Kamen Rider: The First

Kamen Rider The First  est un film japonais de genre tokusatsu, réalisé par Takao Nagaishi, sorti en 2005. Le film est une adaptation de la série télévisée Kamen Rider, comportant cependant certaines digressions avec la version originale, dans un souci de fidélité au manga créé par Shotaro Ishinomori.

Scénarisé par Toshiki Inoue et réalisé par Takao Nagaishi, le film met en scène Masaya Kikawada dans le rôle de Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider Ichigo et Hassei Takano dans le rôle de Hayato Ichimonji/Kamen Rider Nigo.

Le film est sorti en salle le 5 décembre 2005, après plusieurs projections à Tokyo et ses alentours durant les deux mois précédents la sortie nationale dès le 23 octobre, au Festival international du film de Tokyo. Il est sorti en DVD (zone 2) le 21 avril 2006. Le distributeur américain Media Blasters a sorti le film en version sous-titrée uniquement en zone 1 le 3 avril 2007.

La chanson titre du film est Bright! our Future par Da Pump, même si elle débute sur les premières mesure du générique original de la série, Let’s Go!! Rider Kick, interprété par Masato Shimon. Le film a été produit par Ishinomori Productions et la Toei, qui ont aussi produit toutes les séries télévisées de la franchise Kamen Rider. Le film a connu une suite, Kamen Rider The Next basée cette fois sur une réécriture des origines de Kamen Rider V3.

College student Takeshi Hongo is abducted into the terrorist organisation Shocker (Sacred Hegemony Of Cycle Kindred Evolutional Realm), at the hands of a Cyborg Inhumanoid known as the Bat.

There, he undergoes painful reconstructive surgery, turning him into an Inhumanoid himself. Unlike the original series, he does not escape prior to mental conditioning by Shocker, and becomes one of their soldiers, nicknamed “Hopper”. He carries out a mission successfully, and meets Shocker’s major agents, including Doctor Death. Hongo receives his orders— Kill those who have seen Shocker’s Inhumanoid soldiers.

However, what he doesn’t realise is that the two witnesses are the journalist who had interviewed him prior to his kidnapping, Asuka Midorikawa and her fiancé Katsuhiko Yano. Attacking the two along with Shocker soldier Spider, it is here that Hongo remembers his humanity, and has an epiphany with regards to what he should do. Despite his efforts, Katsuhiko is killed by Spider, and Asuka finds Hongo next to the body. Blaming him for Katsuhiko’s death, she begins to follow him, attempting to ascertain why whom she thought was a normal college student is a murderer.

Meanwhile, at Shocker headquarters, it is revealed that those who undergo Shocker’s treatment need periodic blood transfusions, lest they reject their cybernetic components. Though Hongo seems to lack the need for the transfusions, he is labeled a “traitor” by Shocker and must be destroyed. It is here that Doctor Death reveals his plan to create a second soldier based on Hopper’s design to do the job.

Hongo, having now abandoned Shocker, visits Tobee Tachibana, who gives him his motorcycle, the Cyclone. He is then able to defeat Spider. Asuka meets Hayato Ichimonji, who is identical to her fiancé, whom she thought was dead. He reveals that “Katsuhiko Yano” was an alias. What he doesn’t tell Asuka is that he had been kidnapped by Shocker and turned into the 2nd Hopper. His mission: defeat Hongo at any cost.

The film also features a subplot, interspersed throughout. It involves two terminally ill hospital patients, who get a chance to live after an offer by Shocker. The couple is taken to Shocker’s island base, where they laugh and play under the watchful eye of Shocker’s sinister bird logo. It is only then that it is revealed that this part of the film has been a flashback, taking place around a year ago. The two had underwent the reconfiguration and surfaced in the current story as Shocker soldiers Cobra and Snake, who branded Ichimonji a traitor for failing Shocker by putting his feelings for Asuka first.

Ultimately, the Riders team up after Bat attempts to kidnap Asuka and turn her into an Inhumanoid, which enrages Ichimonji enough to cause him to turn on his former masters. They defeat Shocker’s three cyborg soldiers at their island base, but other major agents have survived, and they’re already in the process of fashioning of a new base of operations while plotting a new scheme to eliminate the Riders. While the two newly-christened Kamen Rider will destroy Shocker for good, once and for all.