Super Cub (2008) User Reviews

Story of Speed and Friendship

[ebiros2 · 6/10 · 5 February 2012]

The story has elements of Gone in 60 Seconds, and Initial D at its core.

Takeshi is a die hard motorcycle rider who lied to his parents about going to school so he can remain in Japan to continue riding his motorcycle. He's living to race his motorcycle on the roads of mountains in Japan with his motorcycling buddies. One day while racing against his rival Shinji he gets caught, and loses his license, bike, place to live (because his parent cut off his support), and cell phone. He has no place to go but to work as a dish washer at the local soba shop. In the garage of the soba shop he finds an old Honda Super Cub 90cc scooter. He brings it back to life, and starts using it for delivery, with his usual speed. In the mean time, Shinji is involved with the yakuza that are stealing premium motorbikes to be sold overseas. He's doing this to pay for the medical bill of his girlfriend he injured during a motorcycling accident. Takeshi challenges Shinji to a duel to the seaport where the yakuzas are waiting to load the last motorbike on to the cargoship. Prize being whoever wins will take the other's motorbike.

This is a pretty cool movie that shows the culture of young motorcycle riders of Japan in much the same way Initial D did for the young car drivers of Japan. Even the part that the two main protagonists is a delivery boy is the same. But this is much more light hearted, and shows the lighter side of Japan's youth culture. The movie is produced very well and acting is also first class. This movie was much better made than the unsuccessful comic to movie translation of Wangan Midnight, and is an entertaining piece to watch.

My interest in the movie went from 100 to 0 in less than 30 minutes...

[paul_haakonsen · 2/10 · 12 August 2019]

Right, well all I knew about "Sûpâkabu" (aka "Super Cub") when I sat down to watch it, was that it was a Japanese movie. That was actually also all I essentially needed to know in order to actually sit down and watch it.

The movie starts out sort of in the spirit of "The Fast and the Furious", and already there is my interest in watching the movie starting to dwindle fast. Why? Because I have zero interest in motorized vehicles. I don't have any particular need for speed and I can't see what is so alluring about motors and fast vehicles.

Yet, I managed to endure 30 minutes of the ordeal that is "Super Cub", then I simply quit from pure and utter boredom. The storyline had zero appeal to me, and the characters had zero appeal to me. And I highly doubt that director Atsushi Muroga would manage to turn the tide of the movie and win me over. However, I am not planning ever to return to watch the rest of the movie, so I will never know.

Fast motorcycles? - Check. Pointless storyline? - Check. Equally pointless characters? - Check.

Not all movies that make it from the Japanese cinema are pure gold, and "Super Cub" was one of those movies. I am sure that there is an audience out there for it, just look at the "Fast and the Furious" movies. But for me, this was a massive swing and an even bigger miss. There was nothing in this movie, and I mean that seriously, nothing, that caught my interest.

I suppose you can say someone added diesel to a tank that would only support gasoline, and the end result, well that was known as "Super Cub".

A guilty pleasure

[rickrudge · 30 August 2011]

Sûpâkabu, aka Super Cub (2008)

This is a guilty pleasure, especially if you're a scooter rider like me. I know, it's cheesy camp, along the same lines as Torque (2004) and you can tell what's going to occur long before it happens, but it's kind of fun and not a total waste of your time. Of course this has to do with the Honda Super Cub that is an under-powered 90cc motorcycle that is a favorite mode of transportation all over the world.

(Possible spoiler warning)

'Hammer' Takeshi (Keita Saito) is a young illegal street motorcycle racer who gets into trouble with the police, and gets his fancy Kawasaki ZX-R 400 confiscate. Now he's grounded and is forced to pay off his bike by working in a soba noodle restaurant. While inside of a restaurant warehouse he finds a discarded Super Cub. Takeshi is told that he can ride the bike as long as it's only for delivering his noodles for his work. Takeshi repairs and soups-up (no pun intended) to be a blazing fast motorcycle. Naturally, he does all of his speeding around town carrying noodles to customers.

In the meantime, his racing opponent, Shinji must pay off his debt for an accident by stealing motorcycles for one of his accident victims, Kana. Takeshi is interrogated by the police who are looking for the theft ring. Takeshi challenges Shinji to a race to get him to break away from his path of illegal activities.