FORGET Superman and Batman — the newest superhero is a middle-age Tokyo slacker named Daisato. When bolts of electricity zap his nipples, he’s turned into a stick-wielding, stories-high hero with an “Eraserhead” hairdo who battles a host of outlandish monsters, like Smelly Baddie, who emits the odor of “the feces of 10,000 humans.”
In the Japanese mockumentary “Big Man Japan,” Daisato is portrayed by Hitoshi Matsumoto, a popular stand-up comic who also directed and co-wrote.
When he’s not battling monsters, Daisato is the lonely host of a reality-TV show who lives with a cat in a rundown house, enjoys dried seaweed and always carries a small umbrella, even if it’s sunny outside.
When a call comes from the Department of Baddie Prevention about a goofy nemesis terrorizing the good people of Tokyo, Big Man is off to the nearest power station, where jolts of electricity turn him into an outlandish superhero.
But the best parts of the film aren’t Big Man’s battles, with intentionally cheesy special effects. Rather, they’re the scenes in which an unseen film crew follows Daisato as he goes about his mundane day in, day out activities, like always eating in the same restaurant.
At nearly two hours, “Big Man Japan” is clever (in a sick sort of way) but overlong. It needs judicious editing — more mockumentary, fewer superhero antics.
In Japanese, with English subtitles. Running time: 113 minutes. Not rated (cartoon violence). At Cinema Village, 12th Street, east of Sixth Avenue.