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Filmed in the style of a documentary,  Big Man Japan follows Daisato, who is the latest Big Man. Being Big Man involves being shocked by bolts of electricity and transform into a chubby, stick-wielding giant several stories high. He is entrusted with defending Japan from a host of bizarre monsters. But while his predecessors were national heroes, getting high TV ratings on their prime time show, Daisato is hated by the people he protects as they see him as doing more harm than good.

Daisato has more problems than a low rated late night show, though. His agent is insistent on branding him with sponsor advertisements, mainly to fill her own pockets, his Alzheimer-afflicted grandfather has started transforming into a giant in dirty underwear, and his estranged family is embarrassed by him.
To top it all off, there’s a new monster in town that’s bigger and stronger than anything he’s fought before.

Most of the movie moves at a slow pace. The first 20 or so minutes are Daisato talking. Various things crop up. Vacations, stray animals, dining, umbrellas (which, in a nice subtle touch, he explains he likes the compact ones because they are only big when they are needed) and his family. And of course, with it being mockumentary style, the rest of the movie is mostly more of the same. Sometimes it’s very interesting and almost Spinal Tap funny (one of my favourite moments was when the film crew got them to restart the sacred enlargement ritual.) Or American Movie cringe-worthy. Sometimes it just drags on.

As you’d expect, the fights are what make the movie. There’s no huge ten minute battles, but what they lack in length they make up for in creativity. Death by rectally inserted stick… priceless.
The “big bads” themselves are also very creative and although the CGI is pretty weak, the subject matter allows that to be easily overlooked. When a giant penis-like monster is trying to mate with a giant stink-squid thing, who cares if they look more Pixar than photo-realistic?

There’s more to it than the battles and funny/awkward moments, though. There’s some touching moments when you really feel for the character. He’s obviously burdened with his Job, it’s caused the breakup with his family, his agent’s taking him for most of his money and to top it all off, the filmmakers are deliberately messing with him for the drama. You can see the sadness oozing from him. But with all that, he’s still got a job to do and he’ll do it till the end.

And what an end it is. It’s something you gotta see to believe.