Roujin Z (1991)

Wow! Such a good movie.

the audience applauded

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

You know, I have seen thousands of movies in my life and a quarter of those films were animated. This has GOT to be the only time in my life that I have ever seen (or am likely to ever see) a movie about an asinine solution to the problem of health care for the aged.The story: The Health Department decided that there are just too many old people in the world and not enough people who want to take care of them. So the solution comes in the form of a ridiculous contraption called the Z-001. Now get this: This is a robotic sickbed run by a sixth generation computer that an elderly invalid will be strapped into. The Z-001 will feed them, give them medicine take care of their basic functions, give them a bath and be their doctor. There is even a television on board.The only person who seems to hate the Z-001 is the former nurse of the poor sod currently strapped into the prototype. She tries to help him escape but a complication arises. The computer has gone haywire and has taken of the personality of the old man's late wife. That's where the story REALLY gets interesting.I would have had trouble imagining this story in any kind of movie live or animated. This is one of those wacky animated movies that come out of Japan and get lost on the video shelves here in the states. I have never seen anything like 'Roujin-Z'. No American animator would dare tackle a satire with this much bite, it is just too politically incorrect. I simply could not believe the level of mad genius and courage that went into making a movie like this.It isn't perfect, the animation doesn't hold up to other anime features like 'Ghost in the Shell' or 'Grave of the Fireflies'. This one is sort of low rent. You have never seen a movie like 'Roujin-Z and are never likely to again.

A great manga film with a somewhat unusual storyline about a young nurse and her patient, an old near-vegetative man who is chosen to test drive 'project z', a government funded initiative to care for the old; using state of the art computer controlled care beds but of course this being manga, this guys bed turns out to be more than they bargained for. The animation is a little lazy in places but this is a great little film with lots of subtle comedy, satire and enjoyable over-the-top manga moments. Comedic but with good dialogue and some serious ideas, so one to watch with subtitles and not dubbed.

An anime story about a nurse and his 70 year old patient. I liked this movie but for me it has lost some of it's freshness over the years. Still it's worth seeing to see Haruko Mishashi and Mr. Takazawa and also the bad guys Terada and Hasegawa.

Roujin Z is a film that is entertaining, but if you have the English dubbed version of the film, there will be some inconsistencies in the dialogue. Example: The movie takes place in Japan, with obvious visual references and talk about the beach at Kamakura, but the English dialogue also talks about various American things.The film is basically a hilarious take on the robot gone insane story, where an experimental bed for elderly patients become simply a mental bed. The characters are especially enjoyable, including the old guys at the nursing home who often have a "Grumpy Old Men" style of insulting.