Battlefield Baseball (2003)

Battlefield Baseball is a tough game--it doesn't end until all the members on the opposing team are dead. In this game the Gedo High team is composed of blue-faced zombies, and their ... See full summary »

Director:

Yudai Yamaguchi

Writers:

Isao Kiriyama (screenplay), Gatarô Man (comic)

Stars:

Tak Sakaguchi, Atsushi Itô, Hideo Sakaki

Cast

Credited cast:
Tak Sakaguchi	...	Yakyû Jubei
Atsushi Itô	...	Megane
Hideo Sakaki	...	Hôichi
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shôichirô Masumoto	...	Umpire
Akiko Mishiro
Alex Revan	...	Blaster
Kanae Uotani	...	Young mother

Storyline

Battlefield Baseball is a tough game--it doesn't end until all the members on the opposing team are dead. In this game the Gedo High team is composed of blue-faced zombies, and their opponents on the Seido High team know they don't have a chance at beating them unless they can bring back a star pitcher who has a lethal pitch called the Super Tornado, but who has hung up his cleats and has no desire to return to the game.

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Plot Keywords:

pitcher | beating | baseball | murder | two word title | 

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Horror | Sport

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

10 September 2004 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Battlefield Baseball

Company Credits

Production Co:

Media Suits, The Klockworx, napalm FiLMS

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Fast & Furious/Adventureland/Sugar (2009)

User Reviews

Interesting, but low budget ultimately hurts it too much

From the star and assistant director of personal favourite VERSUS comes what may best be described as SHAOLIN SOCCER as seen through the eyes of the Takashi Miike that made HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS. i.e. one of the strangest, campest and most ridiculous films the world has ever seen.

Tak Sakaguchi plays "Jubei Baseball", a student with extraodinary baseball talent that has sworn off the sport because of... something that happened earlier. He moves to a new school where the principal has but one dream, baseball victory... which he believes he is about to achieve until he discovers his opponents are a team of zombies renowned for not leaving their opponents alive at the end of a game. Can Jubei be persuaded to join the team and help them achieve victory?

Battlefield Baseball is based on a manga, and it shows - the styling of the film is extremely comic-book like, coupled with bizarre soap opera styled melodrama. Unfortunately, the film suffers from an extremely low budget that robs it of most of the coolness that it could have had - and it shows that Ryuhei Kitamura was the real talent behind making VERSUS go so far beyond its budget, not his AD. The acting in the film is outright appalling, but this was probably at least partially deliberate - the extreme overacting and mugging is almost appropriate to the absurdity of the whole film, but isn't carried off with the kind of class or style that could have made it work better.

BB is undoubtedly a fun film, with some of the most unusual lines and events you will see - but it's ultimately too trashy even to get the "cult classic" label (and mainstream classic was never on the cards) - but it is an interesting curio, and Yudai Yamaguchi is definitely tagged for further observation.

6/10