MECHANICAL VIOLATOR HAKAIDER (1995)

 OR "人造人間ハカイダー" 

This mid-90's Japanese movie rips off more movies than I can shake a severed T-800 arm at!  Firstly, the events take place in a post-apocalyptic future where the government (called the Parliament) is a dictatorship that wants to bring peace and tranquility by preventing anyone from having free thought. 

King Gurjev . . . or is it Girjev?

But instead of Trump doing it, it's done by a weedy, white clad & feather-adorned fella called King Gurjev (Yasuaki Honda) -- interesting that his name is very similar to G.I. Gurdjieff . . . . who operates out of a completely white building and keeps an army of mind-controlled cyborg white-clad 'stormtroopers' in his capital of Jesus Town.  The wikipedia page for this movie says Jesus Town is built over the ruins of Jerusalem but I didn't get that from watching the movie.  Actually, I didn't get MUCH plot exposition from the movie until about halfway through when a group of rebels do a huge info-dump about what's going on.  Up until that point, there is only a tiny bit of dialogue and the movie just sort of begins and keeps barrelling along like a runaway train without explaining much. 

This, of course, is not meant to be a criticism as, by and large, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie.  But as you can see, it owes a LOT to a LOT of other movies such as any post-apocalyptic flick you can name as well as the white "stormtroopers" of STAR WARS.  But that's only the tip of the iceberg.  The movie starts with said band of rebels/criminals going through an abandoned underground system of tunnels looking for treasure. Instead they find a guy in black armor chained to a chair.  This is Hakaider -- a sort of Terminator-type figure -- who quickly breaks out of his chains and goes off blasting countless government 'stormtroopers' as the rebels tag along.  The TERMINATOR 2 vibes are increased by Hakaider's ownership of a motorcycle and the riding thereof.  When Hakaider is not wearing his full armor, he transforms instantaneously into a regular-looking guy named Ryo (Yuji Kishimoto) who one of the rebels/crooks Kaoru (Mai Hosho) immediately gets the hots for.  Meanwhile, King Gurjev (or Girjev, accounts vary) has his owner terminator-type guy (also in WHITE armour) named . . . wait for it . . . Michael (Toshiyuki Kikuchi but voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue)

Ryo and Kaoru

that he sends out to bash Hakaider to bits.  So the entire movie basically consists of constant action scenes.  It's kinda hilarious that the white stormtroopers constantly fire their guns at Hakaider to absolutely no effect -- and keep on doing it.  By this point, guys, you're just wasting ammo.  Be like Michael and use bazookas and stuff; that has a little more of an effect.  The gang of crooks turned rebels have the right idea since King Gurjev's idea of insuring a utopia is to lobotomize every citizen into compliance.  So we're definitely with the rebels and Hakaider/Ryo's fight against them (unless you're one of those idiots who think that's actually a good idea) and root along with them as they fight against that nasty ole government tyranny.  Now, as mentioned before, the inside of Gurjev's fortress is all white; white walls aplenty. 

Red Velvet Cake anyone???

The fun thing is that, when Hakaider gets inside and starts battling Michael and they shoot and/or are bashed into the walls, the interior is bright red so the walls look like they have open wounds!  All the interior wiring behind the walls is also solid red.  The wounds in the walls reminded me of a red velvet cake in some ways.  Really cool!  Besides the HEAVY 'borrowing' of ideas and styles from the Terminator movies, there are also some steals from things like the Mad Max movies including a camera shot barrelling down the road I swear is a direct lift!  Oh, and did I mention that the top of Hakaiders head (in the armour) is a clear dome with his exposed brain in it?  Noice! 

Michael

The design of Michael's armour does have something of a hint of "ULTRAMAN" to it and King Girjev's feathery get-up is very anime, unsurprisingly.  And there is one point where a character's severed head is attached to a mechanical monster which appears VERY Xenomorph-like (a la the ALIEN movies).  From a cursory look-around, I've seen a whole line of HAKAIDER action figures so this must be pretty popular in Japan.  It's fairly popular with me as it's a goofy good time.  I went into this thinking it was more like an ULTRAMAN ripoff with Kaiju monsters but it's not that at all; it's more of an anime live-action bang bang shoot 'em up and I'm good with that.