Tôkyô zonbi (2005)

Director:

Sakichi Satô

Writers:

Yûsaku Hanakuma (manga "Tôkyô zonbi")
Sakichi Satô (screenplay)

Release Date:

10 December 2005 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Horror

Plot Keywords:

Neck Breaking | Jump Into Water | Corpse | Pig | Bastard

Cast

Tadanobu Asano	...	Fujio
Shô Aikawa	...	Mitsuo
Erika Okuda	...	Yoko
Arata Furuta	...	Ishihara
Hina Matsuoka	...	Fumiyo
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Satoshi Hashimoto	...	Dongaira
Kazuya Kakuta	...	Zombie
Takuya Kakuta	...	Zombie
Masaki Miura	...	Maasan's Army
Yoshiyuki Morishita	...	Zombie
Yasuhi Nakamura	...	Yocchan
Harumi Sone	...	Maasan
Maria Takagi	...	Yocchan's sister
Mitsuki Tanimura	...	Yukarin
Kazuo Umezu	...	Akiyama / Prince

Also Known As:

Tokyo Zombie (International: English title)

Runtime:

Japan:103 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16

Company:

Tôkyô Zonbi Seisaku Iinkai

Good Japanese Zombie Film, Not Quite Great

Two Japanese friends accidentally kill their boss and dump his remains in Black Fuji, a mountain/landfill hybrid. This leads to poor results when the chemicals of the landfill mix with the corpse (and many other corpses) to give rise to a zombie infestation in Tokyo.

This is a pretty bizarre film. Two men fight zombies with jujitsu. Not swords, not guns, but face-smashing jujitsu. One of them has a 'fro haircut while the other is bald. It's just an odd pairing. The film has been called the Japanese "Shaun of the Dead". I see it. I think it's a stretch, but I see it. Comparisons to other recent Japanese films, such as "Machine Girl", seem more appropriate -- there's a similar style of dark humor and violence coupled with cheesy CGI.

There's also an attempt to connect this to "Ichi the Killer". Don't be fooled by that. "Ichi", along with essentially all the work of Miike, is better than this film. "Q", "Audition", and others just put "Tokyo Zombie" to shame. Perhaps it has the same writer, but the fact this film was based off a manga is evident and infuses a humor that doesn't play as well in live action.

This film's biggest flaw is a lack of zombies. Sure, we have plenty of zombies, but there still seems to be a shortage -- there are periods of up to ten minutes without zombie action. These scenes are often filled with sentimental blather. Maybe in the original language this comes off better, but I had little interest in hearing people talk sentimentally to each other.

Typically I watch films while drinking, but due to a cold I was not drinking during this one. That is unfortunate. While this movie was above average, it would have been even better with alcohol. The humor is lame at some points, and is either a cultural thing or just plain dumb. I'm uncertain. But all I know is that parts that were clearly meant to be funny fell flat for me.

If you like "Machine Girl", I'd say give this one a chance. Perhaps even if you liked "Shaun of the Dead", though the connection is slight. A double feature with this film and a stronger Japanese film, such as "Battle Royale", would make for a good evening. Show this one first, of course. It's decent but by no means a headliner.