The Origin Of Ultraman
Japan | Japanese, English subtitles
2026 | 105 Minutes
Director: Yu Nakamura, Kazuki Yoshida
Cast: Hideaki Anno, Guillermo Del Toro,
Shinji Higuchi, Hideo Kojima, Hirokazu Koreeda,
Nicolas Winding Refn
There are many things in life that I love and two of the things off that list are documentary films and kaiju – which brings us to The Origin Of Ultraman – a documentary film and about one of the greatest kaiju to date.
While Godzilla is probably the first name in kaiju film, I would wager that Ultraman is the second biggest name in that realm should a poll be conducted. The importance Ultraman has had to film, whether in Japan or overseas is incredible. So many and so much owes a debt to Ultraman and his creators and that really is the basis of this film, as directors Yu Nakamura and Kazuki Yoshida attempt to hammer exactly that into our collective minds.
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On July 17, 1966, at 7 p.m. JST, television sets across Japan glowed as the Tokyo Broadcasting System network revealed its new science-fiction action-adventure series. It introduced a glorious new superhero into the country’s pop-culture pantheon and established a universe of entertainment that over the subsequent six decades has expanded into countless offshoot series, big-screen movies, cartoons, games, and of course a vast array of soft-vinyl toys, essential accessories for generations of Japanese children.
That show, of course, was the now iconic Ultraman. While I recognize that words like iconic and legendary are extremely overused in modern times, they are intended for things such as this, which truly are iconic and um, legendary. Buzz words be damned.
Early on in the film, Hirokazu Koreeda says that it feels very special that even though he grew up so far from Guillermo Del Toro, that through Ultraman, they had a very similar childhood – and that resonated with me. Both directors, one from Japan and the otehr from Mexico, were borin in the same year and grew up drawing kaiju legends like Ultraman, and in Del Toro’s case, Universal monsters too. The power that an art media like cinema has, it so strong and this is a perfect example of that. The Origin Of Ultraman is all about exactly that; connection through giant monsters! Or in this case, one particular character.
Another prime example, is that of Hideo Kojima who will forever be known as the face behind one of the greatest video game franchises of all time – Metal Gear, who said that in God exists then there must be a being out there like Ultraman. Hideaki Anno, director of the Evangelion anime franchise, says that he felt cursed by Ultraman because it always surfaced in his work. And that he realized years later, that Evangelion is basically Ultraman.
So many notable names consider Ultraman as a major influence in their work – and moreover, in their lives.
The film itself is simply a living room or an office set, a real living space, with real people talking about their experiences and early lives, about how Eiji Tsuburaya, the legendary special effects director who also helped create Godzilla, quite literally shaped their lives and their raison d’etre – their art. In a way, such simple sets that are the building block of documentary films, helps highlight the early days of kaiju film, where people dressed up in foam suits and stomped around on tiny model villages. A time where creative reigned and a period that modern film makers really should learn from. CGI is great but modern films can learn a lot from the realm of Ultraman.
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I, personally, can relate to what all these great directors and creators speak about in The Origin Of Ultraman. Even as a child in England in the 1980’s, we had Ultraman on television, and that along with Doctor Who, shaped me into the kaiju-loving film nerd I became and still am. I can’t hold a candle to the people interviewed in the film, but like Koreeda in Japan and Del Toro in Mexico – so too was the United Kingdom influenced by the wonderful world of Ultraman.
Sixty years on, Ultraman is still influencing the next generations of artists – and The Origin Of Ultraman is an important document that hopefully helps spread the word of what this phenomenal series has given to the world. Here’s to another sixty years, and then another sixty years after that.
