Devilman: The Worst Movie From Japan | Video Essay

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Accented Cinema - Episode 125
Best way to describe this movie: "ahhhhhhhhh~~"
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[@AccentedCinema]

A special thanks to our patrons on Patreon for lending their voices! Love you all!

[@jamcalx]

Then we get to have a Kamen Rider film deal in trade!

[@nunjairinun3526]

Can you in the future make a video that talk about issue of racism on black people in China film industry, i don't have any bad intentions, i just feeling curious about it and as someone who know about China movie industry I hope you can make clear video about it. Many news about it like John boyega photo smaller in China or hailey Bailey little mermaid review that only talk about her skin color so yeah i hope you can make video about it and clear the issue. Stay healthy and stay safe

[@Letsjustnot9597]

The author moving from a live-action adaption made by Hollywood to make this, is the embodiment of the phrase “Dodging a bullet to end up getting hit by a car.”

[@fattiger6957]

I don't think anyone would be able to make a proper live-action adaptation of Devilman. The source material is a bit too "controversial" for any studio to tackle.

[@otter1268]

​​@@fattiger6957if there's anyone in Hollywood that could pull it off I think it would be Guillermo del Toro. Dude made Blade, Hellboy, several R-rated dark fantasy films and above all a huge anime fan.

[@robbylebotha]

Lol I have a friend who jumped out of a moving car because he thought the driver was about to crash. The driver did not crash, not even close. The friend has to have multiple surgeries to repair his hip and leg and still walk funny till this day. Seeing how badly he was injured, my recommendation is that even if you're being kidnapped, NEVER jump out of a moving car, just take your chances in the car, pull the handbrake jerk the steering wheel, ANYTHING except jumping out 😂

[@gazeboist4535]

I've never heard that saying before. You've done me a great service.

[@fattiger6957]

@@otter1268 I think Del Toro would be able to do it, if a studio would let him. Problem is studios always stifle Del Toro. Look at how many of his projects have been cancelled over the years. Despite how skilled, talented and passionate he is, he is always on the losing side of studio politics. Mix that with the controversial nature of the source material and I doubt it would ever happen.

[@snickerblizzanimation6044]

"You can tell Akira is really sad about this" Akira makes a "Accidentally walked in on someone naked" noise

[@paleoph6168]

"This guy moaned at least this loud": 3:47

[@riichobamin7612]

As an Indian who is constantly frustrated with Bollywood's general failure to do any proper films (except for Romance), I can emphatize with the Japanese.

[@TheRandomGuyTheFarNoGameCat]

Yeah, that's why I moved to watching exclusively Tollywood.

[@dhimankalita1690]

​@@TheRandomGuyTheFarNoGameCat man stop it .Tollywood is the father of cringe movies

[@oldestdreamdokja]

Kind of true.haha ​@@dhimankalita1690

[@oldestdreamdokja]

Mollywoodis good in story aspect

[@vapidvices8982]

I watched this on a cruise ship in the Philippines when I was 8. It was their in-cruise movie for all the passengers. I have no idea why they thought this was appropriate to show 😂😂😂 Still, it was my introduction to Devilman and I own a DVD copy of it now, good times!

[@RaveDecoy242]

Oy! Debilman! If you don't puke from the waves, you'll puke from the fight scenes.

[@alenmess5469]

Same here im also from the Philippines i watched this movie from a neighbor's house way back 2006 if i can remember This is my first introduction to the devilman saga before crybaby Ive never knew it sucked until now HAHAHA

[@sndark6241]

The bits of “Acting” shown here make me laugh so damn much honestly. A common critique of a lot of Live-Action media from Japan I’ve seen (Even from Japanese people) is that a lot of the acting is considered overdone. Especially when it comes to television, a lot of them are _basically_ moreso just theater plays in terms of how they’re acted. In Theater proper and even Anime this kind of acting is generally accepted, but for Television and Film it’s a bit more divisive. It’s why so many people from there go for Korean or American dramas since they much prefer that more “Realistic” style of acting. Yet honestly looking at Akira and Ryo’s “actors” here I’m just like “You know maybe that overdone sort of acting isn’t that bad in comparison…”

[@AccentedCinema]

At least with a theater-esque acting, it's intentional and just a matter of taste. This is just... wow

[@fattiger6957]

To be fair, East Asians seem to take acting differently than westerners. They tend to be much more melodramatic and over the top. All the emotions are bigger. Tragedies require screaming and weeping. Comedy requires goofy faces and slapstick. And it's not just Japan. I've seen that kind of acting from China, Hong Kong, Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan. It might not be the case with serious dramas. But, that is certainly the case in the types of genre movies I've seen.

[@synmad3638]

I can see that. I think the only japanese TV show I've watched is Midnight Diner, which I really really enjoyed, and is very competently made, but the theater-like acting takes some getting used to. In other words, it seems that even when done well, japanese acting may be dismissed by unaware viewers as just bad. (but I'm not saying that Devilman's acting isn't just bad lol)

[@theonlymegumegu]

​@@fattiger6957hmm, that's my instinctive take too, but esp with the main comment mentioning Korean tv/ film, i wonder if korea specifically adopted a more American style which pushed it's popularity in the US.

[@whorcruxed]

​@@fattiger6957 even India. Priyanka Chopra (Indian actress) talked about this how when she started auditioning in Hollywood she was instructed to tone down despite the fact that she was already well established actress here and had enough acting credits.

[@Big_E_Soul_Fragment]

Japanese Morbius

[@TupocalypseShakur]

It came first, so I'd say Morbius is American Devilman

[@adriandapat1206]

I'm really hate to say it, but... It's Morbin' time... Sorry.

[@XiangYu94]

*Morbius-San*

[@Vesperitis]

@@adriandapat1206 it’s Devil time. And he deviled all over the place.

[@mercce6750]

Japanese Madam Web

[@TheBoringTiger]

3:46 is by far my favorite bad acting from this movie. I cannot believe anyone thought that was a good take. It makes Dragonball Evolution look competent.

[@XiangYu94]

*AaaAaaAAH*

[@FlashNeko417]

At least with DBE, you could make the argument that everyone was just acting to the level of the material given to them. Nobody in this seems to be putting in even that much effort.

[@BababooeyGooey]

On par with Vinnie Gogniti's infamous line in Max Payne: "Oh God you shot me aaah..."

[@ZER0O9]

3:47

[@paleoph6168]

Basically "this guy moaned at least this loud": 6:10

[@WantSomeWhiskey818]

Akira yelling in lowercase is killing me, I cant stop replaying that scene XD

[@jesseowenvillamor6348]

Show us how you act

[@jeanvaljean6433]

@@jesseowenvillamor6348Piss off jesse

[@GaiusIntrepidus]

​@@jesseowenvillamor6348honestly literally anyone can act better than this shit

[@jesseowenvillamor6348]

@@GaiusIntrepidus Even you? Show us to act.

[@paleoph6168]

6:10

[@Vesperitis]

Three-Headed Bob Sapp made me laugh harder than I have ever laughed at Bob Sapp.

[@Mateus_Carvalho]

Truly the sole way to improve Bob Sapp - make him three.

[@grumpysphinx4911]

It's the rule of threes!

[@albertgreene313]

Ok, I gotta know what’s up with “what to do with a dead kaiju” that sounds like an amazing idea

[@AccentedCinema]

It's also a pseudo-sequel to Shin-Godzilla.

[@theonlymegumegu]

yeah, it sounds like an amusing concept about what needs to happen **after** the action XD

[@ohredhk]

@@theonlymegumegu I think it generally got bad review; basically trying too hard to be smart. It would have been better if it was just a straight forward comedy.

[@theonlymegumegu]

@@ohredhk yeah, it seems like a concept that plays better as a comedy. lots of chances for juxtaposition of the mundane with the extraordinary. like slice of life moments of blue collar workers doing site cleanup, but it happens to be kaiju parts. scenes of insurance adjusters trying to determine damage and coverage, but it's weird because kaiju. taking it seriously would feel like you're just waiting for the joke the whole time but it never comes.

[@anirbannandi8263]

I think Pacific Rim did a little bit of that

[@ags8507]

when the mcdonalds icecream machine doesnt work 3:46 when your alarm sounds and its time to get ready for work after sleeping 3 hours: 6:10

[@theonlymegumegu]

3:46 this delivery makes the Mega Man "what am i fighting for!?" line sound like high art

[@lesleyblackvelvet7647]

English or Japanese? 😅

[@theonlymegumegu]

@@lesleyblackvelvet7647 I'm gonna say English as I'm not familiar with the Japanese delivery. is the jp version as much of a meme as the en one?

[@theonlymegumegu]

ok l, i just looked up the jp version, that's actually properly acted XD

[@lesleyblackvelvet7647]

@@theonlymegumegu nope that was actually peak voice acting for me

[@valiantchris6456]

That scene is more akin to the main character in Ride To Hell: Retribution "screaming" after killing one of the villainous biker gang member.

[@raikaschieck1634]

"What to do with a dead kaiju" sound like an awesome premiss.

[@CuongNguyen-gu9fl]

Sounds like that episode from Love Death and Robots about the dead giant, but with much more content to work on.

[@leonardojuangorena4421]

Watch pacific rim

[@NL0Gwenster]

I watched it a few months ago on a plane ride. It's actually pretty good and an interesting concept. It literally is... What would happen after you killed a kaiju and are stuck with a giant carcass.

[@archlinuxuser]

*premise

[@LynnHermione]

@@NL0Gwenster Eat it! I mean, test it first but if it's edible and there's a lot of it...

[@RickyRiq89]

All of this movie's visuals remind me of the 2000s Tokusatsu era, but even then, Garo already had better CGI than whatever this movie had. Really surprised me that Devilman already had a Live Action.

[@therentpursuer9869]

Garo is an amazing tokusatsu franchise. The new series Heir To Steel has been amazing so far. Especially the new practical effects for the Horrors.

[@koox8108]

Don't you dare compare this to Garo

[@gouravchakraborty9801]

Movie so bad that even the director was given 1st rank for directors to die but he actually died.

[@fluffymyato3334]

That bob sapp transformation screamed old spice commercial

[@daanachmad4032]

I love how you never forget to talk about the social, cultural, economic and political aspects of cinema. It is a reminder of interconnected life is.

[@dmarioisajerk]

You are correct. Everyone is tired of corporate incompetence. Especially in the U.S.

[@Monte_Carlo451]

It made me choke when the video said that this movie has a website for all the negative review. That vitriol, the sheer spite, and pure hatred can be felt on that website

[@insertnamehere7228]

A level of hating that I aspire to.

[@miragebangbravern]

Devilman might be a crap movie but I admit that I watched it when I was a kid and it introduced me to Go Nagai as a whole who became the manga author I respect so much for pioneering so much of anime and manga to this very day. So as piss poor as this movie is, it has a special place in me

[@fattiger6957]

Go Nagai truly is a one of the great pioneers in manga and anime. What is so remarkable about him is that he isn't just known for one or two popular stories. He worked in many different genres and created many iconic stories. Unfortunately, a lot of younger fans (in the west, at least) don't know who he is, despite Nagai probably being influential to the anime and manga they do know.

[@onthefaultline]

I respect that. You had to watch something really bad to truly appreciate the rest of the series.

[@calumloo9505]

honestly same dude

[@GrandArchPriestOfTheAlgorithm]

Let's hope no one are being crybabies about this movie.

[@Bored.Bedrock]

I see what you did there

[@AccentedCinema]

I see what you did there.

[@RomanceDawn17]

I see what you did there.

[@HungNguyen-hk4jn]

I see what you did there.

[@Asphyx12]

I see what you did there.

[@MarkPag]

Hi! The cinematic situation in Japan explained in this video reminds me of what is now normal for the Italian film industry: a sector in crisis since the 80s which, despite the fame created between the 50s and 60s, in half a century has not managed to renew itself but on the contrary by recycling old models.

[@tokumillennium5162]

It's so bad that it make Dragonball Evolution look good

[@da1t0u]

I wouldn't go that far dawg

[@Randomaccount9470]

Whoa whoa whoa

[@moonmannd7501]

"It might be a terrible one, but at least the Americans had a vision."

[@ryanbauer3680]

@nnd7501 And that vision was a hot tub filled with money, hookers, and blow.

[@faiz78ify]

he’s right. I rather rewatch DBE, the bestest dragon ball media rather than this devilman

[@frostmourne1986]

Devilman was made by Toei?! How the hell are the vfx worse than their weekly Toku shows?

[@AccentedCinema]

It was the combined effort of Toei the film studio and indeed, The Toei animation. Although I think the animation team only provided a few hand-drawn frames. Like, all 30 frames of it. And they are indeed the best part of the movie.

[@ohredhk]

Mind you even today, Toei's weekly Tokusatsu still mostly rely on old fashion practical effect i.e. a guy in a rubber suit. The CG in this film was not really worst than their TV counter part. But I do think if done right a guy in rubber suit would look better than these shitty CG.

[@plstmb6000]

Compare vfx of recent Kamen Rider or Sentai to other series like Garo. You see Toei is kinda behind. Also as a KR fans I've heard so many complain about toei cutting budget with mishmashing and recoloring old KR suit/gadget to make a new suit (for the big name riders too, not just side riders) just to sell new merch.

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

The puddle analogy was quite profound.

[@om_ikis]

This is actually the first Devilman I watched

[@nightmayor6114]

Geats fan?? RARE.

[@fattiger6957]

That's a shame. I hope you did read the manga or watch the OVAs afterwards to see how good Devilman really is.

[@KisamaMokkorosu-qj7vh]

based kamen rider pfp

[@helicoptergovroomvroom4360]

I'm sorry for your loss

[@jspaingreene6350]

Lol... Was it in the 90s? I remember just renting things blind from this great video store in Seattle, Scarecrow Video, you could get world cinema and even rent players for other zones. I'm pretty sure I saw this and didn't understand... Like wtf. Lol

[@neojb1989]

Something about the way you said "demon semen" really resonated with me and I don't know why.

[@corey2232]

This is why I remind people Japan doesn't exactly have a great history of live action adaptations either... Everyone loves to crap on Netflix for their awful attempts (me included), but they forget all the awful manga/anime adaptations that had nothing to do with Hollywood. When I saw the first trailer for Yu Yu Hakusho's Netflix series, I got flashbacks to all those older Japanese live action films I watched. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as I feared. However, even among awful adaptations, Devilman is on another level. I imagine this is how Avatar the Last Airbender fans felt when they saw the M Night Shayamalan adaptaion, only this is even worse.

[@teslashark]

AOT live action is supposedly based on actual info from the guy himself, just that it was an abandoned script.

[@corey2232]

@@teslashark That's wild.... But even if the script was great, they sure botched the execution

[@teslashark]

@@corey2232 Hmmm, Go Nagai also requested Devilman to be fit into one standard length movie

[@NebLleb]

I honestly consider Devilman the DEFINITIVE bad film adaptation based on a Japanese property. Sure, One Missed Call and Dragonball Evolution are utterly unfaithful to their source materials, but why would you settle for Foreign remakes by people who didn't care? Devilman is a bad adaptation made by EXPERTS.

[@reigenlucilfer6154]

there are tons of good live action tho. rurouni kenshin, alice in borderland, gintama, to name a few.

[@HorrorDeconstruction]

I wish I could enjoy this movie ironically, but it's ASTONISHING how bad it is.. i remember being excited at the announcement, but once they said boy band members were cast I was like uh oh... akira sleeping with miki? what a horrible movie, grateful it was corrected with the netflix DEVILMAN CRYBABY ... (also Amon Apocalypse of the Devilman) Akira screaming is personally the worst acting i've seen in an any film

[@mii9010]

Considering that many pop-idols in Japan have had successful stints in acting goes to show how bad the acting in the movie is

[@metablue390]

3:46 this makes Tachibana-san's scream from Kamen Rider Blade looks like a masterpiece of acting

[@sndark6241]

I'd rather take Kenzaki's slurred speech and... whatever the hell Hajime's actor was doing during those early episodes over this dreck.

[@neddles33]

At least the franchise was strong enough to survive to give us Devilman Crybaby! That, or Nagai's reputation itself was strong enough. Both are legendary at this point, but a turkey like this can stop a lot of big names dead.

[@RyanParreno]

Your line at 3:58 is incredibly hilarious, because the ending of Tekken 8 has the two lead characters, Kazuya Mishima and Jin Kazama, turn into a demon and an angel respectively, with designs absolutely reminiscent of Devilman that Harada probably paid Go Nagai to do it

[@justaway4271]

I mean, i can already tell that Harada was very inspired by this movie, then give Jin and Kazuya their True Devil forms in Tekken: Blood Vengeance, and then it carried over to Tekken 7 and 8 lol.

[@RyanParreno]

@@justaway4271 I think it may entirely be an unauthorized tribute, which like, Harada should have just paid Go Nagai to write it up because he would lift this thing up higher than Tekken Team's writers know how to do

[@lesleyblackvelvet7647]

The fact that he said Tekken 2 and didn't even bother to compare it to 3...😊

[@punchieouchieguy]

No need to insult stephen Hawking's text-to-speech tool (RIP), it turned in some great performances in the Simpsons, Futurama, AND Star Trek

[@AndyTaken]

Devilman crybaby I think was a fantastic retelling of the story, I was completely unaware there was a live action version. btw the "they have the emotional range of stephen hawkings speaker box" killed me.

[@Sotau890]

it's crazy to knowing the both Kamen Rider Blade and Dekaranger where also made by TOEI and aired same year as the Devilman live-action

[@benjacondell2751]

12:49 that frame is so bad, it tries to look epic showing the hero and villain staring at each other, but they mostly fade on the background and the windows being brighter and more colorful get more of your attention.

[@lukisprieston477]

"Oh no, I've turned into a demon" Also I really like your comparison with the backlash to Devilman in 2004 to the backlash against American superhero movies today. When you drew out the parallels it made a lot of sense

[@Leynx-Et-Fenrir]

3:34 The way the guy says he is Satan is so underwhelming... I have seen much more energy in a tired pizza delivery guy after a whole evening of rain, blizzard and zombies.

[@mightyPants]

What a career Bob Sapp has. From the NFL to fighting some of the best kick boxers and MMA fighters in the world and to Japanese pop culture/TV personality. I'd love to see a movie being made about him.

[@Daemonworks]

There's a whole thing about how media gets produced in Japan. It's got it's own version of production companies, hollywood accounting and the like that encourages a relentless race to the bottom where the incentives frequently have nothing to do with the creation of a quality product. It's faustian pacts, all the way down. (And don't get me started on how Japanese talent management agencies work...) Still possible to do good work, but you gotta either be a master of negotiating that system, or be one of the few who's carved out a niche that lets you walk around the minefield.

[@DamianPerspective]

One thing I want to point out is that Japanese Idols usually act in movies and TV dramas in Japan, that's a norm in the Japanese film industry. If you have seen movies by Takeshi Miike like 13 Assassins or Yatterman, those two movies actually cast "idols" as the lead actors "Goro Inagaki" in 13 Assasins and "Sho Sakurai" In Yatterman even the Ghibli movies cast Kimura Takuya a member of SMAP. He voiced Howl in the movie. The acting in Devilman is bad because it's bad I don't think it has to do with them being Idols otherwise the entire Japanese film industry would have been notably criticized for even casting Idols, which usually doesn't happen.

[@DamianPerspective]

Clint Eastwood's Letters to Iwo Jima had Kazunari Ninomiya in the cast who is also a Idol.

[@fattiger6957]

Japanese entertainment companies seems to like taking a multimedia approach. That's why almost every anime series has a real Jpop (or Jrock) song as their opening and ending themes. And Idols acting is very, very common. Back in the 80s, there was a fad of shows featuring delinquent teenage girls fighting crime and all of them starred idols. It is not uncommon for anime series to feature an idol in the cast. A lot of idols are not good actors at all, especially when they are young and new to acting. But the idols in this movie are remarkably bad.

[@DamianPerspective]

@@fattiger6957 Yes that's my point, It just seems to me that Accented Cinema is stating: That casting Idols somehow contributed to how bad this movie is. But that's really not why the acting is bad. It's bad because they are bad actor not because they are Idols, Sho Sakurai, Kimura Takuya, Maeda Atsuko, Goro Inagaki, Yamashita Tomhisa & Ninomiya Kazunari to name a few are all well-known and well-received actors who are/were idols in the industry. it's not a good argument from his side.

[@DamianPerspective]

I see you edited your comment, plenty of idols are good actors but plenty of bad actors happen to be idols as well, but that already proves my point that relating bad acting to the fact they're idols is a ridiculous statement to make. Beantwoorden

[@fattiger6957]

@@DamianPerspective Most idols are pretty bad when they are just starting off with acting. Based on the what he said in the video, this movie was literally the first time either of those guys had acted. So maybe they could have been good with more experience. But this the what you get when you put someone with zero acting experience in the lead of a movie.

[@cpuuk]

"They have the emotional range of Stephen Hawking's voice box" LMAO.

[@whoisyouranime]

11:04 "The 2000s was an Era of Chaos". He obviously haven't seen the films of 2023, the Flopbuster Era.

[@airget]

That's pretty funny, cause Hollywood might of been able to make a decent movie out of Devilman. It would be hard to really mess up the narrative of the story, with the Hollywood Budget and the right Director, hell I'd argue Sam Raimi might of worked. Give that 80's flair to an early 2000's film with a writer that is able to keep the nuances of the story intact.

[@gilbertosanchez2048]

It can also work with Guillermo del Toro as director too since he is a fan of Go Nagai, James Wan can be #2 choice since his original design for the Nun gives a lot of Devilman vibes (idk if he is familiar with Devilman), Sam Raimi can be #3 If the movie can be as good as his evil dead classics

[@Ironattheend]

"It's the roof that's leaking." Absolutely brilliant take. Thank you!

[@bw4708]

I would love to compare the live action to the original English dub of the OVA to see what’s the worst imaginable piece of devilman media 😂

[@JacobJohnson-lh4gx]

Okay, I wasn't prepared for the scream at 3:46 that alone piqued my interest in watching this awful bad movie. Similar to the vain of Tony Wiseau's "The Room" HAHAHAHA

[@randallrona9618]

Funnily enough, another Go Nagai work was made into a Live Action movie and it's called "Cutie Honey: The Movie" but unlike Devilman, it went on to become one of the best Live Action adaptations, thanks to the director, Hideaki Anno who would go on to direct Shin Godzilla and Shin Kamen Rider several years later. Also, please do the video of Guyver Live Action films, which the protagonist was played the guy who voiced Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid series.

[@doublep1980]

Wait, this here beat Dragonball Evolution in the ''Worst Movie'' category?! Crom's beard, I must watch this!

[@Moon42069]

Oh wow.. Its Kazuya's Devil form

[@jspaingreene6350]

Excellent analysis. Your analogy of the Japanese vitriol towards this film, why it is so despised - to our current situation in US corporate/pop film, is excellent. I hope George RR Martin sees your video.

[@somethingcraft3148]

Um, what does George r Martin have to do about this ?

[@fattiger6957]

While anime is booming, the Japanese live-action film industry has been in a rut for a long time. I love Japanese pop culture, but I can only think of a handful of live action Japanese movies from the past 15 years. And two of them are Godzilla movies. It says a lot that all of the top grossing Japanese movies of the past two decades are anime.

[@shanjida609]

Then you have not explored yet.

[@Vitz711]

The Devilman Crybaby series produced by Netflix is conversely one of the best anime series I've ever seen. It's not an easy watch, either emotionally or for those with an aversion to gore, but it's one of the few TV shows I still think about years after viewing it. Absolutely recommended as a genre pushing show. And it's very much a great way to come back to anime for anyone who feels like they outgrew most of the stories of prepubescent heroes and teenage angst. It's a lot more mature in its themes, although some may find the sexual and violent content gratuitous.

[@GUSYROSA-qj2pk]

Man, my dad rented this movie for me when I was like 7yo idk, thinking it was a superhero movie since he didn’t know english. Then I watched it while he was working, and was like shocked but was also liking it and feeling I was watching something really mature and cool, and I think I didn’t really tell my dad what the movie was like and he never watched it. So I was kinda traumatized but it also left a strong impression on me, it remained in my mind in a sorta good way and in a heavy one. Then years later when I was 18 or something I remembered this movie and decided to look it up thinking “man, if I watch it now it must be even better cause im older now.” and discovered it was the funniest/silliest/worst shit ever.

[@DIOBrando-ij2bp]

I ended up watching this Devilman like a few years ago, (it’s on Tubi) and it does have one thing it does that’s pretty cool and looks good. There’s a few moments (and the best looking one isn’t in the video) where it’s does this scratchy style switch thing like you might see in some anime during a big attack when Devilman attacks someone, and it actually looks good. It’s too bad they didn’t get some like Takashi Miike to direct, or Keita Amemiya. I was watching a few Japanese FX movies around that time. Watching some older stuff, (some for the first time, others watching them again after years of not seeing them) it did strike me as somewhat odd how little from Japan we seemed to get in the ‘80s and ‘90s as far as special effects movies go. Especially post-Power Rangers becoming a huge hit. Like, Japan could still hang with Hollywood special effects pretty nicely in the ‘80s and a lot of the ‘90s.

[@loganwolfram4216]

"It's not the puddle that's the problem, it's the roof that's leaking" Perfect way to put it

[@williamm.1608]

Corporate arrogance is an *excellent* umbrella term for the many ailments that plague many contemporary and very disappointing big budget releases. I think you hit the nail on the head. This isn’t counter to anything you said or implied but I’d add that imo people (understandably) tend to pick and choose the manifestations of this corporate arrogance they find most repugnant and complain about those the loudest… as we’ve been conditioned to accept the current status quo. Big movies are big business. If someone feels they can’t change the system, they focus their energy on an aspect or two that they find most odious at the moment.

[@RDG99]

Bob Sapp and Konishiki in one movie? I'm sold.

[@fattiger6957]

Japanese people must have really loved Bob Sapp back then. He was in a bunch of bad genre movies.

[@78deathface]

I love how all the henchmen just wait to be shot

[@RC99_Productions]

07:28 Random Bob Sapp cameo..... I guess.... (because he's a big celebrity over there due to PRIDE FC fights and Japanese commercials)

[@fattiger6957]

I would love to see a faithful live-action adaptation of the Go Nagai manga from a visionary director like Tel Toro. But it would be really expensive and probably not get past any ratings board. Devilman is an incredibly violent and sexual manga. Lots of nudity. Lots of blood. Lots of body horror. And it has demons in it. So it would piss off extremist lefties and righties.

[@SlapstickGenius23]

Yeah, something similar can be said for Mazinger Z’s complete original Shueisha manga run, which has only been released in Italy and France for a decade now.

[@darkbats20]

I've always said for every Dragonball Evolution there's like two Devilmans.

[@Alipro0077]

Akira: Ahhhhh!

[@NebLleb]

EEEEEEHEHHEHEHEHAAA!

[@paleoph6168]

6:10

[@cnhnx]

Go Nagai also created spin-off of Devilman called "Devilman Lady" (don't ask me why it's not simply "Devilwoman" or "Devil Lady"). That one is probably even harder to adapt unless they find a way to cover up body parts of the lady in her transformed state. But then again Kekko Kamen live action movie exists...

[@tampakmurni]

As a former film student from Asia, I feel that westerners are trying too hard to find a deeper meaning in the exaggerated face and acting tropes in Asian cinema. It all sums up to how smart they think the audience is. Producers often afraid people won't catch on to subtleties. This is also why we have the trope where actors just stand there for 2 minutes, twisting their face, and have their inner monologue explain everything. Tell, don't show...

[@visiti2309]

their acting reminds me of Tommy Wiseau's "You are tearing me apart lisa"

[@jasonblalock4429]

14:00 I also see a LOT of similarities to 1950s-70s Hollywood. The boom in huge-budget 50s musicals and period dramas faded quickly in the 60s, as Vietnam ramped up, leading to high-profile flops like Cleopatra and Doctor Dolittle. A disillusioned audience wanting more than escapist fluff then embraced darker indie and auteur films in the 70s. Perhaps a similar indie boom is coming soon? Also, 0:58 I can't think of the last time a three -second clip caused me to *instantly* start googling the movie and whether it's available in English. (And looks like there's only a fansub.) I need to see this.

[@Choils]

You cited Akira Kurosawa as the director of Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) :D For a second there I was thinking Kurosawa must have really fallen off after he died

[@Jekyll_Jackal]

At least the original OVA's had the metal band Anthem for their soundtracks.

[@darthshadow576]

太好笑了! Anyway, I'd love it if you did a video on Raging Fire (2021), No Tears For The Dead (2014), The Man From Nowhere (2010), or the Raid movies (2012-2014)

[@AceMoonshot]

I don't know. Maybe it is my ability to accept low production values but I like a lot of Japanese cinema. As long as the subject matter is taken seriously, even if it is comedy, I can stand bad special effects. And some of their Jdramas have great cinematography. But you are right about Korea just crushing it for the last 25 years. And just getting better. They "get it." Japan seems to be stuck in the early 90s. And I think a lot of it is agency driven. They seem to think idol culture supersedes acting classes. Looks are more important than talent. So you get skilled cinematographers relegated to filming bad actors reading bad scripts.

[@fattiger6957]

Just like the video mentioned, Japan used to make great live-action movies. But their film industry stagnated and regressed in the past decade and a half. It says a lot that most modern Japanese films look considerably worse than the Japanese films from the 1970s. Meanwhile, anime movies are regularly breaking box office records.

[@mitonaarea5856]

​@@fattiger6957According to some news articles the Japanese film industry has been in a pretty bad shape since the 70s. I mean even tho Kurosawa was a world renowned Director he wasn't a very wealthy guy. I think the Japanese film industry doesn't attract a lot of talent because it doesn't pay much

[@shanjida609]

​@@fattiger6957maybe you have not seen much japanese movies.

[@Maruhodo]

10s in and im in unbearable pain. Did no one on production look at that and cringed even a little bit?

[@nineballseraph6986]

3:46 YOU ARE TEARING ME APART RYO!!

[@fisheyenomiko]

> Sh-should we tell him?

[@KA-ct8zf]

Man am I the only person who enjoyed The Flash??? LOL I'll have to pick up that book about Japanese cinema. I've been meaning to update my film theory library and Japanese film is what introduced me to foreign cinema. MANY MOONS AGO the only way to see Battle Royale was to purchase a bootleg region free dvd of the special edition on I believe YesAsia? Wild times. Had a screening with my high school friends and to this day I can't believe I wasn't put on some watch list lol. I miss the DVD era.You could walk into a Best Buy and pick up a Media Asia dvd of PTU, a dusty dvd copy of Full Contact, and Media Blasters' Versus while also browsing what new big hollywood action films just hit the shelves. Wild times.

[@AccentedCinema]

I can't say I like the Flash, but I do enjoy 2 things about it. It has no big bad villain. And the part where he says goodbye to his mom is genuinely touching.

[@KA-ct8zf]

My mother is latino so the goodbye really hit me hard. Ezra's a good actor. Too bad he's a toxic nightmare. @@AccentedCinema

[@ErebosGR]

@@AccentedCinema Both points done MUCH better in the CW TV series.

[@CLUMSY101]

"Winning againts DB evolution" I don't know what to feel 😅

[@Chinothebad]

I remember seeing this when I was visiting family members in the Philippines as a child. I remember watching it on a CD that had other movies burned on it. Child me thought it wasn't bad but seeing the opening of this video show the scene of a guy jumping in front of a group armed men that do not even bother to shoot makes me wonder what I even actually watched back then beyond "man turns into demon and fights demons."

[@mattfrank85]

That ending line was PERFECT. I’m a bit surprised to find out that What To Do With A Dead Kaiju was received so poorly. I got to watch it for promotional purposes and was pretty entertained, but maybe the cultural differences meant that the satire fell more flat for the native audience than for me?

[@WhatAboutZoidberg]

Its not just the movies that are stagnant. Every time I go to my parents house, they have on cable TV and its the same shows that they all played 10+ years ago. They're all just trying to relive that high of the glory days. Luckily theres always time to go back to classics when its a dry spell, well until I get to see Dune 2 in theaters.

[@arijitdasgupta1706]

Japan has a marvelous history of producing ultra crappy live action adaptions of manga, till someone got confused while making Rurouni Kenshin, which was awesome.

[@Agonysis]

In my teens, I randomly came across the Devilman OVAs and, from there, I was fiendishly into the series for quite a while (Crybaby was a treat too!). However, it was only a matter of time before I learned of the live action movie. I watched one trailer on KZbin and went "Nah, I'm good." and this video makes me glad I never waivered on that since.

[@Cousin_Uli]

If you want an excellent companion piece for the 04 Devilman Movie. Check out Ultraman The Next, also from 2004. Both movies had similar budgets, immense pedigrees, and handled their source material in completely different ways. The Next is an earnest attempt to bring Ultraman back to it's roots, while maintaining the 00's sensibilities for better or worse. And Devilman is a cynical attempt to use a legacy property to market a bunch of pop idols. It's crazy how many parallels there are between productions and how differently they ultimately treated their source material.

[@daddyinthestreetsenpaiinth9250]

Ultraman the Next goes hard

[@genesisgil7706]

11:56 Ah yes, "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla" from the acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa 4 years after his death. 😂

[@DensetsuVII]

Hey Yang, love your stuff, but at 11:57, did you mean to claim that Masaaki Tezuka's Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, was directed by GOATed and, at that time, dead director Akira Kurosawa? I am very curious to see how that credit got there because its sounds like that would be a better story than that of Devilman~ (would also love to see your thoughts on Devilman Crybaby, the anime take on this some many years later)

[@louiesmit474]

Thank you for making this channel. It's always interesting to hear your take, and your voice is perfect for these types of narration. Keep up the good work! :)

[@Zieuaugu]

I've watched quite a few movies in cinemas in Japan, and I notice that for Japanese movies the cinema is usually less than half full unless it's an anime movie. Meanwhile it can be difficult to get good seats for Hollywood blockbusters.

[@shanjida609]

I think a lot of japanese live action movies are too niche to attract a mass audience.it is quite unreasonable to expect a kore eda film to become a blockbuster.

[@pipstermuhammad]

As a young boy, I inexplicably enjoyed watching this Devilman movie. The vibes and the sense of wonder made everything seem cool through my eyes as child. However, in my teenage years, I watched it multiple times, only to realize that it sucks and paled in comparison to the Amon anime. My prayers for a remake were finally answered when Netflix produced the Crybaby series.

[@snuggery6486]

11:00 If I'm not mistaken, the picture on the book cover is from *Woman in the Dunes* (Suna No Onna 砂の女)

[@goranisacson2502]

This video has been pretty educational. Sure, anyone might've guessed that hiring idols without consideration for their actual talent is a bad idea, but you'd think said idols would have at least TRIED. These guys apathy and underacting feels almost like theyre TRYING to be bad. But considering the relationship Ryo and Akira share, maybe they just felt "no way are we, ACTUAL BIOLOGICAL BROTHERS, gonna give these roles anything". Like my God, why would you ever cast _siblings_ as the dudes who pretty much INVENTED antagonistic homoerotic tension... Still, I'm not JUST educated in how low Japanese cinema can go, but also from that final part of the video. In a world where everything feels like it's getting worse and the entertainment which we trust to distract us just isn't hitting as we want it to, the backlash will be on a scale far beyond what it'd be if we were in a good place.I'm pretty blase to a lot of things so I haven't really gotten mad at any movies I've seen lately, not even Love and Thunder (bar the floaty head stuff) I only felt the constant barrage of jokes took me out of the movie ONCE. But to people in greater need of a pick-them-up who pay good money to deal with Marvel in their "we have NO idea where we're going now that we reached the big finale so bear with us while we waffle about and see what sticks"-phase... maybe it's no big surprise people get nasty.

[@tryomama]

Problems with this is that there are good shows out there no matter if it's a drama or a film but a lot of those good ones requires basically a lot of thinking. And people that too ignorant to acknowledge it or just out right not watch it.

[@fattiger6957]

That's a shame. The Devilman manga is great and some of the anime adaptations, namely the OVAs, are almost as good.

[@tildex4]

Oooo, _thank you_ for including the translated Japanese lines in the youtube subtitles -- too many times I've seen either nothing or [Speaks in Japanese] in the YT subs, which often covers up the hardcoded subs from the video; so I do appreciate it.

[@raaniatahseen695]

Unrelated to the video, but one thing I'd recommend you to watch on Mubi is Yuki's Sun, a short TV pilot made by Hayao Miyazaki in the early 70s, which tells the story of a young orphaned girl named Yuki and how everything changes after she gets adopted. It's only 4 minutes long, and yet so rich and profound in its storytelling. And it was made thirteen years before Miyazaki would eventually go on to found Studio Ghibli.

[@SlapstickGenius23]

Yuki’s Sun is also based on a Tetsuya Chiba manga.

[@raaniatahseen695]

@@SlapstickGenius23 - Really? Didn't know that. Thanks for the info.

[@TheBeird]

Superb stuff Your video that is. Not Devilman. Good Lord in Heaven no!

[@PsychoGemini]

Oh my god, this movie. I watched it back in college on a badly subbed bootleg DVD and even with the terrible subs it was astonishing how fucking bad this movie was. Literally NOTHING made sense in it whatsoever.

[@Airwr3ck]

Accented Cinema always comes out with a banger. I always look forward to your videos. I never even knew about devilman and now I have a movie to host a drunk funny movies with my friends. I love the internet

[@ihatevnecks7015]

That last line about the puddle was absolute perfection. Great video, as always!

[@sanjurosama]

Most good Japanese live-action movies don't typically involve VFX. Hirokazu Kore-eda has a really consistent career and I also like the two recent Ryusuke Hamaguchi movies.

[@chuckdontjudge]

"Now that we know what the movies about, let's dive a little deeper" Me whimpering after just 5 mins _"Please god no this is awful"_