Brimming with earnestness, eccentricity and – most importantly – pow! zap! and bang! tokusatsu action, the film Ike Boys is a fond portrait of fandom and friendship set on the cusp of the 21st century. The year is 1999 and with the new millennium around the corner, two Japanophile high schoolers in the dustbowl of Oklahoma – Shawn Gunderson (Quinn Lord) and Vikram ‘Vik’ Kapoor (Ronak Gandhi) – welcome Japanese exchange student Miki (Christina Higa) to Vik’s home, herself keen to investigate Native American culture.
Shawn is a card-carrying otaku (Japanese slang for a pop culture obsessive, or in today’s western terminology, ‘weeb’), the type who knows rudimentary Japanese, owns replica samurai swords and orders obscure anime DVDs from their country of origin. Little does he know the seldom-seen anime feature he screens for Vik and Miki on the latter’s first night in the States has a touch of destiny about it; the brainchild of a prophetic but failed director when tokusatsu (practical effects-heavy live-action media – think Power Rangers and Godzilla) was in its heyday. Viewing the film leaves the trio feeling rather empowered, which is good timing, as there’s a Y2K-inspired doomsday cult that needs to be brought to justice before New Year’s Eve.
Directed and co-written by Eric McEver, alongside Jeff Hammer, Ike Boys has an endearing autobiographical authenticity to it, largely sold by its cast – which includes the ever-charming Billy Zane and, as a treat for genre nerds, bonafide tokusatsu royalty Yumiko Shaku. While niche in its reference points, the idea of being ostracised as the ‘weird’ kid in your school like Shawn has obvious universal appeal, as does his Vik’s desire to break out of that box and be one of the cooler gang – even if it means forsaking his childhood pleasures.Â
The positioning of Miki’s Native American fangirling, meanwhile, makes for a playful inversion of the boys’ Eastern interest, which is deliberately clumsy and very dorky, though just stops short at absolute cringe. It also helps alleviate any feeling of cultural appropriation or fetishisation, as such fandoms can sometimes border on; instead, presenting more as a cultural exchange from across the world. Clumsiest of them all, however, is Shawn’s ‘my dad doesn’t get me’ relationship with his widower father – played by a gloriously bearded Ben Browder (John Crichton for you all you Farscape fans) – whose well-intentioned fumbles in connecting with Miki and his own son actually hit the hardest emotionally… or perhaps I’m getting old.
Visually, low-budget indie filmmaking marries itself well to the DIY aesthetic of tokusatsu’s practical effects here, lovingly replicated in costume and action tributes to Ultraman, Kamen Rider and many a kaiju beastie, and leaving a lot for IRL otaku to point at the screen and show off how many Easter eggs they can spot. Ike Boys isn’t exactly a deep thinker nor an artistic marvel, but among so many toxic Big Bang Theory-style depictions of smarmy, socially inept nerds as two-dimensional as a comic book which persist to this day, it’s certainly one of the good guys. Â
Dir. Eric McEver (88 mins)
Ike Boys is out digitally on Tue 11 Oct
words HANNAH COLLINS