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.
Contents
Plot
Enzo Ceccotti is a thief who lives in the slum Tor Bella Monaca in Rome. After stealing a wristwatch, Enzo escapes two police officers by jumping into the Tiber. When Enzo tries to get out, he comes into contact with radioactive waste after he accidentally breaks a barrel under the river level. Spending a night feverish and vomiting, he wakes up healed but with a persistent cough.
Enzo decides to sell the watch to Sergio, who works for Fabio Cannizzaro, known as "The Gipsy", a psychopathic gangster who hungers for fame. Sergio takes him on a job which is supposed to involve extracting cocaine from inside a pair of drug mule brothers. At Sergio's home, Enzo meets his daughter Alessia, a psychologically damaged woman who escapes reality by continuously watching the Steel Jeeg anime and relating everything to it. After arriving with the drug smugglers at the top of a building under construction, one of them dies from an overdose when the container in his stomach breaks. Sergio refuses to take him to hospital, so the man's brother grabs Sergio's gun and shoots him. Sergio, before dying, bashes the man's head against a pillar. The man then shoots Enzo in the shoulder, knocking him backwards off the building; miraculously, Enzo survives.
At home, Enzo discovers he has acquired exceptional strength, the reason for his healing ability. That night, he steals an entire ATM and is filmed by a security camera; the surveillance video goes viral, and the press calls Enzo a super-criminal, although no one knows his true identity. Gipsy discovers that Sergio has not returned with the cocaine, which the gang bought from a camorra clan led by Nunzia Lo Cosimo, a terrorist. Gipsy must retrieve the cocaine or pay Nunzia off, so he and his gang invade Sergio's place, finding only Alessia. Enzo rescues her by crushing Gipsy's posse, and Alessia mistakes him for Hiroshi Shiba, the hero of Steel Jeeg.
Enzo, who wishes to live in solitude, takes Alessia to a residential care home, where she previously stayed while her father was imprisoned. Finding information hidden in Sergio's spectacle case, Enzo robs the valuable contents of the same armored truck that Gipsy and his gang are about to assault. This increases Enzo's infamy, making Gipsy jealous. Shortly thereafter, two police officers bring Alessia to Enzo after they find her wandering in the highway, and he takes her in. That night, as they watch a Steel Jeeg episode, Alessia experiences an emotional breakdown, revealing that she suffered sexual abuse.
Cast
Claudio Santamaria as Enzo Ceccotti / "Jeeg"
Luca Marinelli as Fabio Cannizzaro / The Gipsy
Ilenia Pastorelli as Alessia
Stefano Ambrogi as Sergio
Maurizio Tesei as Biondo
Francesco Formichetti as Sperma
Daniele Trombetti as Tazzina
Antonia Truppo as Nunzia
Gianluca Di Gennaro as Antonio
Salvatore Esposito as Vincenzo
Reception
Critical response
They Call Me Jeeg received positive reviews from critics, who praised Santamaria, Marinelli, and Pastorelli's performances, the screenplay, and the "township" setting. MoviePlayer gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5, calling it "a triumph of pure cinema, writing, acting, ability to stage and productive obstinacy". Film critic Massimo Bertarelli called it "a masterpiece, to watch at all costs [...] full of fun", praising Santamaria, Marinelli, and Pastorelli's performances. Jay Weissberg from Variety praised the film, calling it "surprisingly gritty and thoroughly enjoyable". After its U.S. release, the film received an 82% score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10.
Legacy
A comic book based on the film, produced by Lucky Red and La Gazzetta dello Sport, was published in 2016. The comic book is written by Roberto Recchioni, drawn by Giorgio Pontrelli and Stefano Simeone, and with the cover arts by Giacomo Bevilacqua, Leo Ortolani and Zerocalcare, and it takes place after the events of the movie.
