Kamen Rider: The Next

Kamen Rider: The Next
Japanese 仮面ライダー THE NEXT
Hepburn Kamen Raidā Za Nekusuto
Directed by Ryuta Tasaki
Produced by Kazuo Katō
Shinichirō Shirakura
Naomi Takebe
Kōichi Yada
Written by Toshiki Inoue
Based on Kamen Rider and Kamen Rider V3 
by Shotaro Ishinomori
Starring Masaya Kikawada
Hassei Takano
Kazuki Kato
Miku Ishida
Erika Mori
Tomorowo Taguchi
Goro Naya
Music by Goro Yasukawa
Cinematography Issei Tanaka
Edited by Hideaki Ōhata
Production
company
Toei Company
Toei Channel
Toei Agency
Toei Video
Distributed by Toei Company
Release dates
  • October 27, 2007 (2007-10-27)
Running time
 93 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Kamen Rider: The Next (仮面ライダー THE NEXT Kamen Raidā Za Nekusuto, Masked Rider: The Next) is a 2007 Japanese tokusatsu superhero film directed by Ryuta Tasaki and written by Toshiki Inoue. The film was released on October 27, 2007. The film borrows elements from the Kamen Rider V3 television series and is a sequel to the Kamen Rider: The First movie (which was a film adaptation of the original Kamen Rider series). Actor Kazuki Kato, who had previously portrayed Daisuke Kazama/Kamen Rider Drake in Kamen Rider Kabuto, portrayed Shiro Kazami/Kamen Rider V3.[1] Both Masaya Kikawada and Hassei Takano reprise their roles as Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider 1 and Hayato Ichimonji/Kamen Rider 2, respectively. It was given a PG-12 rating for its brief nudity and violence.[2]

Plot

Two years after the events of Kamen Rider the First, a strange series of bizarre murders occur with the victims mutilated in a most gruesome fashion while pop star Chiharu's "Platinum Smile" is being played, becoming an urban legend. Meanwhile, Takeshi Hongo has become a high school science teacher with a troublesome class with one student catching his attention; a troubled girl named Kotomi Kikuma who was best friends with Chiharu and is worried about her. By the time Hongo and her find a dying "Chiharu", they learn she's actually an imposter as the Shocker Inhumanoid Chainsaw Lizard arrives with the six Shocker Riders to carry out the task of executing Hongo, forcing him to reveal himself in as Kamen Rider 1 to Kotomi before escaping his hunters. At around the same time, Hayato Ichimonji is shown still alive but slowly weakening due to his body's rejection of the cybernetic changes which made him Kamen Rider 2.

The next day, after saving Kotomi from some punks by exposing his physical ability, Hongo accepts Kotomi's offer to help in finding Chiharu by finding her older brother Shiro Kazami, who is the former president of the rising IT enterprise ExaStream, which is tied to the mysterious disappearance of its staff two months prior. Making their way to his holiday home to meet Kazami, Hongo and Kotomi soon learn that he is in league with Shocker as Chainsaw Lizard and the Shocker Riders battle Kamen Rider Ichigo on as Kazami joins the fray as a Shocker Inhumanoid code-named "V3". After chasing down Rider 1 in a high speed chase across the countryside, V3 and the Shocker Riders take down Rider 1 until Kamen Rider Nigo re-appears to cover Rider 1's escape. But after realizing his "sister" was another imposter, Kazami reveals the incident at ExaStream was a Shocker experiment of Nanobots designed to convert all humans in Japan into cyborgs, with him being a survivor of the experiment. The three riders later learn that Kotomi found the other girl, revealing the gruesome fate the real Chiharu suffered as she and her predecessor were involved, horrifying Kazami as Kotomi is telepathically shown the truth of the real Chiharu's final moments as "Chiharu" runs off and eventually is brutally murdered with the manager and the record dealer who were covering up her death as Kotomi uses Platinum Smile to communicate with Chiharu, learning that she's still alive as the "ghost" takes its leave.

After Kazami reveals to Hongo that Shocker's foreign branch brought a shipment of nanobots to spread them across the nation, Rider 1 arrives to intercept the convoy while battling Scissors Jaguar, the mastermind behind the nanobot operation, with Rider 2 arriving to back him up as the battle ends up in the "Legend of Gathering" restaurant in an all out fight for the nanobots. Though the Double Riders are overwhelmed, the tables are turned as V3 arrives to support them. While the Double Riders kill Scissors Jaguar, V3 manages to destroy Chainsaw Lizard and the nanobots before coming face to face with Chiharu, horrifically mutated by the nanobots into a monster as she pleas her brother to put her out of her misery. Though reluctant to do it, Kazami kills Chiharu, honoring her wish to die rather than live as a monster. With Chiharu's death, the Platinum Smile incidents end. After the three Riders escape the burning restaurant, Ichimonji takes his leave to spend his final moments in bliss at a Ginza bar he regulars, while Kazami decides to start a new life for himself. Hongo is forced to quit his job after complaints made for his earlier stunt. The film ends with Kotomi and Hongo walking home together.

A post-credits scene reveals that the curse of Platinum Smile may not have truly ended.

Characters

Heroes

Villains

Chiharu

Kazami's younger sister, Chiharu was a Japanese Idol who was exposed to the nanobots the day her brother became V3. Because she left before Shocker quarantined the ExaStream building, Chiharu was unaware of her being infected until it was too late as her rivals pushed her down some stairs into a live electric circuit, severely disfiguring her face. Unable to cope with it, Chiharu attempted suicide after leaving a note to have her wristwatch sent to her brother. However, Tristar Promotions refused to make her death public, and used the very girls responsible for Chiharu's disfigurement to stand in for her as they release her final song, "Platinum Smile". In order to cover up Chiharu's death, the executives at Tristar Promotions disposed of her body in the city sewers, where the nanobots in Chiharu's body malfunctioned as they revived her into a sub-human monstrosity.

The song "Platinum Smile" soon after became a thing of urban legend, as Chiharu's "ghost" brutally murders those who listen to it, as well as those were covering up her demise. In the end, Kazami faces the wretched beast that was once his sister, and in an emotional climax, kills her. Chiharu seemed to finally be at rest. However, it seems that the curse of "Platinum Smile" did not die with Chiharu, as her "ghost" appears again, hate-filled and embarking on a bizarre murder spree.

Cast

Songs

Theme song
Insert song

References

  1. ↑ 仮面ライダーＶ３　２７年ぶり復活 (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "今秋公開の映画「仮面ライダー THE NEXT」はPG-12". Retrieved 2007-07-15.

External links

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