Review for HK: Forbidden Superhero

Introduction

If the cover art hasn’t been enough of a giveaway, or indeed the screen caps for this review, expounding on the show’s title might inform you of this film’s content. The HK doesn’t stand for Hong Kong in this case; it stands for Hentai Kamen, which translates as Pervert Mask. The film is thus called Pervert Mask Forbidden Superhero. The opening of the film with its flicking through the pages of the HK manga book, followed by the opening credits which intensely homage the opening credits of Spider-man, with lace and lingerie taking the place of webbing, should leave you in no doubt that this is a superhero movie send-up, and much innocent perversion takes place within.


It’s odd what genetics can result in. When a hard-boiled cop led a raid on an S&M club, he didn’t expect to meet his match in a vicious dominatrix. It was painful love at first whip. Years later, their son Kyosuke Shikijo might get a whipping from his mother as an alarm clock, but in every other respect he’s a typical, normal, if wimpy high school student, who might attend the school’s martial arts club to toughen up, but who can’t make good on his inherited sense of justice when faced with crisis situations, through sheer wimpiness.


That changes the day that Aiko Himino transfers in, the new girl inspiring love at first sight for Kyosuke. And also that day, she gets taken hostage by a group of thieves. Kyosuke can’t let his love fail at the first hurdle, and he takes his life in his hands and sneaks in to rescue his potential love interest. He gets lucky with the first robber, but he needs a disguise, a mask. He thinks he has the robber’s mask, but he picks up a worn pair of panties instead. Putting those panties on his head, unleashes previously hidden powers. The superhero Hentai Kamen is born, and the city will never be the same again.


Now Kyosuke has to live two lives, as superhero and as mild mannered student. And would you believe it, Aiko’s started to fall for the pervert superhero! And where there’s a superhero, a supervillain is bound to appear, in both senses of the word, a villain against which even Hentai Kamen’s patented ‘crotch to face’ finishing move is ineffective.

The Disc

HK Forbidden Superhero gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic presentation on this disc. The image is clear and sharp throughout, with strong colours. It’s stable, free of significant artefacts and offers good detail, although not so much in darker scenes. You have the choice between DD 5.1 and DD 2.0 Japanese, with optional English subtitles, although there isn’t a lot to choose between both audio tracks. The surround track is very front-focussed. The dialogue is clear throughout, and the action sequences get adequate presentation, while the end theme is certainly memorable. The disc is presented with a buttock thrusting animated menu, but the only extra feature is the theatrical trailer.

HK Forbidden Superhero is also available on Blu-ray.

Conclusion

Remember Kekko Kamen? That’s an anime I reviewed for the site some years ago now, and it had a very similar premise. That Go Nagai show’s protagonist was female, fought for justice clad only in a mask, gloves, and boots, and her finishing move too was a deadly crotch to face attack. HK Forbidden Superhero is pretty much in the same vein, albeit with a male protagonist, whose modesty is defended by a strategically padded mankini. Incidentally Kekko Kamen has seen a live action adaptation or two, lest you were thinking that its full frontal nude assaults were too much for the real world. HK Forbidden Superhero isn’t as good as Kekko Kamen the anime OVA series was. You certainly don’t have to worry about the decorum of an actor when the characters are animated, you can go as far as decency and imaginative self-censorship allows. But also Kekko Kamen wasn’t shy about battering away at a few taboos. It was very much guilty pleasure territory. In comparison, HK Forbidden Superhero is pretty tame stuff, once you get past the mankini and the dick and ball jokes.


There’s no edginess here. The dominatrix isn’t a Nazi, there are no questionable send-ups of Hollywood actors, the victims of the villain’s evil plans aren’t degraded and publically humiliated, indeed the only real sexual content in the film is saved for the final scene. Otherwise it’s just suggestion and implication, wordplay and off-colour jokes, and the sight of a masked man in questionable underwear, thrusting his padded crotch in the faces of bad guys. It’s a send-up of superhero movies most certainly, but it’s not a satire, there’s no bite to it.


What HK Forbidden Superhero is, is a dumb comedy. It’s got a silly premise, and it milks it for all its worth, with the ridiculous costumes, and the requisite overacting from its cast. You’re not meant to take it at all seriously, not even as a comedy. You’re laughing at the idea that this movie was made in the first place, as much as you’re laughing at the movie. It’s just the one joke though, and it really doesn’t sustain through the brief (pun intended) runtime. But it is sporadically funny. It offers bursts of humour that will have you laughing out loud at the absurdity and the sheer effrontery of it all. And the pace doesn’t wane for long before it hits you again with another daft moment. HK Forbidden Superhero is another of those Japanese movies that you have to approach loaded up with a kebab and copious lagers. Sobriety is a hindrance in appreciating its finer points.