I Am A Hero: One of the Best Forgotten Zombie Films Ever

This has got to be one of the greatest underrated zombie movies ever.

It’s not so-bad-it's-good. It’s just plain good.

Much like the main character of the 2016 film we’ll be talking about today, it was vastly overshadowed by its more successful progenitor. I Am A Hero was originally a manga series created by Kengo Hanazawa. First released on August 28th, 2009, by November of 2015, the manga had 4 million copies in circulation. By November 2021, it had over 8.3 million copies in circulation. Anime News Network's Jason Thompson placed I Am a Hero at number 1, considering it "probably the greatest zombie manga ever."

The shoes the film had to fill were larger than the opportunity it was given to do so.

The live-action adaptation of I Am A Hero was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 24, 2018.

Today, I hope to shed a little light on this grossly underappreciated film.

The main story centers around a man named Hideo Suzuki, a struggling manga artist assistant. We get a look into this struggle from the very first scene of the film when he is made fun of by a coworker and subsequently responds by going on a monologue about how Japan leads the world in manga and how proud someone should be to even be a mere assistant in a manga office.

This response is met with the cheers of his coworkers, clearly impressed by his confidence and his passion.

At least, in his imagination they cheered. Sadly for Hideo, he imagined the monologue but didn't follow through on his fantasy.

He walks with a slouch on the way home. His sway and his swagger display a defeated man.

At home, it gets even worse.

His girlfriend doesn't have any respect him, nor does she seem to appreciate him. While he eats at the table, she lies in bed and turns the volume up on a TV show she’s watching. It’s a show about a man stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility.

We see Hideo’s face.

He knows that he’s not living up to expectations.

As the night goes on, he looks at an old award received for the best new up-and-coming manga artist. He’s not the man he once was. A glimmer is all that remains of the promising future he once hoped to secure for him and his girlfriend. Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, he didn’t make it. The only thing left he has to be proud of is his shotgun.

In America, guns are everywhere. In Japan, this is not so. It took a special license to acquire his shotgun and legally own it. Despite this accomplishment, it's diminished by his girlfriend as merely a hobby he can’t afford.

This theme of not being good enough persists throughout this opening part of the film.

Things start to get interesting as a mysterious infection begins slowly affecting more and more people in the background of the film's first act. The news begins reporting more and more incidents; we see helicopters fly over; we see people acting strange; and it all feels very ominous. It couldn't be more obvious that something is wrong.

Then all he breaks loose.

And when I say all hell, I mean it.

The scene when Hideo is running down the street as everything crumbles at once is genuinely one of the most realistic, intense, and terrifying scenes I’ve ever seen from a zombie movie. Without spoiling any more of the story, let me tell you why you should watch this.

Character.

This movie has a big heart that it likes to wear on its sleeve.

It delves deep into themes of self-worth, self-loathing, and what it means to be a hero. In many ways, it’s the story of someone who has been told so much negative stuff about themselves for so long that they can’t even see their own value. Tragically, we, the audience, can see who they are long before they do. Ironically, throughout the entire movie, his shotgun seems to represent his confidence. It starts by remaining hidden in a closet for years, goes on to not be used when everything first goes down, gets taken from him, he finds it again, and then he delivers one of the most epic last stands I’ve ever seen in this type of film. When you watch it, you’ll see what I mean.

The Zombies.

These zombies are the scariest zombies I’ve ever seen. When I tell you that the makeup department went waaaay too hard on this movie, I mean it. The way the infection takes their body over truly makes me terrified. It’s not like The Walking Dead or Train to Busan. These zombies not only transform into hideous, disgusting-looking creatures, but they also remain mentally stuck in the past. Their rotted brains only focus on food, noise, and whatever they most enjoyed while alive. This led to probably the most intimidating zombie I've ever witnessed. All I’m gonna say about it is that it was previously a high jumper, and it’s a really fast sprinter. Not a fun combo.

The Message.

The reason why I included this movie, other than the really cool zombies and outstanding production design, is the main reason I love zombies in general. To me, zombies are more than a mere monster for movies to use. They represent the worst parts of humanity. Rather, they represent what happens to humanity when the shell is all that's left of the man. A primal shell that only lives to consume and cause harm. In many ways, zombies are a critique of humanity. They act as a device to demonstrate that at the core of man exists a dormant creature so vile and cruel that it cannot help but consume the life of everything it encounters. This is why movies like this focus so heavily on the moral implications of the actions their human characters take. In these situations, moral and immoral are not the lines that separate good and evil; they’re the lines that keep us from waking up the dormant creature that mankind suppresses with its goodness. This movie plays into this dichotomy by presenting a third option.

What if the creature man is capable of becoming can somehow coexist with the goodness of man? The result, when viewed through this lens, is quite interesting.

At least, I thought it was.

But that’s just me.

Shoot me a comment below and let me know what you think.