This is a long form sentai (Power Rangers etc) episode, with the premise being good versus evil. The story revolves around obtaining the four pieces of the Skull Stone which, when possessed, will make dreams come true (one character wants to be with every high school girl in Japan. Its not bad). An archaeologist found one piece in Norway and was abducted, prompting his daughter Shoko to enlist the help of the two heroes in this film (one is Saki Fumada, so evil in the drama "Life" but good here). They have to beat three others with the help of Yatterman, a giant dog like creature straight out of sentai scripts. The film is good, a bit over the top, but fun. The special effects are great and the colors are vivid. Not for children, but teens and adults will like it.

I usually fancy Japanese films. This one was an unexpectedly big disappointment. The storyline is like what you normally see in a 25min children's TV-show. The acting is very much like teletubby's. Very colourfull, cute figures push each other, and sit down with a fart. A little bit of irony-spice lightens it up: The happy song about the ever strong and wonderful times for the hero's is performed, while the hero's don't enjoy life. There are just a few moments of it, though. There's a little bit of first innocent love in the film. And then there's several heavy sexual hints, like a robot getting orgasm and cum'ing (and telling about it), while it's attacked.Most of the content and the story looks like it's aimed at small children. It doesn't have the sub-layer aimed at the adults, like in most family/children's films. But then it has a layer of sexual jokes, making it unsuitable for small children.I haven't seen anything this bad for a long time.

I finally get to see this film which premiered earlier this year at the New York Comicon. I was upset at not being able to secure a seat, however in retrospect that may have been a good thing.This is a great looking musical comedy action children's film based upon the anime series of the same name. I'm at a loss to say more than that. Its pretty much an over extended children's program pumped up (with adult references) to almost two hours where Yatterman (Number one Number two and a couple of robots) taking on a bad guy team all over the world. I'm guessing you need to know something about the series since it starts in mid action and just goes. Its a frenetic mess. Its great eye candy but anything having to do with the plot kind of was lost to me. I'm a huge fan of Miike's films and of the directors ability to confound expectations, the latter of which the director does here in spades, but out side of the motion and the visuals there isn't much here. I'm guessing that Miike enjoyed his work on one of the recent Ultraman series and wanted to continue on something similar. While this is better than Ultraman series (which was a mess) its still all form over content to the point that you really don't care about the plot. On the other hand the visuals and the sense of anything can happen is so strong the film is worth seeing at least as a rental.

Yatterman is one of those films that is best appreciated by fans of the very funny animated television series. I can't give it more than a six for that reason, but I happen to be one of the show's veteran fans and would rate it much higher at a Yatter-convention. The story is about Gan Takada, a mechanically-inclined boy and Ai Kaminari, his cute cohort who, in the original 1977 television series and its 2008 reprise, do weekly battle against the forces of evil--namely a woman named Doronjo and her two male cohorts, Boyacky and Tonzler. Behind the scenes on the evil side, there's an unseen character named Dokurobe who sends the trio through time and space on a quest for items which, if assembled, will allow him his dream of ultimate power. Each side pits a humorous array of robots and mechanisms against each other. Besides the obvious improvements in animation technology over the last thirty years, there are other differences between the two series. Gan is lazier in the new series, Ai is more possessive, and Doronjo's outfit is sexier. However, I still prefer the original series--and I'm not alone. Doronjo is the main difference. She was a much more likable character in the '70s version--and I have to admit she was one of the draws that kept me coming back to the TV every week. Takashi Miike did his best to follow the original series and, in doing so, kept the target demographic in the teen to adult range. Miike made Donojo a very likable character--and the drop-dead gorgeous Kyoko Fukada fills that character--and (you've got to see it to believe it) costume--very well. Miike also restored Boyacky to a pathetic genius with an unrequited crush on a Doronjo who plays him like a fiddle. He also restored Gan to status of willing hero and lowered Ai's maintenance level a notch. He also restored the '70s Yatter-policy of not providing real names of people or places. In this movie, for example, they travel to Ogypt and the Southern Halps. All in all, it's a fun movie and is worth seeing if it passes through your town or your video rental store.