| Shin
Kamen Rider (1992)
Production: Toei Corporation
By Tristan "Dreamseer" Day
Introduction
Long ago, before the dark hero
we now know as the original Kamen Rider exploded onto the
screen, creator Shotaro Ishinomori had a very different vision
of what the insectoid warrior would be. He was not a cyborg,
but rather a fully-organic creature - a monstrous beast, transformed
by modern science into a weapon of evil. Over a decade and
several cybernetic Riders later, Ishinomori's original vision
(or at least a variation on the original
concept) finally became a reality in Kamen Rider Shin...
Story
Shin awakens in a hospital bed,
from what must have been a terrible dream, a nightmare. He
doesn't realize that the awful things he has been seeing and
feeling are not just figments of his imagination, but are
really happening.
Shin has been transformed into an insectoid
monster - a creature with an insatiable desire to attack and
to destroy!
Who has done this to him? Why was a creature
with such terrible power brought into this world? Shin races
against time, struggling to find the answers he seeks before
the beast within him can take hold again and hurts someone
he loves or someone else is harmed by the monstrous assassin
that must have been created from the same science that made
him what he is.
Shin knows that he must find his answers,
no matter what the cost. But the greatest fear that lingers
in his heart is the fear that those answers... may destroy
him...
Review
I've seen two of the three 90s
Kamen Rider films. I absolutely loved the first one I saw,
but unfortunately was unable to feel the same about this one.
As you might guess, Shin is a very different
kind of entry in the Rider mythos. First of all, he never
once is referred to as "Rider" or "Kamen Rider"
by anyone. "Shin" is actually his real name. He
rides a motorcycle in human form, but the bike doesn't transform
or have special powers- it's just a bike. Shin himself has
no real powers, just furious strength and deadly weapons on
his body, such as claws. His transformation is violent and
painful, and rips his clothes. No flashy lightshows here.
Just a hard-edged monster movie. Why is this a problem? Well,
it isn't really. I rather enjoyed how this film took a detour
from the norm and did something different not only from Kamen
Rider, but from the genre itself.
The problem I did have with the film is its
execution of these concepts. To put it bluntly, I just thought
the movie was really boring. I can't be intellectual about
this. There were some interesting fight scenes, the sense
of inner conflict with the main character was nice, the newness
of it felt good, but the story dragged on so slowly that I
just couldn't get into it the way I would any Rider show or
movie, or anything belonging to this genre, come to think
of it. It was just too slow.
I will say that the suit design for Kamen
Rider Shin was well done and served the story quite well.
The same goes for the one monster in the film, though it strangely
does not have the insect-motif, despite being created the
same way as Shin. Shin's suit has the same type of gritty
B-Hollywood feel that ZO did.
This seems to be a specialty of Ishinomori,
for he seemed to enjoy being "less fantastical"
with the Rider franchise (though there is a slight exception
to that, but let's not even go there). Very cool. In fact,
the entire film feels sort of like one of those films you
stumble onto on the Sci-Fi channel really late at night or
early in the morning and you haven't a clue what you were
watching, or what mad men could have possibly concocted it.
So, in that respect, Shin succeeds. It succeeds in telling
a strange and gritty story with a peculiar visual style, which
can only be achieved in a project with that straight-to-video-Hollywood
sensibility.
Conclusion
In closing, I find myself at
a loss for words. To be perfectly honest, I think this film
is quite boring, but I know of a number of hardcore B-movie
fans that would eat this stuff for lunch, so I can't write
it off as simply being bad. Let's just say it's an acquired
taste. I give it a C-. C for "Cyborg Soldier."
I’ll See You In My Dreams
-Dreamseer |
