Tokyo Zombie

The box bills TOKYO ZOMBIE as the Japanese SHAUN OF THE DEAD, but sadly that turns out not to be the case. This is a very low budget, entirely offbeat Japanese comedy, that's more interested in the sport of jujitsu than actual zombies. In fact, the zombies themselves turn out to be a mere plot device, a background for the central storyline which is about the friendship between two demented buddies.

It starts off on a fairly good footing, reminding you of some of the classic Japanese zombie films like JUNK and VERSUS, which all seemed to be filled with loads of chaotic energy and incident. Sadly, as the storyline progresses at a very slow pace indeed, you realise that TOKYO ZOMBIE just doesn't know what kind of film it wants to be. The zombies are dull and the storyline is silly, going nowhere and offering little of the surreal humour I'd expected to see.

It all falls apart for me around the halfway mark, where there's a gap of five years, because the second half just isn't as interesting as the first. The whole idea of the satirical gameshow is just a flop from the beginning and the film concludes with a whimper rather than a bang. The characters are an acquired taste to say the least and the production values are low; I usually like offbeat Japanese fare but not this time. I didn't laugh once.

I picked this up cheap, the DVD case proclaiming it to be "The Japanese Shaun of the Dead". Very misleading. Yes, it's a comedy with zombies but that is as far as the similarities go. Based on a manga comic with the same name, apparently, the story is mainly about two workmates and their obsession with Jujitsu. Only there's a zombie apocalypse (yawn) so they're constantly having to deal with fighting off the living dead. Unless you are a fan of Japanese horror/comedy then this may not be your cup of tea. It is funny at times, tedious at others. Bizarre, or silly, is an apt description. There is plenty of violence but it's more comical than gory, tame enough for a 15 certificate (UK)

This movie is one of those rare gems you come across. It is an excellent example of great, odd films you can find from Japan. First of all, this movie is funny. Secondly, it has zombies, and Tadanobu Asano, probably one of Japans finest actors. Even though this is a zombie movie, it feels like a fresh take on an old idea. Anyone who is a fan of Tokyo shock, or weird Asian films will love it. Asano shines as a jujitsu training, zombie killing, laugh factory. Sho Aikawa plays his mentor, and provides plenty of comic relief. The female lead also lends a good deal of humorous dialog and action. Something for everyone. great movie!!!

"Tokyo Zombie" is exactly what you would expect from a zombie movie from Japan; being cheesy, Japanese people painted ashen-gray, and an overall exaggeration of everything.

The story in "Tokyo Zombie" was actually alright. We follow the two very odd, both in appearance and personality, friends Fujio (played by Tadanobu Asano) and Mitsuo (played by Shô Aikawa), working at a fire-extinguisher factory. The people of Tokyo are burying their trash and their dead at Black Fuji, a black mountain of garbage. Toxic waste starts to reanimate the dead buried there, and the zombies start shambling stiffly about, looking for human flesh to devour. And soon after, Tokyo is in a lot of trouble...

The acting in this movie was as you'd expect, adequate and silly. Lots of overacting here and the zombies were just hilarious. You need to approach this movie with no sense of an actual serious zombie movie. This is a zombie comedy spoof, and it have so many elements that seen to be making fun of a lot of Romero's movies. So think of a Japanese version of an extreme version of "Shaun of the Dead", then you will have a rough idea of what "Tokyo Zombie" is like.

"Tokyo Zombie" is extreme in so many ways, but it works out well enough, because it is extreme in a hilarious way. I believe that "Tokyo Zombie" is either a movie that you will love or hate, I don't see any in-between here. I found "Tokyo Zombie" to be a fun movie to watch, it was a nice spoof of a zombie movie, in the way that only the Japanese can manage to bolster up.

Zombie movies have been taking rather weird turns in development recently. We got romantic zombie movies ("Shaun Of The Dead"), we got super-fast zombie movies ("28 Days Later" and "Dawn Of The Dead"), we got super-hero comic book zombie movies ("Resident Evil: Apocalypse) and we got non-zombie, zombie movies (again "28 Days Later"). Well things just continue getting weirder and weirder, and now we got this, "Tokyo Zombie" a completely offbeat, comically silly representation of a zombie Holocaust in Tokyo. Even stranger, the choice of weapon against the undead scourge is neither, swords or guns. It's wrestling, Jujistsu to be more precise. I was interested enough with it's premise but when I heard it starred two of my favorite Japanese actors, Sho Aikawa and Tadanobu Asano, well I really had to watch it.

"Tokyo Zombie" as it's name suggests takes place in the Japanese capital. There, due to the unpleasant habits of the local population to throw away their garbage wherever they like to, has caused a large mountain of trash to appear. But people are not content with just that, oh no, they continue burying more and more stuff in that mountain. Ranging from refrigerators, old cars, even people there really is no limit. This is where our heroes enter the story, Fujio (Tadanobu Asano) and Mitsuo (Sho Aikawa), two obsessed with wrestling garage workers who end up accidentally killing their boss. Of course that mountain prompts the obvious solution to their disposition and they naturally decide to bury him there. What they don't know and later find out is that all the dumped trash has created a chemical reaction that causes the dead buried in the mountain to rise again, as flesh eating zombies.

Instead of trying to make a relatively serious story director Sakichi Sato takes a turn for the comedic. The plot is an obvious pastiche of classical zombie scenarios. Starting with the zombie epidemic to the post-apocalyptic society, Sato presents an over the top comical side to this all too familiar plot. The overview of how the post-epidemic survivors continue to exist is quite funny, Sato answers one of the biggest mysteries of zombie movie. How do people create electricity when the entire world is supposed to be overwhelmed by endless hordes of undead flesh eaters ? Well the answer is simple. Squeeze Electric a company that supplies all the pollutant-free electricity citizens would need. It works by using state of the art technology, requiring just a few hundred people whose's daily work includes squeezing an electric pod that in terms creates the all needed energy. Everything is completely ludicrous. Characters are no exception, with quirky outright funny dialog and a strangely obsessive singe-minded behavior, they breathe a fresh air of unseriousness to this already not very serious situation.

For a zombie movie "Tokyo Zombie" is pretty light hearted. Anyone expecting bucket-loads of gore and blood will be disappointed, there is really only one situation that could be described as disturbingly gory. A zombie starts chewing on a wrestler's guts, the whole thing lasts for less then a minute and honestly rather than disturbing it's quite funny when the victim starts making those silly facial expressions. Midway through the film there is a rather pleasant animated sequence that describes the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse. Other effects are generated using CGI and it's a hit or miss thing. Some look pretty well while other effects are plain cheesy, which is not a bad thing considering the fact that it's a comedy.

"Tokyo Zombi" is wacky, wild and in typical Japanese way quite weird. It's fun over-the-top plot makes it worthwhile to watch. Or if you just want to poke fun at the already way too familiar clichés surrounding the genre, this is as good as it goes.