Product Details

• Actors: Yûko Moriyama, Kunihiro Ida, Yukijirô Hotaru, Masakazu Handa, Mizuho Yoshida
• Directors: Keita Amemiya
• Writers: Keita Amemiya, Hajime Matsumoto, Steve Kramer
• Producers: Carl Macek, Hiroshi Ichida, Koichi Sugisawa, Shigeki Takeuchi
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Lorber
• VHS Release Date: September 5, 2000
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302903513
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #395,749 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Japanese-made Zeram perfectly captures the spirit of the old Japanese monster movies: men in monster suits, dubbed voices instead of subtitles, and a mix of bumbling comedy and cartoonish violence. The title character is a vicious space-outlaw, a bulky monster controlled by a little baby face on his forehead. Newly arrived on Earth, Zeram has been followed by an attractive female bounty hunter, Iria, and her assistant, Bob (a computer). When she sets a dimensional trap so she can fight the monster without raising the awareness of the earthlings (secrecy increases the amount of the bounty), two power company employees accidentally stumble into the trap, too. If the outcome is predictable, the journey is fun. When Iria's fighting the guy in the rubber suit, the scenes are as clumsy and energetic as you could hope, and when the earthlings are fighting it, well, it's like Abbott and Costello in a Japanese monster movie. Either way, it's entertaining. --Andy Spletzer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Japanese Alein Type Movie., February 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Zeram [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In Zeram a weird creature from outer space escapes from somewhere (it dosen't realy say.) and flies to Earth. A female bounty who is played by the same actress as the Ornthalogist in Gamera The Gurdian Of The Universe, is sent to destroy it. She comes with a computer called bob, that looks like a hour glass. While she is battleing the creature Zeram she acidently traps to men in another dimension with Zeram. She then has to save them.He has a humaniod head on a nerve that tries to eat the 2 men.I realy liked the movie, I thought it was as good as most of the Godzilla and Gamera Movies.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ignore those other reviews, November 11, 2006

By 

G. Blair "Majin Yojimbo" (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Zeiram (DVD)

Those reviews are about the Fox Lorber release which is dubbed. This is not that DVD. This is the Tokyoshock release with it's original language and subtitles.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Live Action Anime, September 26, 2005

By 

SRFireside "ZOOM!" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Zeram (DVD)

It’s been a while since I have had this much fun watching a low-budget Japanese movie. We’re not really talking cheesy production values fun or lame acting fun. I am talking about straight up legitimate movie viewing fun! Think of it as a live action anime and that will get you closer to the experience that is Zeram.

The plot is pretty simple, but it is executed in a solid manner. There are really only a handful of characters in Zeram so there was a nice amount of subtle development involved. The two electricians, though tend to be a little like Laurel and Hardy or Abbot and Costello at times, have a charming dynamic going between them which helps ground the whole story. Yuko Moriyama also does a good job being the beautiful yet bad to the bone bounty hunter Iria without taking if over the top.

Special effects aren’t bad considering the budget. A few people in silly rubber suits come in, but Zeram itself looks really nice. The rest of the effects are obviously of the lower quality caliber, but they use them so very well. The cinematography in some scenes emulates what you would see in an action packed anime, which again works very well. Props are cool, but I noticed Iria’s base of operations is loaded with props that are actually various electronic drums machines from Roland, Korg and Yamaha. Only a drum machine fan would get that though.

Zeram is simply a fun movie. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. In spite of the apparently low budget it comes off as a top-notch, though eclectic, movie. If you are an anime fan I recommend the experience. If you like the cyberpunk sci-fi I recommend it also, just don’t expect another Bladerunner. This is, after all, light fare.