The survivalists will be the ones to master this new world.
What They Say:
Thirty-five-year-old assistant manga artist Hideo Suzuki leads an unsatisfying, tedious life. To cope with his day-to-day stresses, he fantasizes scenarios where he’s overcome with confidence and bouts of courage. But that’s just what they are: fantasies. And yet, when a virus outbreak hits Japan turning the infected into mindless cannibals, Hideo is forced back to reality. Equipped with his shotgun amidst seemingly insurmountable odds, now’s his chance to rise to the occasion and become the hero he’s always daydreamed he could be, even if it kills him.
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language track in 5.1 form encoded using the Dolby TrueHD lossless codec. The film works some decent action sequences and handles its forward soundstage well throughout with it while bringing a few things to the rear channels on occasion. It’s not a hugely immersive piece in this regard but it’s not really designed for it outside of the bigger scenes, which are mostly early on like the car chase, and just some of the overall background sounds of the fight in the later sequences. The mix is pretty nicely done overall and it has some moments that make you perk up a bit so it works effectively with the material. We didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback with it either.
Video:
Originally in theaters in 2016, the transfer for this film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The encoding here works well to capture the kind of earthy tone that the film is going for with it being a bit washed out but not too much, all while keeping the film grain look to a lighter touch side so that it’s not so distinctive. The washed out aspect works well as civilization falls apart with how everything looks and as it shifts to other areas, such as night time outside a temple or digging into the underground levels of an outlet mall, it’s all very well-handled with solid blacks and well-defined visuals. There’s not a lot of vibrancy that we get here with it but gore looks good and the CG elements work far better here than they do, for me at least, in most other Japanese movies of the last few years. The result is a pretty solid romp.
Packaging:
The packaging for this release comes in a standard sized Blu-ray case with an o-card slipcover that replicates the case artwork itself. The front cover uses a trio of images from the film that gives it all a serious look and breaks it up with a good bit of white in the framing. But it also slides the logo across almost the entire thing and does it in a really vibrant pink which you might not associate with a zombie-ish horror film. That said, it’s distinctive and catches the eye and overall looks pretty good in selling the darker side while not showing anything on the front cover. The back cover goes for an all pink background with a good shot if Hideo along the right. The shots from the film give us a bit more of what to expect with larger than usual images. We also get a decent summary of the premise, a clean look at the extras included, and a solid technical grid that lays everything out in an easy to read format. No show related inserts are included but we do get a close-up of Hideo on the reverse side from the front cover with it all done through the pink filter.
Menu:
The menu design does go for an interesting choice here as we get a static image of Hideo with his shotgun looking as intense as he can be with the fear he has and it’s all done to a pink/purple filter. It’s not something that you’d think of for something of this nature though there’s some cultural background for it as well. The logo takes up a nice chunk along the left and we get larger than usual selections for the navigation, all of which loads quickly and easily both as the main menu and as the pop-up menu during playback.
Extras:
The only extras included are the Japanese promos and teasers.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the manga of the same name by Kengo Hanazawa, I am a Hero is a solid two-hour film that plays in the realm of zombies and undead. The original manga ran from 2009 to 2017, wrapping up a year or so after this film arrived, and landed at about twenty-two volumes after running in Big Comic Spirits. I’ve only skimmed part of the first volume but by all appearances, this is a pretty decent adaptation that captures the spirit of the original work and runs with it in the usual Japanese way. We’ve seen an expansion on what the undead can do in media over the last several years so that it’s not all slow and lumbering creatures and this one plays a bit more to the viral infection side than an actual undead kind of thing.
The premise is straightforward in that we’re introduced to Hideo Suzuki, a mid-thirties manga assistant who won an award fifteen years earlier but could never go from best newcomer to an established storyteller. He’s working as one of several assistants to someone more popular and it’s just a grind of a job. He wants to tell a story of a man protecting his girlfriend that includes a lot of gun safety elements as he’s a rare guy in modern Japan that owns a sporting shotgun. He’s a very by the book kind of guy with the rules ingrained about him, so we see the locker, how he handles it, and even in the thick of things later not willing to share the weapon because it’s against the law. It really is one of those “only in Japan” kind of moments that works. Hideo’s life isn’t where he wants it to be and that’s essentially eaten away at the relationship with his girlfriend Tekko, who finally reaches her limit after a bit here and essentially starts kicking him out.
Amid all of this and a few other little bits going on in his life, the background digs into the slow spread of a virus that’s about to go into overdrive. It’s similar to the usual modern standard of someone infected bites someone else and they become it, or they become food. It’s a fast build before it ends up encompassing the city and we see Hideo caught up in the middle of it with those he knows succumbing to it and then grabbing things from his place in order to survive out there since he’s got the gun and all. Nothing goes easily and those big opening city scenes as the chaos really gets underway is fun, even if you do get the usual numerous scenes of people standing around not comprehending what’s going on and getting killed quickly. But the scale of it is well presented and it shifts gears into a chase quickly, including giving you an idea of who will be going along for the ride but upending expectations.
The film does through a few curveballs at us when it comes to the viral side of it while never giving any real explanation of it, and I like that he connects with a teenage school girl that ends up traveling with him. I dislike the obvious near-pervy material because the twenty-year age difference and the fact that the world seems to be ending would be the main focus of events anyway. She does represent something new to the mix but it’s not really explored all that much and it looks like it is pretty different in some ways from the book. What did work for me is the idea that the virus doesn’t work as well at high-altitudes, hence the journey to Mt. Fuji, and that the second and third acts focus on a group of survivors a few days/weeks into this whole thing at an outlet mall near Mt. Fuji. It plays to the usual group fear dynamics and we see the familiar breakdown with the women doing the household duties while the guys try and fight the undead there. It falls into such stereotype so easily and with no pushback that it just made me cringe a bit, but at least the location was really nicely chosen and there’s some good tension to be had here.
I think what amused me the most, however, is early on one of the other manga assistants tells Hideo as things go south that this is their time. Those that play survival games and the like as the rich boys that never dealt with anything are dying by the droves. It’s not an unfamiliar concept or idea that those that roleplay these situations will make more striking choices, or at least come to the decisions more quickly by simply being familiar with the “genre” of it all, but none of this actually helps Hideo. He continually makes decisions just as bad as everyone else and while he does get the big action piece at the end in a bloody violent way, the rest of it is just him being as scared as everyone else but having a little more latitude because he’s got the gun.
In Summary:
I liked everything I had read about the concept of the manga when it first got underway and got picked up here and everything about the film during its initial rollout was appealing to me. Finally getting to see it here is definitely a welcome event as it’s a solidly put together work, better than most of my Japanese live-action film experiences, as it’s a very competent and well-executed one. The acting is solid throughout, the special effects for the undead hits some sweet spots that will please fans of the genre, and the use of locations and the passage of time helps to keep it all moving forward. It’s a good looking release that delivers good action, good gore, and a fun time overall.
Features:
Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Language, English Subtitles, Promo, Teaser
Content Grade: B
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: C
Released By: Funimation
Release Date: July 24th, 2018
MSRP: $34.98
Running Time: 128 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
