WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Zeiram 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:08.600 Hey, Welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is Rob Lamb, 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:11.880 and let's see today we have an older episode of 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:16.400 the show that we've never rerun, so we are unearthing it. 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.680 It is the nineteen ninety one Japanese sci fi monster 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.400 films zay Ram. I may or may not be pronouncing 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:27.840 the alien's name correctly here. I don't recall the sights 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:31.400 and sounds except for the pronunciation of this alien's name. 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.760 I certainly remember mostly the sights. This one has an 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:39.320 amazing futuristic bounty hunter character and some various other effects 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.680 that are just tons of fun. Maybe we'll get around 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.000 to watching the sequel at some point. This one originally 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:48.479 published four four, twenty twenty two. Let's enter the picture. 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:57.800 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:06.200 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. My name is Rob Lamb. 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.800 And my name is Joe McCormick. And today's movie is 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:14.520 a nineteen ninety one Japanese film called zay Ram, or 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:19.280 maybe better to say Zerum, because the zay Ram really 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:21.800 sounds like the Tennessee take on the name of the 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:25.000 alien in this film. Yeah, but hey, what do you know? 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:29.560 This is our very first space bounty Hunter movie, And 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:31.720 I think I'll have to be honest and say that 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.680 Zayram is not the most scintillating movie I have ever seen, 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.600 but it has a really great central monsters, has a 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.680 fun bounty Hunter, and it is light years beyond the 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.240 quality of the other main Space bounty Hunter title in 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.680 my mental database, which is also from nineteen ninety one 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.800 and is called a Braxis Guardian of the Universe, Rob 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:56.040 Have you seen this one with Jesse the Body Ventura. 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:58.440 I have. I believe I watched the riff Tracks version 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.680 of it, and I remember it being bad, and I 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.400 definitely remember the two principal cast members. 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:07.680 Braxis goes way back like when I very first started 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.360 getting into B movies in like high school, you know, 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.280 My friends and I were going to the to like 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.839 the used book and DVD store and digging through their 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.040 like trash pile to see what we could find. This 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:20.960 is one of the ones we dug up. So it's 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.800 got Jesse the Body Ventura as the Space bounty Hunter, 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:26.920 and it's got spin Ole Thorson, who you might know 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.880 from Oh I don't know. He was in Conan I think, 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.560 and they're running around some Yeah. Yeah, they're running around 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.800 some town in Ontario, and Spin is the is the fugitive, 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.560 and I recall he keeps grabbing people and asking them 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:42.960 if they know how to compute the anti life equation. 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.840 Oh yes, Spin shows up in a number of different 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:51.400 Arnold movies. He was kind of like part of the ensemble, 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.960 I believe, but then eventually starts showing up, you know, 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:56.560 doing solo projects as well. 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.560 Do you think they originally wanted Arnold for a Braxis 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:01.799 but he, I don't know, went on the Determinator or 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:02.560 two or something. 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.360 I can't imagine Arnold was ever in talks for a Braxis. 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:12.240 I think I think this project was a different orbit entirely. 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:14.440 But hey, a space bounty hunter can be a lot 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:16.560 of fun because, okay, you know, you have like two 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.720 parties arrived from other worlds. Now they're here on Earth, 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.680 and there's already a chase going on, so like, you know, 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:24.560 it's not like you have to get to that part 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:27.560 once they're here. One is already in pursuit of the other, 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:29.000 and that's a good setup. 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:35.040 Yeah. Absolutely, In general, the bounty hunter scenario makes for 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:37.760 good fiction. Especially when you know, because you can do 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.080 the same thing, like who's this mysterious individual chasing this 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.880 other mysterious individual. Well, you're gonna have to explain it 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.720 to the bystanders and they become part of the whole plot. 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.480 But yeah, throw in space and aliens and you've got 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:54.120 yourself a winning formula. And I think that's one of 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.680 the things that I like about Zeram is that it's 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.000 a pretty simple formula. They don't. They get into a 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.440 fair amount of complexity with the monster itself, but in 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:08.160 terms of the basic plotting, into a certain extent, the 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.880 world building, they keep it simple. This is a movie 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.280 where the title is the name of the monster, so 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:17.080 you know it's going to be monster centric. 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.840 There's extremely little plot in this movie. Yeah, But what 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.920 it lacks in story complexity, I would say it's somewhat 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:27.960 makes up for in the form of the far more 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:32.560 interesting than spin only Thorson Fugitive, which is an elegantly 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:37.640 haberdashed bipedal starbeast who has so many now I reveal 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.560 my true form moments, I lost count of them. Like 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.800 every time now I reveal my true forms, there's another 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:45.320 one coming. 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.920 That's right, my son walked in and watched part of 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.679 this with me, because this is ultimately a pretty pretty 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:54.600 harmless movie. It's got a little bit of little bit 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.039 of a monster blood and monster grossness in it, and 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.680 some sci fi weapon fire, but for the most part, 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.240 pretty wholesome. So he was watching part of this and 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.600 he was he was at least acting a little exasperated. 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:07.960 He was into the monster designs. But he's like, haven't 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:09.880 they almost killed this thing like six times? 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:10.719 Yeah? 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:16.720 Yeah, yeah they have. Luckily it finally sticks. But I'll 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.240 tell you something else. It sticks. Yeah, this monster's design 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.600 sticks with you. Because I had never seen this film 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.720 in its entirety, but I caught I think I caught 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:29.200 part of it back in the nineties on the Sci 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:31.560 Fi Channel. They had a dub version. I think they 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.920 showed and it was one of those where you know, 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:35.839 who knows what else was going on, But I only 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.119 caught just a glimpse of it, just enough to watch 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:42.360 like one or two scenes with the title creature, this hulking, 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:46.800 relentless alien bio weapon that you know, it seems like 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.640 this thoroughly unique amalgam of alarming features. You know, which 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.080 is which is good in any monster because monsters are 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:56.920 often this sort of amalgam, but it's a monster where 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.720 it's primary form, the one that gets the most screen time. 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:06.120 It suggests elements of Samurai and onny mushrooms and stingrays. 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.520 You know, obviously there's a little bit of Xenomorph sprinkled 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.560 in there. There's also a sense of the Cyclops and 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:14.880 just much much more like it seems like they've they've 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:20.080 added enough elements that it just becomes unique feeling. And 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:21.919 it also made an impression on me because at the 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:23.960 time I had not seen much in the way of 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.000 Japanese cinema, especially you know, sort of the bio horror 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:30.240 realm of Japanese cinema, you know, thinking of classics like 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:35.480 Akira or Tatsuo the Iron Man. But again I didn't 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:38.080 see the whole film. I forgot about this creature for 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.600 the most part, but occasionally I would be reminded of him. 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.240 And maybe it's because I've been watching the Boba Fett 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:47.440 series with alien Bounty hunters. Maybe that that made me 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.200 think of him again. But I was like, Okay, I 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:51.920 need to look this film up. I need to see 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:58.400 who this mysterious creature was and what this film consisted 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:00.279 of and give it a proper. 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.039 And I would argue, maybe you still don't know who 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.599 this alien creature was, because I don't think the movie 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:07.200 really addresses that question much. 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.800 No, we don't know really where he's from or what 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.400 he did to have a bounty hunter chasing after him. 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:15.760 I mean, he could be the good guy for all 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:20.760 we know, though probably not his his backstory is not 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:23.120 really fleshed out. All we're really told is that he's 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:24.720 essentially some sort of bioweapon. 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.200 I'm going to buck expectations and argue that when it 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:32.120 really comes down to it, Much like the original Alien, 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:36.480 zay Ram is a movie about work in the workplace, 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:39.840 you know, because it's about a it's not really about 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:44.240 human relationships. It's not really about good versus evil. It's 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.160 really about people trying to do their jobs. So you 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:49.720 have a couple of power company guys who have a 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:52.800 job to do. There are main human characters, and then 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.480 you have your Zeno legal bounty hunter who has a 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:58.040 job to do and she's our main sort of you know, 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:03.040 superhuman hero. And the movie is essentially what happens when 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:06.720 those two groups trying to do their jobs jam into 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:08.880 each other at cross purposes. It's like, you know when 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:13.320 you see a road partially blocked for digging on a 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:16.000 pipe or something, and then there's a delivery driver who 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:18.119 has to get through, but their truck won't fit the gap, 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.800 and they start arguing. Except add in space tentacles. 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.800 Yeah, I think I think you're essentially right here. I 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:27.880 wonder what we're to make of the fact that Xeram 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:33.040 itself is essentially a product in a humanoid form. You know, hmmm, 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.360 I don't know. Maybe there's nothing to be made of that, 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:38.640 but ross cross my mind. 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:40.679 Oh no, I can see it if he's a bioweapon. 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.439 I mean, like much like you know when I watch Alien. 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.200 The movie raises lots of great questions and I love it, 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:49.600 But one of the ones I think people don't think 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.839 about very often is I'm like, man, if like the 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:56.520 Whyland Utahani Corporation had better workplace protections, Like if they 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:59.040 had better like union regulations in place or something, A 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:03.640 lot of this could have been of did, but probably 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:05.760 all of it. But no, I mean, it's just like 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:08.120 it's a movie about work problems and this is kind 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.840 of the same. It's like, why did these two electricians 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.120 have to go into the warehouse to investigate the alien 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.640 technology themselves. Couldn't they have called a supervisor to deal 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:18.000 with this? 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.160 Yeah? Yeah, it seems like there should be more of 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.360 a system in place. Shouldn't the police maybe get involved? 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:25.600 I don't know, Yeah, you would think so. 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.320 All right, So the elevator pitch for Zayram. I feel 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.679 like we've basically done it already. It's alien Bounty Hunter, 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:37.319 Alien Bounty taking place on Earth, drawing earthlines into the 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:38.800 wild cosmic scenario. 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:40.720 Did you did you say earth lens? 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:44.959 Did I? I don't know earthlans, Earthlings, maybe earthlins. 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:45.760 Is maybe I miss Earthlings. 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.319 Like this universe, I'm just I'm expanding on the zay 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:51.360 Ram universe here already. 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:54.280 All right? Okay, so who made zay Ram? Oh? 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:55.720 Oh no, we have some trailer first. 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.520 Oh oh sorry, okay, let's hear some trailer. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.960 The people of Earth are about to be visited by 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:08.200 some guests. While they're here, try and make them the 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:21.720 feel welcome. If you can't take the heat, get out 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:23.640 of the galaxy. 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:30.840 Yeah. Not a great trailer, but that's the English language shower. 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.320 The voiceover is a bit a bit much, but we 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:38.160 wanted to have something for you that wasn't just explosion sounds. 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:42.160 I mean a big part of this movie is explosion sounds. Yes, okay, 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:43.240 so who made this thing? 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.960 All right? So the director, one of the writers, and 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:54.040 the character designer is Kita Amimia. Emma has an illustration background, 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.880 born nineteen fifty nine. And I think the illustration background 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:00.960 makes sense given just how visual this movie is, Like, 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.720 this is a movie that's very much about look at 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:08.040 this look at this monster. Look what happens when he 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:09.280 has a costume change. 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:10.080 You know. 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:12.680 The character design elements are very strong in. 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.800 This I agree so much so that there are even 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.439 moments of this movie that look like hand drawn illustrations. 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:21.640 Like there is an opening scene. Actually, it might be 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:23.720 my favorite part of the whole movie is the black 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:29.400 and white silhouette opening sequence and when the outline of 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.000 Zayram is first revealed, before we see any of the 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.000 you know, the surface detail, Zaram kind of looks like 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.520 an illustration. He looks like a hand drawn animation until 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:41.560 it's revealed like, oh no, this is somebody in a 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:42.920 costume lit from behind. 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.600 Yeah, and it's yeah, it's pretty great costume. It's one 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:50.120 of these where zay ram generally feels enormous but has 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.319 a very you know, a very humanoid gait about him, 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:57.720 very humanoid dimensions. I feel like it was very effectively done. 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:01.360 Heavy footfalls. Zaram likes to kind of clomp around on 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:01.840 the floor. 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.360 Now. Emamia has done a lot of work in design 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:09.280 and effects, including this is interesting. He was an effects 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.800 animator on nineteen eighty nine's gun Head, which we covered 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:13.920 on Weird House in the past. 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:15.480 Oh yeah, that's right. 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.040 He's also worked as a character designer for video games 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.880 such as clock Tower three, which I believe I played 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:23.920 that one back in the day on like PS two. 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:29.040 He was also involved in some only Musha titles and 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:30.719 does zay Ram as very much as sort of his 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.600 follow up to his first full length film, Cyber Ninja 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.240 from nineteen eighty eight, which I've not seen, but I 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.160 looked at some stills from it. Looked at at least 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.160 one clip. It looks like a lot of fun and 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.800 there are also some really out there monster designs in it. 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:46.360 I have not seen it, but I will watch based 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:47.720 on the title alone. 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:50.640 So he would go on to direct a sequels z 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.079 a Ram two in nineteen ninety four, and there was 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:55.599 also a spin off animated series that seemed to have 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:59.600 quite a following, Aria Zerium The Bounty Hunter. He's worked 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.400 a lot of it years though, and his filmography includes 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:06.600 some common writer films and what seems like dozens of 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:10.760 titles in the film TV franchise Gero, which, like these 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:16.160 other titles, is a tokusatsu or live action special effects drama, 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:19.600 this time about a man in magical armor who has 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.480 to protect humanity against the horrors, which I believe are 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.439 some sort of demons. Now. Gero I've seen is sometimes 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:31.720 described as a midnight tokusatsu series, as it yes contains 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:35.960 like people in heroes and fancy armor suits battling monsters, 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.839 but it apparently has darker elements for grown ups and 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:43.400 such as is shown on TV like Late at Night. Zairam, however, 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:48.080 is not midnight tokusatsu. This is tokusatsu for the whole family. Again. 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.480 My nine year old son walked in and seemed to 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:52.400 enjoy it and critiqued it a little bit. 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:56.040 Yeah, I'd say probably the scariest thing in here is well, 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.640 I mean some shots of Zairam the monster have like 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.240 that scary face thing that comes out of it. Which 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.120 we can talk about more. But probably the worst thing 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.920 is that it like really bites the electricians arm bad 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.400 and leaves a big bloody welt. Yeah, you can deal 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:10.800 with that. I think the movie's cool. 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.440 Yeah. Now with the next I want to hit the 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.760 other writing credit on this, who is also the visual 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.840 effects coordinator, and I think it becomes pretty obviously we're 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.280 kind of in Pumpkinhead territory with this film. This is 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.400 this is a film, you know, by special effects people, 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.160 with very much a special effects design mentality that goes 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.920 into it. So it's it's monster first, it's visuals first, 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.640 and maybe the actual plotting and acting and so forth 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:41.480 takes a backseat to all of that. 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.440 Now your Pumpkinhead comparison, that was directed by Stan Winston, right, 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:46.320 Am I right about that? 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:51.200 I believe so yes, that of course a legend of 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:55.120 special effects, not so much, you know, a legendary director. 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:58.240 But he did get in there. He got in there 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.680 with Pumpkinhead in nineteen eighty eight, I think he did. 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:04.840 He directed mostly some other short stuff. He directed a 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:08.280 film titled A Nome named Norm from nineteen ninety that 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:10.280 I'd never heard of till just now, and he did 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.240 some video shorts, but yeah, Pumpkinhead was his chance to 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:14.760 really get in there and show what he could do. 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.920 And it's mostly about a really cool monster. You got 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:19.360 some Lance Hendrickson in there too. 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.600 I guess. Yeah, yeah, it's it's an okay horror movie. 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:24.480 It's a great looking horror. 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:28.040 Movie, also featuring Dick Warlock. Oh yes, okay, So anyway 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:31.560 back to the za Ram writing credit and visual effects 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:36.560 coordinator goes to Hajimi Matsumoto as a writer. They only 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.080 worked on the Zerium movies and three other titles, but 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:44.560 Matsumoto has primarily worked in special effects, including some Godzilla movies. 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.400 Nineteen ninety five's Gamera Guardian of the Universe, which which 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:50.160 I love. That's a really fun one with a lot 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.280 of like cute Gamera when he's little and then he 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:54.400 becomes your expected Gamera. 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:57.320 Is this the second movie we've mentioned in this episode 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.040 called Guardian of the Universe with the subtitle Guardian in 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:04.640 the Universe. Oh man, that sets up a perfect sequel 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.480 idea Gamera versus a braxis they got to duke it 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:09.520 out and figure out which one is the real Guardian. 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:11.440 Oh, it's got to be Gamera. I'm going to I 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:17.400 vote Gammera every time, especially over Ventura. But let's say yeah. 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:21.680 But Matsumoto was also also involved in the special effects 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:27.440 on nineteen ninety eight's Ring, the original Japanese Ring upon 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.760 which the American film The Ring was based. He also 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.800 worked on some of the Ring sequels. He worked on Spiral, 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.000 and he worked on The Grudge, both the Japanese version 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:38.400 and the American remake. 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.200 All right, but we would not have a Space bounty 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.560 Hunter movie without our Space bounty Hunter. So who plays 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:46.000 this all important character. 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:51.280 It is Yuko Moriyama, playing Area of the bounty Hunter. 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:54.280 She was born in nineteen sixty eight, Japanese actor. This 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.000 was her first role apparently, and she went on to 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:59.840 do the sequel some TV. She was in Reborn from 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.880 Hell too, And it looks like she retired from acting 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:06.200 between two thousand and two thousand and four and possibly 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:08.280 went into some sort of education field. 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.159 For some reason. I usually just like to see that, 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:13.560 I mean, assuming it wasn't caused by some bad experience 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:15.639 or something. When somebody's just like, Okay, I was acting 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:17.800 for a while. Now I'm career change, I'm gonna do 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:18.280 something else. 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.520 Yeah, based on the limited English information I could find 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.000 about it, it sounds like she just like she eventually found 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:26.520 her calling somewhere else. So yeah, more power. 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:28.520 To her now. As we talked about, this movie doesn't 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.240 place a lot of dramatic demands on its actors, but 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:35.080 I'd say she's good. She fills this role quite well. 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:39.440 She wears the power armor, she does good fight scenes. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.719 She has a good determined stare when facing down the monster. 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:43.720 Thumbs up. 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:47.480 Yeah, yeah, yeah, solid action performance. You know, she comes 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:52.719 off as a badass and unlike her AI help her, Bob, 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:56.440 she's kind of reckless. She's relentless. She's like, she's got 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.680 to get her bounty, while Bob the AI is more 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:01.800 concerns earned about, you know, how this is going to 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:05.920 affect their license? Oh yeah, the lead do they hit? 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.600 Did they have the actual permit to use this particular 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.480 super weapon against the alien? And stuff like that. 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.600 Oh. I got that interminable argument at the beginning about 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.600 the zone and whether using a zone will cause them 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:23.280 to forfeit some percent of the bounty, And. 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.000 Maybe we should have had more of that. It could 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:28.200 have been the the shin Godzilla of Alien Bounty Hunter films. 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:29.439 Oh, that would be a good idea. 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:33.440 All right, So two Earthlings or Earthlinks, if you will, 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:37.480 get get sucked into this, this whole situation, and the 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.199 first of them we'll start with is I believe his 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.600 name is Tep Tepei. I'm sorry Tepe. I think Tepe 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:48.879 Tepe the handsome electrician unknown age. This character was played 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:53.600 by Kunihiro Ida and very limited credits on this guy. 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.160 He was in both the zebraz Ram movies. Doesn't seem 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:58.680 to have been active in a long time. But then 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.240 the other Trician who's our funny electrician, are kind of 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.000 obnoxious electrician because you know, that's kind of how your 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.840 duo should go in a film like this. This is 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:15.000 Camea and he is played by Yukihiro Hotaru. Born in 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:20.200 nineteen fifty one. Hotaru is very active still today, mostly 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:23.560 on Japanese television. He made a career for himself, initially 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:27.679 playing detectives, usually in Japanese pink films. This is a 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.280 broad category of erotic films in Japanese cinema, with some 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.840 particularly sleazy titles, but he seems to have gradually crossed 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:39.399 over into mainstream sci fi and horror as well. Ultimately 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.200 starring or at least acting in a number of TV shows, 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:46.000 even kids films. He worked in that Garo series that 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:50.040 I mentioned earlier. So yeah, you can see you can 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:54.439 ultimately see why because he has a very charismatic face. 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:59.280 He's constantly pulling funny, weird faces in this film, So 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:01.560 you can see why an actor like this would be 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.320 sort of your go to for sort of you know, 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.520 a wonky character roles. You know, it was certainly in 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:09.440 recent decades. 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.440 Yeah, he's doing a zany Jim Carrey kind of thing. 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.000 Yeah, and we usually mentioned the music, so I'll go 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:20.119 ahead and say that hirokazu Ota is credited with the music. 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.600 The score is a bit much in places for my taste, 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:27.600 but it's pretty effective in other places. This individual also 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:32.600 scored the film Roboman Hakaider from nineteen ninety five, which 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.480 I haven't seen, but I've noticed on shells many times. 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:38.439 It's another one of these sort of hero in armor 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.399 or robot gear battles evil. 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:52.119 All right, Well, you might have already guessed from the 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:53.679 way we've been talking about it so far. This is 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:55.959 not really one of those movies where it will make 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:59.000 much sense to go scene by scene since there really 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:02.800 is very little plot. It is mostly a showcase for 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:07.400 visual spectacles, you know, sci fi tech battles, tentacle attacks, 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:11.399 monster transformations, and so forth. But we can give you 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:13.679 a general picture of the shape of the plot and 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.840 then talk about some highlights that we really enjoyed. And 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:19.240 the first highlight I would say is actually the very 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:23.760 first thing in the movie. Strong. Strong opening sequence might 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:25.840 have been my favorite part of the entire thing. And 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:29.680 interesting connections throughout this opening sequence to the Saudakar, because 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.919 you have this background of deep chants as if you know, 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.960 the moon monks are doing mattins. But then also you 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:41.200 have space marines and these egg shaped Eva helmets much 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:44.840 like the like the they're shown in the most recent 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:45.480 Dune movie. 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.960 Yeah, yeah, so they're they're they're clearly here or I 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.040