Zeiram (a.k.a Zeram)
If “Dog: The Bounty Hunter” looked like this and
chased after aliens I might be interested in that TV show, but as it is
I think I will stick to Zeiram, a series of two films in the early 1990’s
that starred the doe-eyed Yuko Moriyama as Iria, an intergalactic bounty
hunter who always gets her man – or beast – or other life form. The cult
success of these two films paved the way for Yuko to become the only somewhat
legitimate female action star in Japan during that decade as she followed
these films with a few other fantasy oriented adventure films – two “Reborn
from Hell” films, “Moon Over Tao”, “Kunoichi Lady Ninja” and even a role
in the Hong Kong film “Tokyo Raiders”. The two films also spawned a number
of anime's based on the character of Iria.
Zeiram
Director: Keita Amamiya
Year: 1991
Running Time: 97 minutes
Iria and her partner Bobo, a cheerful talkative
computer, flit around the universe chasing after bad guys with a reward
on their head (or heads). She is completely unflappable in any situation
and as tough as a rock wall. Armed with super technology and weapons that
range from swords to guns to land mines, she confidently takes on any villain
as long as the money is right. Oddly, she and Bobo converse in an earth
language known as Japanese – and I thought it was generally accepted that
English was the Universal language. This time her target is something called
Zeiram – a creature that they have very little information on except that
it is coming to Earth - and so they arrive before Zeiram to set a trap
to capture it. Iria figures this will be a snap and tells Bobo “what could
go wrong now”. Everything.
To trap Zeiram, Iria creates a “zone” – which
is a parallel continuum – you probably studied those in physic’s class
– but in the “zone” the world appears the same as before but there are
no living creatures in it. This serves two purposes – it allows her to
fight and blow up things without any danger to the citizens of the world
they are visiting (when that happens they can be fined) – and more importantly
it allows the film producers to shoot the film without any extras and in
empty streets and warehouses. After she has set up the “zone”, Iria is
about to use her transporter machine to enter it when two hapless employees
of the power company come to investigate an illegal electrical hookup.
Kamiya (Yukijiro Hotaru) and Teppei (Kunihiro Ida) stumble into Iria’s
lair filled with more computers than a Dell storage facility and manage
to accidentally get transported into the “zone” along with their lovely
female companion.
Zeiram shows up as expected – a tall creature
looking a bit like a ratty Musketeer with his broad hat and face hidden
behind a long cloak. Zeiram adorns his hat with an alabaster colored white
head. He turns out to be a much tougher customer than Iria was counting
on – nearly indestructible, armed to the teeth – and the white head is
actually the brains as it can launch itself like a slimy eel with sharp
deadly teeth at anyone – and once it has eaten some organic material it
can create these vile gooey life forms that will attack on command. At
one point it looks like Iria has managed to capture Zeiram and leaves the
‘zone” with the two earthlings and Zeiram together remaining behind – and
of course he escapes and it is their lives on the line.
Much of this is enjoyable sci-fi fantasy for all
ages – it isn’t particularly violent, there are no romantic overtones,
the two humans provide the goofy comic relief and Iria is a great role
model for young women with a yearning to become bounty hunters. The special
effects aren’t bad at all – sort of equal to a Power Rangers movie – as
Zeiran goes through some metamorphosis from his initial form to that of
a skeletal like arachnid to a disgusting mutated mass of flesh that is
filled with breasts and slobbering saliva. Yuko brings a sleek cool edge
to Iria that may not be particularly emotive but that is imminently watchable.
My rating for this film: 6.5
Zeiram 2
Director: Keita Amamiya
Year: 1994
Running Time: 103 minutes
Apparently, the first film did well enough
to bring back a sequel a few years later and for the most part it is the
same story with a few modifications – such as Iria looking even more fashionable
and sexy with a streak of gray in her hair. It is very becoming. She is
back on earth – of all the gin joints and planets in the universe – and
has actually made it her base of operations – it must be the great food
in Tokyo. She is here this time along with Bobo to intercept a valuable
item that was stolen by some alien criminals. That’s the easy part, but
this gang then invites all of their friends to earth to help them kill
Iria – they look like a group of out of work extras who escaped from a
Star War’s convention.
Though she is able to use her flying umbrella
to rise above this motley crew, they all have their guns drawn on her and
are about to shoot when her “bodyguard” appears. His duty is to protect
Iria and he has been programmed to be a perfect killing machine – forty
dead bodies later seems to prove that out - but Iria is not pleased - "I
knew some of them". The “bodyguard” appears to be another Zeiram like creature
even with the small white head firmly attached. It tastes blood. And tries
to kill Iria. Of course the comic relief from the previous film shows up
– both Kamiya and Teppei end up being trapped in the “zone” created by
the Zeiram as it tries to hunt them all down and kill them.
This is a case of the sequel being better than
the original – it is much faster paced and practically has something happening
all the time – it’s like the Adventures of Pauline as the threesome constantly
avoid being killed. The production values are higher as well – though once
again through the use of the “zone” it keeps the extras to a minimum and
the sets fairly downsized. The action and special effects are quite well
done and generate some mild excitement at times. In the end though it is
really the benignly beautiful presence of Yuko that gives these films a
certain cult cache and makes them go down so easily.
My rating for this film: 7.0
