Kamen Rider THE FIRST ~Spoilers~

Following a short but cool intro/OP credits sequence, our main man Hongô Takeshi (Kikawada Masaya) himself is cruising down
the cherry blossom-lined street on his motorcycle. He arrives at Jônan University, which is a double treat for Rider fans: Jônan
University is the fictional Tokyo-based college used in several of the Kamen Rider series (including the original and Kamen Rider
Kuuga) and in this film, it’s the same place that was used as the hangout for Tachibana and the New Generation Riders in Kamen
Rider Blade: Missing Ace. Midorikawa Asuka (Komine Rena) is there doing a report on Hongô & company’s research, which
involves water crysteals or something like that. There’s a lot of talk about “beautiful things” (this will come into play later) and
Hongô & Midorikawa make googly eyes at each other a lot. Can you figure out where this is going?

Oh but wait, it isn’t going anywhere; Midorikawa has a fiance, Yano Katsuhiko (Takano Hassei.) Bummer for Hongô, who heads
home. Well, he was supposed to head home, but as he drives through a tunnel, a blinding spotlight ignites and he pulls over. Out
of the shadows emerges a man wearing a long, black cape and holding a bouquet of roses (Tsuda Kanji, Shinji’s boss in Kamen
Rider Ryuki!) He congratulates Hongô, who has been chosen to become Shocker’s next Kaizô-Ningen. He’s not alone; a ton of
other shadowy guys appear and begin applauding. This scene is super creepy (this movie has a lot of creepy moments, and I mean
that in a good way) and of course, Hongô tries to burn rubber and get out of there. But the cape-wearing man puts on an
elaborate mask/helmet. He’s Bat, the new version of Kômori-Otoko, and he knocks the human off his motorcycle and into the
wall. Bat drops the bouquet by the unconscious Hongô and the scene fades to black.

Hongô awakens just in time for, you guessed it, the Reconstructive Surgery scene. It’s quick, but really freaky, and in the ultimate
unexpected twist, Hongô does not magically escape. There’s no conveniently-time random explosion or meddling former college
professor. No, the whole deal goes down smoothly, and when we next see our main guy, he’s Shocker’s newest creation:
Hopper! They weren’t kidding when they said this wasn’t just a remake.

Hopper (or rather, Kamen Rider 1, although he is referred to by the Shocker-given codename for the rest of the movie), under
Shocker’s evil control, breaks into some high-tech office building late at night and destroys the fancy central computer system.
The requisite security guards are of course all ineffective, and they are dispatched with brutal but non-lethal force. This whole
sequence is pretty cool; it’s eerie to see what Kamen Rider 1 would be like if Shocker had gotten it right in the first place, and he
gets to do some major property damage (including punching through an entire floor.) Why does Shocker have him do all this?
Because they can!

Back on Shocker’s secret island base, Hongô sits in a massive room (which looks like the same huge underground place where
the final battle of Kamen Rider Faiz took place) and chats it up with Shocker’s Major Officers via nifty floating video screens. All
three are unnamed in the movie, although you can pretty much distinguish them like this: There’s the Guy one (ISSA, whose group
Da Pump sings the ending theme song) the Girl one (Sada Mayumi), and Doctor Shinigami himself (Amamoto Hideyo, who kicks
ass from beyond the grave thanks to a little fancy digital editing!) The latter appears to be the boss as well.

Meanwhile, the paper (or tabloid, it seems) that Midorikawa works for has published a story on Hopper’s little midnight
excursion, and along with her beau, Midorikawa decides to investigate further. This eventually leads to them tailing the last
surviving one of the security guards from last night's break-in (seems somebody has been offing the rest.) He's about to take the
worst taxi ride of his life.

As if Bat wasn’t an indication, the Shocker Kaijin in this movie are a little on the...eccentric side. The cab driver (Itao Itsuji) yells
at our current random victim for smoking, putting his feet on the seat and even sneezing in his cab. Just when the other guy has had
enough, we find out that this is no ordinary everyday surly cab driver, but the cab driver from Hell (no really, he has a line about
that later on in the movie!) He is in fact Spider, who puts on his mask/faceplate and brutally kills his hapless passenger. Now
that’s Customer Service!

Midorikawa and her fiancee arrive too late to witness the killing, but after searching the nearby area for what seems like hours (in
another classic Kamen Rider-ism, it’s suddenly night in the next scene) they meet up with the arachnid cyborg after a charming
scene in which his victim’s corpse falls to the ground behind them. Katsuhiko is freaked out about that, and once Spider jumps
Midorikawa and knocks her out, he makes some serious tracks. But Hongô/Hopper shows up, and Spider commands him to kill
all witnesses. He begins to choke Katsuhiko to death, but then, in a scene that I’m sure will spark debate among some fans,
Hongô miraculously regains his memory when it begins snowing and the flakes fall gently around him. I’m sure some would see
this as a cheap way out of the whole “Brainwashed by evil” thing, but I have a theory I’ll get to later on about this.

Anyways, Hopper (who I’ll just call Rider 1 from here on, because he essentially *is* Rider 1 from here on out) stops short of
killing Katsuhiko, but Spider, obviously upset by this sudden showing of weakness, decides to finish the job himself. Rider 1
comes to his senses and briefly fights with his one-time ally, who escapes and promises...(drum roll)...death to Hongô for
betraying Shocker! Midorikawa awakens in time to see Hongô by Katsuhiko’s dead body, and puts two and two together. Well,
if you watched the original Kamen Rider, you knew that had to be coming, right? Sure enough, she thinks Hongô’s to blame, and
will be on his case about this for a good part of the movie.

And this is where things starts getting complicated. Exactly why will become clear further on down, but let me just say that a lot of
things happen and they happen fast, so some scenes may be a little out of order here. (I’m going from memory, and I only saw
the movie once as of this writing.)

Shocker’s Major Officers hold another video conference, and we get to see what the Kaijin do when they’re not out being evil...
they’re sitting around getting blood transfusions, because we find out that it isn’t easy being a Kaizô-Ningen, even an evil one, and
without these periodic tune-ups the body can possibly begin to reject the cybernetic components, which is a pretty cool idea when
you think about it.

Speaking of that, Hongô, who was pretty clueless as to what was going on when he was under evil control, discovers his own
super strength in the usual “break/crush things” manner, and in one really cool moment, he stops an entire truck from running over
a little girl, leaving a hand print in the front. Unfortunately, this also nearly destroys the truck and another car, and on top of all this,
Midorikawa, who has been trailing Hongô, snaps pictures.

Hongô takes the girl to the hospital, and this is where the movie’s big subplot kicks in. I say “subplot” because it will be a while
before it becomes clear what any of it has to do with the rest of the movie, but in any case, there’s this other guy in the hospital,
Mitamura Haruhiko (Wentz Eiji) and he’s dying. He even tries to jump off the roof, but can’t bring himself to do it. As we’ll later
find, he’s a got a secret admirer, a volunteer worker named Harada Miyoko (Kobayashi Ryôko) who keeps popping into his
room late at night to deliver flowers, in what I guess is like a freaky juxtaposition to the way Bat did the same with Hongô.

Somewhere in between the whole Mitamura/Harada deal, Hongô visits you-know-who: Tachibana Tôbei (Miyauchi Hiroshi) who
gives our hero his new set of wheels: the Cyclone. In a nice little one Rider-to-another moment, he also gives Hongô some
supportive confidence-boosting.

After all this plot development, it’s about time for some action again, and it comes when Midorikawa gets an invite to take the taxi
cab from Hell! Intending to finish the job for good this time, Spider nearly succeeds in adding her to his list of victims. But
suddenly, Rider 1 shows up on the Cyclone. Spider brings in his Shocker Combatant buddies, who are also sporting some nice
wheels (with custom Shocker plates, no less) and it’s on. The ensuing battle has some cool wire work as Rider 1 causes his foes
to literally crash and burn, and finally it comes down to the two main players, who briefly duke it out atop Cyclone. Rider 1 gets
the upper hand, and sends Spider crashing into a wall. You can guess what comes next. Leaping off the Cyclone, Rider 1 gives
Spider the Rider Kick, and our hero lands on his trusty motorcycle in time for a cool slow-motion swerve as the arachnid monster
explodes behind him. Boom!

Things kind of become a jumble here, but to make a long story short we get some more Hongô/Midorikawa intrigue (the latter
isn’t aware that Hongô is Rider 1, but she does know that Rider 1 saved her), as well as some more Mitamura/Harada intrigue
(Mitamura’s pretty cold towards her at first, but he starts to warm up eventually), and the big plot twist that I still don’t quite get.
Remember Katsuhiko? Well, apparently, he isn’t dead. Only he’s not Katsuhiko. He’s Ichimonji Hayato. He meets up with
Midorikawa, and that leads to a rather awkward romantic moment, as it’s not every day your fiancée comes back from the dead
and tells you he’s actually a different guy. After checking out what the magazines had to say, it appears that Katsuhiko &
Ichimonji are not supposed to be the same person, although it is left *very* open to interpretation.

In any case, we soon find out what Ichimonji’s really hanging around for: he’s out to kick Rider 1's butt. He breaks off the meeting
with Midorikawa to ambush Hongô, and this leads to some brief Rider-on-Rider violence. Check out Rider 1 & 2 giving each
other Rider Kicks! It’s also interesting to note that Hongô’s transformation is more like how it was in the comic or in the early
episodes of the TV show– he pulls back his jacket, the Typhoon in his Henshin Belt spins, and presto– he’s in-suit in the next
scene. Putting on the helmet and Crusher (mouth piece) completes the transformation.

Rider 1 prematurely ends the fight, leaving Rider 2 in the dust. Midorikawa, understandably overwhelmed by all the wackiness as
of late, walks home alone, but soon finds herself getting a lift from Rider 1. It’s a tender little moment, ended when they stop and
she asks the masked hero who he is. He simply responds that he just wants to “protect beautiful things”.

Hongô, who as you probably guessed has a thing for Midorikawa now, winds up meeting Ichimonji, who he sorta recognizes as
the guy he once almost killed, but still addresses with a "Who the heck are you?". Midorikawa confronts them both, and this is the
part of the movie where I couldn’t help but think of what would be going through their heads...

Hongô: Man, life sucks. Shocker turned me into a Kaizô-Ningen and now they’re trying to kill me. Ichimonji gets all the chicks. I
still can’t figure out how exactly that helmet & suit just come out of nowhere...

Ichimonji: I wonder if Ren really fell for that whole “You’re gonna die” thing?

...sorry. Anyways, Ichimonji and Midorikawa go off together, but get ambushed by Bat and Shocker. Bat unleashes an army of
mini robo-bats, which is pretty neat. Despite the fact that he’s working for Shocker, Ichimonji transforms the same way Hongô
did and kicks some butt. Bat is not pleased with Ichimonji’s betrayal, and retreats. Midorikawa witnesses all this, and now thinks
Ichimonji was the same Rider who saved her before and gave her the lift. Ichimonji then has to leave in a hurry; large dark veins
begin appearing on his hand: it’s Rejection time (in more ways than one.)

Back at Shocker central, the bigwigs question Ichimonji’s loyalty, but he assures them he will still destroy Hongô. I could be
wrong, but it seems that Ichimonji either does everything willingly, or like Hongô, he sort of “regains his old self” because his
feelings for Midorikawa are deeper than any evil brain surgery. I’m guessing it's a combination of the two.

The Mitamura/Harada stuff has been taking up a fair chunk of screen time so far, and while its all good and well that a guy at
death’s door is finally having some fun in his life, you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with the rest of the movie.
Well, here’s where the big twist occurs: during a date, Harada falls unconcious. Midorikawa, of all people, shows up. It’s back to
the hospital, where we find out that Harada’s days are in fact numbered as well. Mitamura is of course wracked with guilt over all
this, but Harada is just pleased that she could brighten his life up. But who should come into the room, but...Spider! But didn’t he
go kaboom?

Well he did; it turns out the entire Mitamura/Harada storyline has been a flashback, juxtaposed with the present just to mess with
your head! It all took place a year prior to everything else in the movie! In any case, Mitamura & Harada are both going to be
showing up again in the present real soon.

Speaking of which, Ichimonji & Midorikawa are running around in the place where she met Mitamura & Harada when the latter
fell unconscious, and she makes a mention of that event. Ichimonji’s just kind of like “Yeah...uh, okay...” as he’s soon a bit
preoccupied: Hongô also pops up.

Hongô & Ichimonji meet at a stadium for a final throw-down. They transform and start kicking each other around like nobody’s
business; Midorikawa also shows up and learns that not only is Ichimonji not the Rider who’s been bumping into her all along, but
it’s Hongô! Rider 1 ends up saving her from becoming a victim of collateral damage, which drives Ichimonji bonkers. He’s
supposed to be the one saving her! But another case of internal Rejection forces him to give up this time. Unfortunately, Shocker
has had enough of Ichimonji’s antics and sends two more cyborgs after him: Cobra, an updated Cobra-Otoko, and Snake, who is
based on a character that up until now only appeared in the comic version of Kamen Rider. Ichimonji gets his butt kicked big time
(I find this scene amusing for some twisted reason, possibly because the image of Ichimonji flying through the air in slow-motion)
but Hongô intervenes and saves him, much to his chagrin. Ichimonji’s not really sure what to do anymore: Shocker wants to kill
him now, and yet Midorikawa’s feelings for him are pretty much gone, so there’s not much incentive to be Mr. Hero anymore.
Still, he swears to defeat his fellow Hopper and regain his honor, and the girl.

So, did you figure out what happened to Mitamura & Harada? In another apparent flashback, they’re happy as can be, and they
happen to be on the same island where Shocker’s base is located. You see, Shocker apparently offered a way for them to
overcome their life-threatening illness. Unfortunately, it’s pretty evident what that way was. I have to say, it’s just downright
creepy to see these two kids laughing and planting flowers all under the eye of Shocker’s evil bird logo.

Hongô apparently found time between all this craziness to make a lecture at Jônan about the whole water crystal thingy, but
Midorikawa arrives to pop that big question: what exactly is the beautiful thing Hongô’s always been talking about? “Life” he says.
Man, that Hongô is a smooth one. By this point in the movie, Midorikawa has finally begun to trust Hongô (well, she knows he
didn’t kill Katsuhiko)) and he basically tells her the whole deal about Shocker and all that. Ichimonji arrives, and has little one-on-
one talk with Hongô about where exactly they’re going to go from here. Which makes for a perfect time for Bat to show up and
kidnap Midorikawa. Apparently, she’s been selected to be Shocker’s next guinea pig. How convenient! Hongô & Ichimonji
arrive in time to witness this though, and resolve to save her no matter what. And while they’re at it, take the fight to Shocker.

While Midorikawa is being prepared for surgery, a lone boat heads towards Shocker’s island compound. A welcome party of
Shocker Combatants arrive, but there’s no one on the boat to fight. The goons look around confused. And then, in possibly the
movie’s craziest moment, the Double Riders come roaring out of the surf on their Cyclone & Cyclone 2 bikes in this awesome
slow motion scene. We don't see where Cyclone 2 came from exactly*, but the Kamen Riders blast through the island’s
perimeter guards and arrive at the main base for the big rumble.

*Okay, considering it has the Tachibana Racing Club logo on it, I think you can figure it out for yourself!

After finally performing their iconic battle poses, the Double Riders mop the floor with evil. Shocker Combatants are knocked
around like dominoes, and they even die just like the original show– turning into rapidly-melting foam! Things go smoothly until
Bat, Cobra & Snake show up. The Kaijin trio beat the Riders senseless, and to make matters worse, Rider 2 apparently has
second thoughts about this whole rescue mission and takes off! It sucks to be Rider 1 right now.

Midorikawa is minutes away from having some painful looking surgery. Rider 1 is getting beat up by Shocker. And Rider 2 is
racing away from it all...or is he? Fake out! All that hanging around Hongô apparently rubbed off on Ichimonji, and he U-turns it
back just in time to save his fellow Rider. The Double Riders finally fight as one, and take out the remaining Shocker Combatants.
They then give Bat what’s been coming to him: A Rider Double Nage followed by a Rider Double Kick! The twisted villain
explodes, and now it’s just down to the Double Riders and the Cobra/Snake combo. The ensuing battle ends with each Rider
taking out one of the two Kaijin, and we learn the tragic truth: Cobra is in fact Mitamura, and Snake is Harada. Mitamura sees the
flowers he planted with Harada one year prior, or rather, the one flower that actually bloomed, and remembers his old self. And
finally, for once in his tortured life, he is at peace.

Okay, I mentioned a little earlier I had a theory about why Hongô changes back to his old self so quickly, and why Ichimonji’s
turn to good is such a subtle, gradual process. It also ties into why Mitamura, prior to death, reverts to his old self. Shocker’s evil
brain surgery (in the movie, anyway) seems to be more of a hypnotic memory-erasure state than anything else; jogging the
memory with something of deep-rooted importance seems to undo it. Also, the characters who do regain their old personalities
are all inherently good people; whereas Spider & Bat were just rotten to the core before and after surgery, like many of the old
Rider Kaijin. Again, just a theory, as Ichimonji is much harder to figure out.

The Double Riders proceed to clean up the rest of Shocker. Rider 1 rescues Midorikawa, in the process knocking those Shocker
scientist silly and performing the requisite “blow up the control panel” moment, while Rider 2 frees a whole bunch of random
people (are there any other kind?) from Shocker’s holding cells. The heroes meet up again, with Rider 1 carrying the unconscious
but otherwise okay Midorikawa. I don’t know if the Shocker base explodes or not, but hey– this is Shocker, so we can assume it
would.

Of course, the Shocker Major Officers are still alive and kicking, and already plotting their next evil scheme.

Ichimonji decides it would be better if he not stick around to get in the way when Midorikawa wakes up, and takes off, leaving his
Rider helmet behind.

And Hongô Takeshi, as Kamen Rider 1, carries Midorikawa along the beach as the ending theme “Bright! our Future” begins to
play.

THE END

Well, there you go. If I could sum up the movie in one sentence, it would be this: “If you like Shocker, you’ll love the movie”.
Seriously. Shocker completely rocks this film! It’s handled extremely well, with a good mix of feeling like the original Shocker
while also drawing on newer Rider villains, and it comes off very creepy and evil, just the way I like it. But I’ll get back to that
later.

Overall, I loved Kamen Rider THE FIRST, although I do have a few critiques. The biggest one being the ending...if you read the
summary, it is very abrupt, and considering the final battle was against the more sympathetic of the villains, it felt a little
disappointing. At the very least, saving Bat & the Double Rider Kick for last would have made it feel more like a solid final battle.
In general, it really felt like the movie could have used an extra 10 minutes at the end. The actual wrap-up is fairly quick too, but
considering how open the ending is, I’d be surprised if we don’t see a sequel in some format now. My other gripe is the pacing
and editing of some scenes, which goes along with the problems of the ending. Some things go by way too fast, and especially
once the subplot kicks in a lot starts happening all at once. But really, these are pretty minor complaints. I found everything else to
be quite enjoyable.

Kikawada & Takano both do a good job provided the shoes they have to step into. No, they’re not Fujioka & Sasaki, but who
is? The new actors manage to take the characters and really make them their own while still paying tribute to the originals.
Especially Takano, who is always good in everything I’ve seen him in. The rest of the cast is all pretty good, and Tsuda in
particular is great as he embraces his evil side with manic glee, and manages to make all the scenes with Bat solid gold.
Miyauchi’s appearance is brief but especially welcome, and Amamoto– what to say about him? Granted, the fact that all his
scenes were done using old footage with remixed original or new lines means that sometimes the lip synch was a bit off, but since
it’s supposed to be on a distorted static-filled view screen, I could overlook it. Besides, it’s just cool as hell to have Doctor
Shinigami back in a new Rider production. Overall, I thought it was very tastefully done and a nice tribute to the late, great
Amamoto.

Plot-wise, the movie felt almost like what we might have seen had Fujioka never gotten injured and the character of Midorikawa
Ruriko continued for the rest of the show. The movie draws from the original series as well as the comic version, yet is not a direct
translation of either, so the plot was really all new in a sense. Some comic elements, such as the idea of making Cobra & Snake a
couple (they were apparently supposed to be lovers in the comic, and had the same names as they do here) are interesting when
brought to the screen, although you might find it hard to get into the Mitamura/Harada story unless you know where it's going. The
whole thing about Ichimonji being another guy is still over my head, but maybe it’ll make sense when I see the movie again.
Otherwise, it's all pure Rider goodness.

The action scenes...wow. I only wish there could have been more. What we do get, does not disappoint. The wire work in
particular is very well-done, and, as is evidenced by the ending credits, a lot of people racked up some serious hours erasing all
those wires in post. The actual physical fighting is great, with some very impressive moves, and the Rider Kick never looked so
good. Visual effects-wise, the film is pretty tight. There’s a minimal use of CG compared to, say, the Hibiki movie, which helps to
give the film that older-style flavoring. And the bike stunts-! It’s great to see some bike action again, with Shocker goons flipping
through the air. Special mention goes to the Shocker Combatant stunt actors...they really steal the movie, and you will be hard-
pressed not to love their antics. They also get to keep their signature sound effects, which I'm pretty sure is one of the few actual
cardinal rules of all Kamen Rider.

Music...well, I have yet to get my hands on the soundtrack and listen to it all in detail, but from what I remember offhand the music
was great. Some nice moody themes reminiscent of music in the original series, and some hard-hitting themes for the action
scenes. To my pleasant surprise, “Let’s Go!! Rider Kick” is briefly used during the opening credit scene, before fading into some
new music as we get a nice shot of Rider 1 on the Cyclone leaping in front on an explosion. The ending theme “Bright! our Future”
has grown on me a lot since listening to the recent CD release, and I can say it fits the feel of the movie well.

And of course, being the big return of Kamen Rider 1 & 2, the movie is loaded with tons of references and nods to the original
show and comic. I've tried to mention as many as I could here, but I bet there's even more I missed.

I’m sure what isn’t included will surprise some. The Riders do not yell “Rider Kick” when performing the signature move, nor do
they shout “Henshin” when transforming. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that they are not called “Kamen Rider” on screen, but just
“Hopper”.

However, it should be pointed out Rider 1 didn’t say anything in the first episode when doing a Rider Kick, nor did ZO, Kuuga,
or most any of the Riders after that. And yelling “Henshin!” with the accompanying arm-waving was introduced with Rider 2 in the
series; the first 13 episodes and the comic simply had our hero transform when enough wind power flowed through the Typhoon
in his Henshin Belt (and in the comic’s case, he put the helmet on like in the movie.) “Hopper”, in addition to sticking with the
Shocker code naming system in the movie, is also a reference to one of the unused names for Kamen Rider before it became
known as “Kamen Rider”. So none of those things really hurt my enjoyment of the movie. Besides, the important thing is that
"Shocker" gets tossed around left and right, and rightfully so!

On the whole, Kamen Rider THE FIRST is more tribute than anything else: it pays respect to the original Kamen Rider series
while also updating it in a sense. It’s really almost like a blend of the older and newer Rider shows while at the same time being
some thing all new and different. Despite the flaws, Kamen Rider THE FIRST is one fun ride, and well worth checking out. Of
course, you were probably going to see it anyway even without my recommendation!