ZEBRA TIME

The Making of Zebraman 2 or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Japanese.

By Jason Pluscec (aka J-Man)

So I already reviewed this movie on the Fantomzone Blog (I’m sure you read it) and you may be thinking why are you now talking about it on this blog? Well I wanted to explore the making of Zebraman 2 and the Japanese in general.

First off, this was directed by Takashi Miike, who has made several other weird movies and even some truly horrifying ones. Not that it matters, I myself write horror stories as well as Superhero-ish stuff. So no big deal there, but when you watch some of his other stuff you form a visual in your head of what he looks like, and how he must be in real life. Well when you see him in the making of Z2, you see a nice older man who is very respectful of his actors and his crew.

What I really noticed about Z2 is how much everyone got along. Don’t get me wrong, I have watched tons of “behind the scenes” featurettes and everyone seems to get along, but I don’t see any level of respect taking place.

I know its cliché, but the Japanese really do bow a lot and it’s a great show of respect. Even the lesser crewman gets bowed to and everyone seems to be really working hard.

It’s not that they are not having fun, it is fun, but they are also working hard and getting stuff done; which is probably why you don’t hear about how they are always going over budget or taking too long on shoots, like you do in Hollywood productions.

You also don’t hear of outlandish budgets for films. Well that’s because production companies and CGI effects teams don’t gouge film makers saying that it costs 1 million dollars to extend Wolverines claws. So you get great films that equal Hollywood standards that don’t cost as much. The budget of Avatar could have made 10 Zebraman movies!

Also you don’t have stunt doubles doing everything. The girl who plays the Zebra Queen isn’t a martial artist at all. She is skinny and weak in real life, but in this movie she kicks ass. Well that’s because she was trained to kick and punch. I know, actors always train, like Matt Damon in the Bourne series. The only problem is that they zoom in the action so much that you cannot tell what is going on in the fight scenes. Which means that the fighting wasn’t good, so they had to cover it up with fast cuts and zoom-ins. Of course there are stunt doubles still used, but at least they can do some of their own work. Look at Jackie Chan – who has been wasted in Hollywood. They get him for his skill then don’t use it because they are afraid of a lawsuit. They are scared he will get hurt and sue! So they end up doing nothing with him and wasting his talents.

Sure the Zebra Queen isn’t a great fighter, and at one point it took 21 takes to get one kick right, but at least they took the time to make it right instead of just fast cutting the action. On a related note, she was injured during one of the fights and she kept on filming. This is a 20 year old skinny Japanese girl, and she didn’t whine about it, she just moved on.

Another great thing is that at the end of shooting someone’s final scene, everyone applauds and a bouquet of flowers is given to the actor and they make a speech. I am not sure if this is the custom of all films productions, but I have never seen it done in the making of other films.

It was really sweet. The Zebra Queen was so thankful to everyone and she was even crying! The lead actor, who has been in films for 25 years, was really touched and made a big speech about how he was thankful to everyone that helped him out; then of course we had the bowing and the congratulations.

I am not saying that Japanese films are better or worse than any others, but I just thought I’d share with you my thoughts on the making of Zebraman 2 and how I was moved by the people making it, and the respect everyone showed.

Until next time.

J-Man.