Junk: Viewer Comments

I don't know if it's just me or if it's the constant bombardment of the Asian movies that I watch but I have to admit to the world that I'm a 100% sucker for horror movies where Japanese women are covered in blood and scream in terror. There's nothing sexier to me than a gorgeous tan-skinned, black-haired, dark-eyed Japanese girl caught in the grip of terror or in the midst of a life-or-death situation. And with that being said, this is why I'd rank this Japanese zombie gore, splat-a-minute fiasco a lot higher than it really should be. It's a cheezy, bad-acted (especially with the Americans), easy to read plot, direct to video type of "cheap thrill" flick that does little for the "zombie" genre but to add to the encyclopedia of undead munchings and entrail scarfings. It smacks of LUCIO FULCI's Italian gore-fest masterpiece, ZOMBI and owes a lot to the camp classic, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. But what's nice about all this, is that it SHOWS so we're not bogged down with it trying to be something that it's not. We're NOT going to compare this to GEORGE ROMERO's epic "life beyond death" series of films, that's for damn sure. Director MUROGA ATSUSHI knew what he liked and gave us a film that longtime zombie fans (like myself) would grow to expect and wouldn't be disappointed to see. It's predictable, yes, but it's great fun none-the-less. Saki (actress KAORI SHIMAMURA) and Akira (actor OSAM EBARA) are two of four jewelry thieves who's recent heist brings them into dealings with the Yakuza kingpin, Ramon (actor TATE GOUTA). Their staged meeting place just happens to be an undercover military warehouse where scientific experiments to bring the recently deceased back to life are taking place. And you guessed it, the experiments go wrong and the living dead are unleashed onto the gangsters, the robbers, and the military as well. Using a neon green liquid (ala STUART GORDON and H.P. LOVECRAFT's RE-ANIMATOR) called DNX to bring the dead back to life, Doctor Jun (actor ASANO NOBUYUKI) admits his involvement in the program to hopefully bring his wife, Kyoko (played by the constant nude actress MIWA) back from the beyond. From here, it's a hour of running from the undead, catching a glimpse of a few moist zombie picnics, getting in a lucky head shot or two, and A LOT of screaming! What else could you possibly want from a zombie flick, huh? But in it's defense to set itself apart from the others, there are two scenes that really stand out in my opinion where it really shines. First, when Saki finds her buddy getting the chowdown from a pack of zombies, she hollers out "They must be zombies! Let's get outta here!" and that's something you'd think people in those kinds of situations would realize. How many movies have we seen where they sit there and pretend that this can't be happening and that there has to be another reason for all this madness?! The second, and most distinguishing scene is where Doctor Jun meets his wife, Kyoko for the first time after she's been turned, and well, it's just great filmmaking there. Nice acting, nice setting, nice music, just a perfect movie moment, even when she goes "super freak" and fucks him up something proper! All in all, a pretty damn good movie experience. I'm certainly glad I got the chance to see it and I would NEVER do without it being in my collection.