powered motorbike which gives the series its name.

A little known fact is that any Japanese person can actually perform the Masked Rider transformation move on command if asked (they teach it in primary school). The move involves raising your right hand above your head with your index finger pointed to the heavens, and bringing it down in a swift chopping motion while yelling “Henshin!” When the chop reaches your abdomen, you throw the switch in the middle of the beetle icon on your phantom belt and transform into The Masked Rider!

Masked Rider had a short run on Fox TV opposite Power Rangers but was soon canceled due to low ratings. Other shows of the same genre that used footage directly from Toei Japan included “Big Bad Beetleborgs” and “VR-Troopers.”

The Masked Rider movie told the story of two Masked Riders who had to fight the forces of an evil terrorist organization in order to save the world and a special young woman, who just happened to be the sister of one MR and the fiancée of the other. The villain was a grandiose pimp-looking character who wore a long fuzzy white coat and threw deadly blue roses that exploded on impact. When he transformed into an evil gold Masked Rider, all hell broke lose when he unleashed his flaming hurricane kick!

In the end, the battle injured fiancée MR sacrifices himself so that the woman he loves can live on. He accomplishes this in a somewhat baffling sequence of events that involve him traveling back in time and bestowing his last ounce of Rider super-strength on his love, in order to prevent a piece of office building from falling and fatally injuring her. In any event, the movie was about as poignant as a Saturday morning kids show could get – I didn’t cry though.

After the movie was over we all filed out of the room and left - kind of anticlimactic. There is an Ultraman Movie coming out at the end of August that my friend from Ban-Dai is going to score me pre-screening tickets too. Ultraman was the original Japanese super-soldier and his now over 40 years old.

B.E.W.