You may remember that I wrote earlier about a film called “Big Man Japan” (here and here).
I’ve tried to watch it online several times. It’s available through ebay but only with subtitles. I thought the film my be released with dubbed voices, so I held out… eventually requesting the film through Netflix.
Netflix had me on the waiting list, and I waited… and waited… for quite a while.
I nearly bought copy off of ebay to show at my son’s sleepover party but decided the subtitles would be too much of a turn off for the kids.
About three weeks ago, I saw Netflix had made “Big Man Japan” available to watch instantly. I added it to the instant que for our Roku box, and waited for the right moment to watch the film with my son.
I considered screening it first, but everything I’d read online suggested it was a pretty light R rating, with little more than video game suggestiveness or gore. My son’s pretty good about knowing what the boundaries are, so I went ahead and put the film on while he and I were home alone this rainy afternoon.
The subtitles were a minus of sorts, but he’s watched many a godzilla film with subtitles. If there’s enough action, he’ll tough it out.
Big Man Japan actually fits all the action within a nice faux documentary context. I actually got sucked in a little during the mocumentary opening that consumed the first 15 minutes. Unfortunately that lowed my son’s interest level considerably. He still made it through nearly 45 minutes of character development and backstories with subtitles before we decided to start fast-forwarding to the battle scenes.
They were not exactly action packed, they were more aimed at my generation than his. There was some clever banter between hero and monsters, some choices of actions by the same which reflected them being ordinary people with ordinary issues. There was some sexually suggestive dialogue and … we turned it off. (Mainly because of my son losing interest, but partly because I was starting to grow uncomfortable of what might happen in future scenes of the film.)
So… for all the hype, I did not watch the full film. I think it would be a fun watch, with the right person. But my son’s not that person. Not right now.
We ended up switching to an old episode of Mythbusters on the DVR… the one where Adam stores his “flatus” (he gave one of the cylinders to Craig Ferguson 4 years later on Thursday night’s Late, Late Show).
Maybe we’ll revisit the film. Maybe I’ll watch it by myself some other time. It seems like a clever movie, but I do hope that future Godzilla movies aren’t written that same way. My son loves the old school rubber monster battles – and so do I.
Contributed by: Scott Copperman
Tags: By Scott Copperman