Movielogr

Zëiram 2 (1994)

Directed by Keita Amemiya

Science Fiction | Action | Fantasy

Overview

Intergalactic bounty hunters Iria and Bob return to track down an ancient mystical relic. When a second Zeiram unit shows up and goes berserk, it takes all of Iria’s resources to survive a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the fearsome space creature.

Length 107 minutes

Actors

Katsuya Terada | Tetsu Watanabe | SABU | Kazuhiko Inoue | Yukijiro Hotaru | Mitsuo Abe | Makio Hiraiwa | Shuta Hiromoto | Kunihiro Ida | Bin Kurihara | Yûko Moriyama | Yukitomo Tochino | Mizuho Yoshida | Kazuhiro yokoyama | Yoichi Komatsuzawa | Reo Kinue | Yumiko Kishima | Aya Kaida | Takeshi Konuda

Viewing History (seen 2 times)

Date ViewedDeviceFormatSourceRating
10/12/2021TVBroadcastTV7 stars
06/09/2014TVDVDLibrary6 stars
 

Viewing Notes

Now having watched 3 Keita Amemiya films in the same amount of days I would call him the Albert Pyun of Japan. At least that 90s run. Not as prolific but certainly on point for subject matter. Take Zeiram and Zeiram 2 compared to Pyun’s Nemesis series. Very similar.

I haven’t seen Zeiram but I probably should’ve watched it before Z2 since whatever occurs in the first film is often referenced in the second film. And all the characters are connected in Z2 based on Z1. Usually I would watch the initial film first but it wasn’t part of this 3-disc set I picked up from the library. Which is odd. Maybe Tokyo Shock doesn’t have the rights to the first movie.

Z2 is not a very good movie but I give it points for ambition and effort. Also all the amazing costuming and characters for what boils down to a very short scene. A good chunk of those 40+ characters would make excellent 1/6 scale fingers. Can’t even imagine how long it took them to create those (then again, more likely that Amemiya repurposed his Kamen Rider stock).

The Zeiram robot is *the* figure to have. I’m sure one exists. He’s (assuming it’s a “he”) is the reason to watch this movie. Totally badass killing machine. Of course Yuko Moriyama is the other reason to watch. She’s gorgeous and can fight with the best of them.

Why is this not a very good movie? Well, it’s too long and gets too bogged down in silly stuff. So many things could easily be trimmed to make this a tight flick. The humor beats can go away entirely. Keep it serious and laser focused on the main battles.

When this movie is around the 40min mark I thought it was nearly over. I checked the time and saw there was still more an than hour to go and was WTF. Too long!

Still worth the watch if you like tokusatsu because there is some great stuff and good fights. Just don’t expect a deep story or characterization.

Comments

No comments yet. Log in and be the first!