[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

"KAMEN RIDER KABUTO" - GOD SPEED LOVE

I don't think Die said anything that was incorrect.

I also don't agree with Die, somehow, so this should be fun.

God Speed Love is a movie with some pretty severe narrative issues, to be sure. Like most summer movies, it's something I've come back to a few times, which wasn't true of the series itself until this thread started, so in a way, it might be what I most remember about Kabuto. Some of that is the sense of emotional detachment the story leaves you with, admittedly. It's not a movie I particularly loved or anything, even on a rewatch or two.

Watching it right in the middle of the show this way, however, I came out of it with a strange newfound appreciation for what it's doing?

Of all the alternate universe Heisei Rider summer movies, this is probably the one that most actively revels in the fact it takes place in an alternate universe. The characters are, by and large, wild offshoots of their television counterparts, but I can see the consideration being given to why and how they differ? Tendou is the easy example, so I'll focus on him. He's a lot more openly emotional, downright breaking down after Hiyori passes away, but, that's exactly it – he's in a scenario where he one of the people he cares about most is beyond his power to save, and that's something TV Tendou has never had to deal with.

There's a great moment, when Kagami is despairing after he learns about Hiyori's illness, where Tendou gives him a classic Yonemura slap to the face and yells at him. Just, maximum volume, zero subtlety screams to ask him if letting himself get caught up in his own misery will help Hiyori. It's macho melodrama taken at face value, but it's precisely because I know how Yonemura usually writes this guy on the small screen that I know for sure the whole point of that outburst is how unable Tendou is to process his own feelings of helplessness in this cruel joke of a world he's stuck in. He's still always on the move, always trying to make some plan, but he barely even knows why anymore, and it all comes out in that moment. How much he has force himself just to be Tendou.

The whole ZECT/Neo-ZECT conflict is totally meaningless to him in the end; he's actively playing both sides, and is ultimately doesn't care about anything other than gaining the power to fix this mess. After all, who would know better that this isn't what Kamen Rider Kabuto is supposed to be like than the man himself?

There's a visual that reoccurs a few times throughout the film, in the backgrounds. It's Tokyo Tower, an iconic part of the show's imagery, reduced to a colorless, horribly bent mess, and I think that about sums it up. It feels wrong, and uncomfortable. Everything about this movie feels wrong and uncomfortable, and it's all 100% intentional. These lonely, miserable characters with pointless lives and even more pointless deaths, in a world that offers no hope of salvation.

But then Tendou gets the power he's after, and like the sun shining its light upon the world, he brings the warmth back. The very first scene of the movie of a young Tendou failing to reach his hand out to Hiyori as they're both trapped under the rubble created by the impact of the meteor that carried the Worms. The very last scene before the credits start rolling is Tendou and Hiyori getting to make that connection, and ending up in a much happier place because of it.

Is anything about any of that enough to justify the actual experience of watching the movie? Does it serve a purpose to wait an hour to see Tokyo Tower looking nice again when you could just not watch the movie and never even see it in disrepair to begin with? I can't claim to know, but for Die it definitely wasn't, and for me... I think I knew for sure I liked this movie now when the very last thing that happens (except in the theatrical cut) is Kagami interrupting Tendou's usual melodramatic pointing to the heavens by playfully throwing him into the water at the beach, as if to remind Tendou that they're all here to have fun. Like, I don't really think the movie is saying anything very profound, and I'm not sure why it wants to say the things it does the way it does, but I'm confident it's at least speaking, and that was good enough for me.

Hidenori Ishida directing on this level of quality could probably convince me anything has deep inner meaning, though.

It really can't be understated how great the direction is all throughout this movie. So many images in it seem like they could easily be iconic. Perfectly considered lighting all over the place, a ton of variety in locales taking us from epic sunset deserts all the way to the vast emptiness of outer space itself, with the latter being a first for Kamen Rider. So, if nothing else, at least God Speed Love existing with its pretentious title and all its self-serious misery paved the way for Fourze to spend his summer making friends with satellites instead.

But that movie didn't have Ishida, and this one did, which works wonders for disguising the rough edges narratively. It's a shame to think the only Rider movie he directed after this was the Amazons movie, but I also kind of understand the huge gap there. This is such a massive leap up from his work on Missing Ace, he probably felt like there was no way he could top it. Every little moment in here feels big, and every big moment feels like a true spectacle. I wish I could I just sit here listing them all, but it'd legitimately just become a scene-by-scene summary of nearly the entire film. The way Caucasus is handled especially, I can't imagine coming out as well under any other director who was working for Toei at the time. He's a nothing character, but hand that to a director who knows how to create atmosphere, and suddenly you've got an intimidating villain who will make you feel nervous around roses. Plus, things get lit on fire, which is always the most important thing!

I had a great time with this movie. It's no Paradise Lost (nothing is), and I can totally sympathize with Die's problems, but man, I think it has some redeeming qualities, for sure. I mean, how can a movie where you get to see a Kamen Rider die from atmospheric reentry while using his last breaths to proudly declare his loyalty to a militarized organization of nebulous authority be a total wash, right?