(I have ticked the "contains spoiler" box, but the only spoiler is that towards the end of this film the plot fails to develop in any way and nothing interesting happens.)
An eccentric man aged about 40 lives alone in a decrepit house in Tokyo. He periodically transforms into a giant (about 30m tall) and defends Japan by battling similarly sized monsters that turn up and destroy buildings. The giant and the monsters are computer-generated.
After about an hour and a half, the film stops and a notice is displayed on the screen with a yellow warning triangle. The message says something like "Koko kara wa jissha de goran kudasai," which means "From this point on is live-action." Then some American giants appear. They are humans dressed in costumes, in contrast to the computer-generated monsters before this point. And they have some trivial conversation with the Japanese giant. And then the film ends.
It seems that many people's reaction to this last part of the film is, "I didn't understand it," or "It was strange." Perhaps I'm rash, but I have more of the courage of my convictions: I think this part of the film was meaningless, totally uninteresting, totally unenjoyable, and totally unfunny. The only reason I didn't walk out was that I thought there might be another good bit before the end. But there wasn't. It just ended. If you go to watch this film, I recommend you go home when the notice with the yellow warning triangle appears. You will save yourself from being bored for fifteen minutes.
There are three scenes where the world outside Japan intrudes. All three have a distastefully xenophobic tone. In the first, the main character just speaks ill of America for no reason. In the second, a Chinese woman tries to speak Japanese, but can't pronounce it properly, and this is supposed to be funny. In the third, the American giants turn up. One of them repeatedly says "Zehi" ("Please"), and we are supposed to find this funny because that is the only Japanese he knows.
Western audiences might think that they are missing something, or that you need to know more about Japanese culture to fully understand this film. But I don't think there's anything to it. This film is just weak.
Hitoshi Matsumoto (writer, director, and star of this film) is one of the countless legions of TV personalities who are extremely well known to most Japanese people. People say he is more talented than most. But this is not saying much.
In his favour, he has a likable screen persona, and fairly good comic acting ability. The scenes where he is a normal human being are reasonably funny. I think if Matsumoto put his mind to making a pure comedy film set in the real world, and steered clear of feeble-minded anti-American sentiments, he could make an entertaining film.
(The title is translated "The Great Japanese". But it is not meant to mean that the Japanese people as a whole are great. It is just meant to mean "The Great Japanese Person". I suppose there are many other interpretations that could be put on it, because Dai-nipponjin is a made-up word.)
An eccentric man aged about 40 lives alone in a decrepit house in Tokyo. He periodically transforms into a giant (about 30m tall) and defends Japan by battling similarly sized monsters that turn up and destroy buildings. The giant and the monsters are computer-generated.
After about an hour and a half, the film stops and a notice is displayed on the screen with a yellow warning triangle. The message says something like "Koko kara wa jissha de goran kudasai," which means "From this point on is live-action." Then some American giants appear. They are humans dressed in costumes, in contrast to the computer-generated monsters before this point. And they have some trivial conversation with the Japanese giant. And then the film ends.
It seems that many people's reaction to this last part of the film is, "I didn't understand it," or "It was strange." Perhaps I'm rash, but I have more of the courage of my convictions: I think this part of the film was meaningless, totally uninteresting, totally unenjoyable, and totally unfunny. The only reason I didn't walk out was that I thought there might be another good bit before the end. But there wasn't. It just ended. If you go to watch this film, I recommend you go home when the notice with the yellow warning triangle appears. You will save yourself from being bored for fifteen minutes.
There are three scenes where the world outside Japan intrudes. All three have a distastefully xenophobic tone. In the first, the main character just speaks ill of America for no reason. In the second, a Chinese woman tries to speak Japanese, but can't pronounce it properly, and this is supposed to be funny. In the third, the American giants turn up. One of them repeatedly says "Zehi" ("Please"), and we are supposed to find this funny because that is the only Japanese he knows.
Western audiences might think that they are missing something, or that you need to know more about Japanese culture to fully understand this film. But I don't think there's anything to it. This film is just weak.
Hitoshi Matsumoto (writer, director, and star of this film) is one of the countless legions of TV personalities who are extremely well known to most Japanese people. People say he is more talented than most. But this is not saying much.
In his favour, he has a likable screen persona, and fairly good comic acting ability. The scenes where he is a normal human being are reasonably funny. I think if Matsumoto put his mind to making a pure comedy film set in the real world, and steered clear of feeble-minded anti-American sentiments, he could make an entertaining film.
(The title is translated "The Great Japanese". But it is not meant to mean that the Japanese people as a whole are great. It is just meant to mean "The Great Japanese Person". I suppose there are many other interpretations that could be put on it, because Dai-nipponjin is a made-up word.)