Oneechanbara: The Movie (2008)

Director:

Yôhei Fukuda

Writers:

Yôhei Fukuda (screenplay), Yasutoshi Murakawa (screenplay)

Stars:

Eri Otoguro, Tomohiro Waki, Tarô Suwa

Cast

Credited cast:
Eri Otoguro	...	Aya
Tomohiro Waki	...	Katsuji
Tarô Suwa	...	Dr. Sugita
Manami Hashimoto	...	Reiko
Chise Nakamura	...	Saki
Ai Hazuki	...	Maria
Satoshi Hakuzen
Hiroaki Kawatsure
Sari Kurauchi	...	Asami
Tomoya Nagai
Tetsu Watanabe
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Masahiro Okamoto

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

girl in bra and panties | woods | cowboy hat | schoolgirl | eyes wide open | 

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Genres:

Action | Horror

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [jp]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

20 June 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Onechanbara - Zombie Bikini Squad

Company Credits

Production Co:

Geneon Entertainment, Gold Roger, JollyRoger

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

Reiko fires her double-barreled two-shot shotgun repeatedly (several dozen times in a rapid succession) without reloading. There's also no recoil. This is due to Reiko in the Onechanbara game series having a shotgun which does not have to be reloaded.

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Connections

Followed by Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers (2009)

User Reviews

Cute girl, swords and zombies - what else do you want?

Pacing, is the answer. This movie is terribly paced.

This movie is essentially two movies in one. Zombie flick and family drama. It could probably work, but in this movie it doesn't. The setup is terribly corny and if it strikes you as odd, and strangely familiar, that a little group of people can take down a guy that supposedly has filled the world with zombies, you're not alone.

That's not really giving away too much. There are a few predictable twists and turns you can see for yourself, but here's my list of what would have made this movie a little better:

1. Focus on either the family drama OR the zombie killing. Director/writer too inexperienced to handle both properly and the result is a messy concoction.

2. The main character wears a skimpy outfit. And to be fair, it's the main attraction of the movie. So, why isn't she showing it off more? I remarked to my friend that the movie would have been lots better if it was just her doing pole dancing for 30 minutes. Maybe with zombies :)

3. The final showdowns are too long and simply too boring. LOTS of action, to be sure, but you're bored watching them. Tighter editing and pacing would have helped some, but you really don't care about any of the characters due to poor development and pacing throughout the movie.

4. The characters in the movie are two dimensional, extremely so. Precious film time is wasted on many occasions and unfortunately that leaves less time to flesh out the leads. That includes the long winded flashback sequence that runs throughout the movie at intervals.

There's more, but you'll see all that for yourself if you watch it.

It's shot on video. While that in itself is not a problem, when everything else is amateurish, it makes you feel like you're watching something hacked together in a high school film lab. There's a lack of contrast throughout the movie that makes it drab and bland to look at.

There are two high points of the movie. The first is the fight scenes. When they're good, they resemble something out of a violent video game. The fast action actually makes the rest of the movie pale in comparison. If only the whole movie could keep that high speed and action. The second high point is, again, her skimpy outfit. It fits a crazy universe, but it also underlines that the rest of the movie is underdeveloped.

The movie deserves a 4 for being mildly entertaining, but add an extra star for the two high points.