They Call Me Jeeg (2015)

Original title

Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot

Directed by

Gabriele Mainetti

Genre

comedy film, superhero film

Country

Italy

Runtime

1h 58m

Rated

16

Rating

7.4 of 10 from 2,590 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A small-time crook in Rome accidentally gains super strength from radioactive waste. A young woman with mental health issues mistakes him for a robot anime hero, which leads to a strange friendship and a conflict with local gangsters.

grittyoffbeatdarkly comiclonelyviolenttenderurbanquirkyhopeful

What happens

They Call Me Jeeg (Italian: Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot, transl. "They called him Jeeg Robot"; Japanese: 皆はこう呼んだ、「鋼鉄ジーグ」, romanized: Mina wa kō yonda, "Kōtetsu Jīgu", transl. "Everybody called [him] Steel Jeeg") is a 2015 Italian superhero film directed by Gabriele Mainetti and starring Claudio Santamaria in the lead role. The plot centers around a lonely misanthropic crook named Enzo, who gets superhuman strength after being exposed to radioactive waste in the Tiber waters. The film is a tribute to the manga and anime series Steel Jeeg (Jeeg Robot d'acciaio in Italy, where it is very popular) by Gō Nagai, from which takes up some thematics; the title is an in-joke based on the character Alessia, who believes that the hero of the anime, Hiroshi Shiba, exists in the real world, and she mistakes Enzo for him. The title is also a reference to the spaghetti western film They Call Me Trinity (Lo chiamavano Trinità). It received largely positive critical reviews and was nominated for several film industry awards, including seventeen David di Donatello, winning eight. The film was also one of seven films on a shortlist to be selected as the Italian entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards, but the film Fuocoammare was chosen instead. After a successful run in Italian theaters in 2016, the movie got a limited release in the U.S. starting 17 March 2017 by Uncork'd Entertainment. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Don't Be Bad (2015)
• A Little Lust (2015)
• Villa Bella (2015)
• stowberry (2015)
• Suburra (2015)
• What a Beautiful Surprise (2015)
• The Legendary Giulia and Other Miracles (2015)
• Burning Love (2015)