(DAI-NIPPONJIN, Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japan 2007, 113 min., Japanese/subtitles)

In a funny and action-packed variation on Godzilla and other Japanese monster movies, writer-director Hitoshi Matsumoto also stars as a modest, lonely man who occasionally transforms himself into a 100-foot-tall, thong-wearing giant who battles equally big monsters in downtown Tokyo. The beleaguered superhero finds himself increasingly out of favor with a fickle public who blame Big Man Japan for the destruction of city property. Told in a faux-documentary style, the satire also serves as an attack on contemporary media and reality television.