Hideo
Suzuki has been a loser all his life, but he stands a better than average
chance of surviving the zombie apocalypse. That is because in heavily
gun-regulated Japan, he owns one of the few fully licensed hunting rifles. His
survival and that of a teenage girl will depend on whether he has the
wherewithal to live up to the heroic meaning of his name in Shinsuke Sato’s I Am a Hero (trailer here), which screens
during the 2017 Morbido Film Fest, in CDMX.
Suzuki
was once a runner-up in a promising manga artist contest, but he now toils as
an assistant in another artist’s manga sweatshop. Even his long indulgent girlfriend
gives him the boot, but she invites him back shortly after being infected with
the ZQN. Instead of a reunion, Suzuki will be forced to break-up with her
permanently.
About
this time, Tokyo is over-run by ZQN zombies, but Suzuki manages to get to the
outskirts of town with the distressed Hiromi Hayakari. Waking the next morning,
he discovers she was bitten days ago by an infected infant, but has yet to feel
the effects. Appointing himself her protector, Suzuki pledges to take her to
Mt. Fuji, where the altitude will dispel the effects of the virus, as per the
internet, which could never be wrong.
Unfortunately,
as she starts to fade physically (still without turning), Suzuki is forced to
take shelter with a Walking Dead group
of survivors encamped on the roofs of an upscale shopping plaza. There he meets
the former nurse Yabu Oda who tends to the still human Hayakari. Of course,
their self-appointed leader Iura, covets Suzuki’s firearm, as do those who
covet Iura’s position.
If
ever there was a film 2nd Amendment activists should embrace, this is it. Not
to be spoilery, but it spectacularly illustrates the difference an equalizer can
make between survival and having your brains eaten before your very eyes. In
some ways, IAAH follows a
conventional Living Dead/Walking Dead template,
but the third act is such an adrenaline-charged jaw-dropper, it could easily
become a breakout hit with the Train to Busan audience. Seriously, this is the best zombie film we have seen since Busan, even though IAAH technically predates it.
Yô
Ôizumi is pitch-perfect as the nebbish Suzuki reeling from one existential
crisis to another. Once again, Masami Nagasawa is terrific as Nurse Yabu. It is
a forceful, complex genre performance, just like her work in Kurosawa’s Before We Vanish. Kasumi Arimura is also
quite poignant as Hayakari. Indeed, their humanizing relationships will leave
viewers eager to revisit these characters, something that screenwriter Akiko
Nogi’s adaptation of Kengo Hanazawa’s manga leaves plenty of space for. After
all, manga can go on forever.
Granted,
the shopping plaza setting might remind fans of Dawn of the Dead, but the tech team can boast of some distinctively
disgusting new zombie make-up and effects all their own. Plus, the
lock-and-load go-for-broke extended climax is sheer movie magic. Very highly
recommended, I Am a Hero screens
Halloween Tuesday (10/31), as part of this year’s Morbido in Mexico City.
