SXSW 2016

I Am a Hero

2015 • Fantasy, Science Fiction, Action, Horror • 126 minutes • 1,777 ratings • 301 reviews

Directed by Shinsuke Sato

Starring Masami Nagasawa, Yo Oizumi, Kasumi Arimura, Nana Katase and Yuki Yoshizawa

Hideo Suzuki is a 35-year-old mangaka assistant, whose life seem to be stuck around his exhausting but low-paying job, unfulfilled dreams, strange hallucinations and unsatisfying relationships. He sees himself as a supporting character in his own life, has low self-esteem, resulting in frustration. One day, the world as Hideo knows it is shattered by the presence of a disease that turns people into homicidal maniacs, whose first instinct is to attack and devour the nearest human.

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Reviews

  • ★★★★ review by DirkH on Letterboxd

    The zombie genre has definitively moved towards the eastern half of the globe.

    I Am a Hero is a superbly balanced zombie film that simulates iconic genre examples and blends it into a wonderful film with a clear sense of identity.

    You'd think there is not much left to explore in this particular niche of the horror genre and you'd be right. But once again, like recently Train to Busan, a, for me at least, culturally different approach and style imbue it with a new vigor that is more than welcome.

    Nasty, funny, disgusting, touching and disconcerting, I Am a Hero's 2 hour running time whizz by, sporting the perfect anti-hero and a perfect balance of genre elements.

  • ★★★★½ review by YI JIAN on Letterboxd

    You sit down and watch a live-action adaptation of a horror manga, this is the last thing you'd expect. The budget is high, the CGI is amazing. It's a perfect balance of gore and comedy, it's comical but never too excessive, it's intense, it's hilarious, it's beautiful. Though the main focus is shifted away from Hideo's cowardice, paranoia and denial (which is quite extreme in the original source material), I'm still glad to see that some of his mental struggles are retained and represented here in the most interesting way possible. There are numerous little moments of brilliant choreography whenever a handheld camera is used, the first escape sequence where Hideo ventured across the city while the ZQN disease rapidly spread around him was done particularly well. First thing tomorrow morning -- I'm gonna watch this again. It really is that good!

  • ★★★½ review by Kiko Vega on Letterboxd

    Mientras todos hablan de Tren a Busan, I am a Hero hace sus cosas en la sombra de manera más elegante, dolorosa, trágica... Llena de referencias claras, puyas al pensamiento USA y un montón de sangre consigue algo que parecía impensable en el género: innovar. Tanto visualmente como con el tratamiento que da al comportamiento de los no muertos más aterradores que recordamos. Muy bien, aunque sus dos horas se hacen un poco pesadas.

  • ★★★½ review by Juan Castillo on Letterboxd

    Un inicio y un tramo final sobresalientes, junto con esa amplificación/variación de lo planteado por Romero en Dawn of the Dead y la excelente idea de concebir al zombi como un daguerrotipo de lo que fue en vida, compensan sobradamente los momentos en los que parece que Sato se queda sin munición.

  • ★★★½ review by MrJago on Letterboxd

    Really nicely shot and mostly low-key Zombie movie with a really, really gory finale :-)

    This was nice and entertaining only drawback was that they wasted the glimpsed at potential of one of the characters.

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