, stylized as ''ZËIЯAM'' (originally marketed in English as ''Zeram''), is a 1991 Japanese
science fiction film
Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...
directed by
Keita Amemiya
is a Japanese film and television director, screenwriter and character designer from Urayasu, Chiba. He directed the films '' Mirai Ninja'' (1988), '' Zeiram'' (1991), '' Kamen Rider ZO'' (1993), and '' Kamen Rider J'' (1994), and created the ' ...
. The film stars Yūko Moriyama as an extraterrestrial
bounty hunter
A bounty hunter is a private agent working for a bail bondsman who captures fugitives or criminals for a commission or bounty. The occupation, officially known as a bail enforcement agent or fugitive recovery agent, has traditionally operated ...
named Iria, who comes to Earth to do battle with Zeiram, a powerful alien creature. With the help of her partner—an
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
named Bob—and two ordinary Japanese electricians, Iria fights Zeiram in a
virtually constructed alternate dimension known as a "Zone".
''Zeiram'' was released in Japan in August 1991. It was
dubbed in English and released in the United States in 1994, where it garnered mixed reviews from American film critics. That same year, the film was followed by a six-episode
original video animation
, abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...
(OVA) known as ''
Iria: Zeiram the Animation'' (which serves as a prequel to the film), as well as a sequel film titled ''
Zeiram 2''.
Plot
Extraterrestrial bounty hunters Iria and Bob accept a job to apprehend Zeiram, a powerful alien entity, on Earth. They set up a command center in an abandoned building in a Japanese town, and create a
virtually constructed alternate dimension called a "Zone" (in this case, the Zone they construct is a simulated recreation of the town, but without any living residents) where they plan to combat and capture Zeiram. Iria and Bob's use of stolen electricity results in electric company employees Kamiya and Teppei investigating their base just as Zeiram enters Earth's atmosphere.
Kamiya accidentally flips a switch that transports Teppei into the Zone. While Kamiya tries to get an explanation from Iria, she transports the two of them to the Zone. Upon arrival, she traps him in a hardened encasing and leaves to destroy the pod Zeiram arrived in. Teppei finds Zeiram, who creates and sends a smaller monster after him; fleeing, Teppei eventually stumbles across the captured Kamiya, and later Iria. Iria's initial attempt to capture Zeiram fails and she finds he has a shield that makes him immune to bullet fire. Iria decides to utilize a special combat suit, despite Bob's protests to not fight Zeiram in close-range combat. After Iria finally manages to capture Zeiram in an encasing, Teppei asks her to free Kamiya, and she obliges. Iria is accidentally teleported back to Earth with one of Zeiram's subordinates, and their ensuing fight damages the teleportation unit. Using weapons left behind by Iria, Teppei saves Kamiya from the monster Zeiram summoned, but Kamiya accidentally shoots the lock to Zeiram's encasing, freeing Zeiram.
Iria tries teleporting back to the Zone but is set back by a power failure. Teppei and Kamiya hotwire a car and use it to incapacitate Zeiram. The human-like face on Zeiram's "hat" attacks them, biting Kamiya. Teppei and Kamiya escape soon after. Bob speculates that Zeiram is a forbidden biological weapon whose "hat" is used to eat other beings and use the organic matter he consumes to produce his monster subordinates. Zeiram's attempt to make a subordinate copy of Kamiya ends in failure and he kills it in anger.
Teppei receives a communicator from Iria. She explains the problems with the transporter and that the Zone itself will not last much longer. Iria and Bob decide to bring a powerful weapon called the Metis Cannon to fight Zeiram, despite the personal risk it causes them to use it without prior approval from the authorities to whom the bounty hunters answer. Teppei loses track of Kamiya but follows Iria's instructions to head towards a building where the Metis Cannon will be transported to. Teppei is impeded by Zeiram along the way, but is reunited with Kamiya, who hijacks an excavator in an attempt to save Teppei from Zeiram. Iria suddenly arrives and shoots Zeiram with a bazooka.
Despite his body being reduced to its skeleton, Zeiram continues to pursue the trio. Iria defends Teppei and Kamiya as they retrieve the Metis Cannon from the spot Bob transported it to. Iria uses the Metis Cannon to reduce Zeiram down to his "hat", and traps him with eight minutes to spare before the Zone breaks down. Teppei and Kamiya are teleported back to Earth, where they meet Bob. Zeiram is teleported to Earth next, but begins to hover and destroys the transport unit needed to bring Iria back. He escapes from the trap, and from Zeiram's "hat" spawns a new form of the creature with prehensile appendages. Kamiya uses his technician skills to help repair the transport unit while Zeiram attacks Teppei. Kamiya succeeds and Iria returns in time to save the two men and Bob from Zeiram. After a brief respite, Iria complements the two on their resilience and offers them two of her braids as a "thank you" gesture. Bob takes a photo of the trio together as a memento.
Cast
English dubbing staff
*Voice Production:
Streamline Pictures
Streamline Pictures was an American media company. Founded by screenwriter Carl Macek and animation historian Jerry Beck, it was one of the earliest distributors of English-dubbed Japanese animation.
History Founding
Founded in Los Angeles, ...
*Voice Director:
Carl Macek
Carl Frank Macek (September 21, 1951 – April 17, 2010) was an American screenwriter and producer. Noted for his work on English-language adaptations of anime during the 1980s and 1990s, he was the creator of the ''Robotech'' franchise and the ...
*Script:
Steve Kramer
*Additional Dialogue: Carl Macek
*Recording Engineer: David Walsh, Deb Adair
*Final Mix: Ernie Sheesley
*Production Manager: Scott Narrie
*Recording Studio:
Screenmusic Studios
Production
The film was the second film directed by
Keita Amemiya
is a Japanese film and television director, screenwriter and character designer from Urayasu, Chiba. He directed the films '' Mirai Ninja'' (1988), '' Zeiram'' (1991), '' Kamen Rider ZO'' (1993), and '' Kamen Rider J'' (1994), and created the ' ...
, with his first being ''
Mirai Ninja''.
Release
''Zeiram'' was released in Japan in August 1991. The film was released in the United States with an English dub by
Streamline Pictures
Streamline Pictures was an American media company. Founded by screenwriter Carl Macek and animation historian Jerry Beck, it was one of the earliest distributors of English-dubbed Japanese animation.
History Founding
Founded in Los Angeles, ...
in 1994, under the title ''Zeram''. In March 1994, the film screened with Japanese audio and English subtitles at the
Brattle Theatre
The Brattle Theatre is a repertory movie theater located in Brattle Hall at 40 Brattle Street near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The theatre is a small movie house with one screen. It is one of the few remaining movie theaters, if ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
.
In April 1994, the film premiered in New York at the Westbury Theater.
The English-dubbed ''Zeram'' was released on
VHS
VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s.
Ma ...
in the United States by
Fox Lorber
Genius Products (formerly known as Genius Entertainment) was a home entertainment company based in Santa Monica, California, United States.
The ''Baby Genius'' line was one of a number of "smart toys" that came out in response to a study book ab ...
in 1994. It received a
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
release in the U.S. by
Image Entertainment
RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 34 ...
in 1998, and was released with both Japanese and English audio as ''Zeiram'' by
Tokyo Shock
Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment company that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American mar ...
in 2006.
Reception
''Zeiram'' received mixed reviews from American film critics. Russell Smith of the ''
Austin American-Statesman
The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The distribution of the following ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', '' ...
'' gave the film a score of two out of five stars, praising the opening black-and-white sequence but describing the remainder of the film as "90 minutes of enjoyable but unspectacular Japanese science fiction with a fair amount of wit and funky charm, but few real thrills." ''
Newsday
''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...
''s Terry Kelleher, who gave the film two out of four stars, was unimpressed by the comedic banter between the characters of Kamiya and Teppei, but concluded that, "The business of ''Zeiram'' is action, and Amemiya keeps it coming, accompanying the abundant violence with a refreshingly small amount of gore."
A reviewer for ''
Fangoria
''Fangoria'' is an internationally distributed American horror film fan magazine, in publication since 1979. It is published four times a year by Fangoria Publishing, LLC and is edited by Phil Nobile Jr.
The magazine was originally released i ...
'' described wanting to "reach into the picture tube and slap the two male idiots
amiya and Teppei" and criticized the English dubbing, but praised the film's imagination and overall called it "loads of hi-tech fun, and although it's primarily aimed at a juvenile audience, it has enough extreme gore and craziness to keep anyone amused, especially fans of '60s superheroes such as
Ultraman
The , also known as ''Ultraman'', is a Japanese science fiction media franchise owned and produced by Tsuburaya Productions, which began with the television series '' Ultra Q'' in 1966. The franchise has expanded into many television shows, fi ...
." Similarly, Betsy Sherman of ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' wrote that the film "melds the cheesy
camp
Camp may refer to:
Areas of confinement, imprisonment, or for execution
* Concentration camp, an internment camp for political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or minority ethnic groups
* Extermination ...
of '60s Japanese
monster movie
A monster movie, monster film, creature feature or giant monster film is a film that focuses on one or more characters struggling to survive attacks by one or more antagonistic monsters, often abnormally megafauna, large ones. The film may also ...
s, the resourcefulness of recent Hong Kong fantasy pictures and the sensibility of pulp science fiction. The mix of characters seems to be aimed toward a young audience, but there are some good yucky special effects for genre fans."
A reviewer for ''
LA Weekly
''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...
'' praised the film's direction and special effects, describing the latter as "so insidious they're the stuff of nightmares and so cheesy they're the stuff of fondue", and writing: "''Zeiram'' may call to mind ''
Blade Runner
''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...
'', ''
Alien'' and even
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...
's ''
The Thing'', but Japanese sci-fi director Keita Amemiya never ceases to amaze with his originality and inventiveness."
Anime OVA prequel
''Iria: Zeiram the Animation'' is a six-episode
original video animation
, abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...
(OVA)
anime
is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
series produced by
Ashi Productions
is a Japanese anime studio, located in Suginami, Tokyo, Japan, known for its four magical-girl anime, especially '' Magical Princess Minky Momo''. It was established by Toshihiko Sato and other artists on December 20, 1975, as ''Ashi Productio ...
and directed by
Tetsurō Amino
is a Japanese anime director, born on October 10, 1955, in Chiba Prefecture. In 1988, he started using his name in katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases ...
. Released in 1994, the series serves as a prequel to the original ''Zeiram'', taking place several years earlier when Iria is still a rookie and detailing the events surrounding a prior encounter between her and the titular entity. Fujikuro from ''Zeiram 2'' makes an appearance in the OVA.
Sequel film
, a sequel film also directed by Amemiya and featuring Moriyama, Ida and Hotaru reprising their roles from the first film, was released in Japan on December 17, 1994. The plot of ''Zeiram 2'' centers around the creature's core, which was presumed dead, having been recovered by a shadowy organization which installs it as the organic core of a
robotic
Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots.
Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...
supersoldier
A super soldier (or supersoldier) is a concept soldier capable of operating beyond normal human abilities through technological augmentation or (in fictional depictions) genetic modification or cybernetic augmentation. Soldiers that obtain greate ...
. Iria, Bob, Teppei, and Kamiya continue their battle against Zeiram in a Zone created by the monster. The plot plays out similarly to the original ''Zeiram'', with the four getting into cat-and-mouse confrontations with the creature and the monsters that he summons and dealing with complications caused by Iria and Bob's faulty tech. The sequel adds the additional challenge of Fujikuro, a manipulative rival and saboteur who seeks the same ancient teleportation relic called the Kamarite that Iria and Bob returned to Earth to obtain.
Video game
, stylized as ''ZËIЯAMZΘNE'', is a
beat 'em up
A beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in Side-scrolling video game, scrolling, 2D c ...
/
fighting
Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is resorted to either as a method of ...
game for the
PlayStation
is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
. It is partially based on the films ''Zeiram & Zeiram 2''.
References
Footnotes
Sources
*
*
External links
*
*
Watch the documentary ''The True Story of Zeiram 2'' (1994) (English with Japanese subtitles)
{{Seiun Award - Best Media
1991 films
1991 science fiction action films
Japanese science fiction action films
Tokusatsu films
Films about extraterrestrial life
1990s Japanese films
1991 science fiction films