Review: TOKYO*ZOMBIE.

You might remember, I ran this video on Empirical before, but here's a heads up: The movie is on DVD as of Tuesday (2 days ago).



Tokyo*Zombie stars Tadanobu Asano, Sho Aikawa. Direction by Sakichi Sato.
Two blue collar guys in Tokyo are into studying ju-jitsu. Zombies from the local dump/mountain--Dark Fuji--invade the city. The rich build zombie-proof shelter and the poor are enslaved. Zombie vs. Slave arena death matches become the hottest form of entertainment.
I've already screened it and can report it is very well cast and is pretty faithful to Yusaku Hanakuma's comicbook of the same name (TOKYO*ZONBI) even retaining the zombie blowjob scene (yeah, you heard me). And Hanakuma, a martial arts enthusiast, even has a part in the film as [zombified] Sanda Gori.

The book is in a really sketchy, loose style. It's a fun, quick read and definitely very strange (maybe more so if you aren't Japanese and/or don't really GET the Japanese sense of humor); for the most part, the film is funny in the same way. The production budget is obviously very low. The film keeps the small details that might have been overlooked--obsessions with Calpico, chips, tonkatsu, pornography. Having Hanakuma on board for the film probably did a lot of good in fleshing out the afro/Fujio character (stronger hints of homosexuality, adding a family life, and getting a better sense of his fight to survive against zombie threat, dealing with his poverty and the drive to be a better fighter/man). I'm sure Asano had a great deal to do with his character development also.

Here's the unfortunate part--the movie is way too long. It seemed shorter to read than to watch! The entire second half builds way too much on top of the embellishments made to the book's story. None of it very deep or important obviously, because ultimately this is still supposed to be a wacky zombie movie. The last half hour is downright tedious. Still, I will recommend this one to zombie fans if only for a Japanese take on zombie lore.