We had to wait ages to see Shin Ultraman here in the US. After its Japanese cinema release set box office records for the country, director Shinji Higuchi and writer-producer Hideaki Anno’s tribute to Ultraman played the festival circuit before eventually getting a Fathom Event screening nearly a year later. Not so for Anno’s Shin Kamen Rider. After its Japanese debut in March, we only have to wait until the end of May here in the States.
Shin Kamen Rider will make its US debut on Wednesday, May 31, as a national Fathom Events screening. Tickets will go on sale on May 5. This is good news for anyone who likes cool-ass-looking things.
The movie is the third in the Anno-produced Shin (Japanese for “new”) series, which began in 2016 with the award-winning Shin Godzilla. This one is a reimagining of manga writer and artist Shotaro Ishinomori’s Kamen Rider which premiered on Japanese TV in 1971 and has continued in some form or other ever since.
The film stars Sosuke Ikematsu as Takeshi Hongo, a young motorcyclist whose life is turned upside down when he is kidnapped by the Sustainable Happiness Organization with Computational Knowledge Embedded Remodeling (SHOCKER) cult. Newly transformed into a mutant cyborg, Hongo escapes from SHOCKER with help from Ruriko (Minami Hamabe)—vowing to exact his vengeance against the cult and finally put a stop to their sinister plans for global domination.
Shin Kamen Rider, from writer-director-producer Hideaki Anno (of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame), will premiere on May 31. We cannot wait! For more info, head to Fathom Events.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.
