Release Date: December 29, 2012 Length: 72 minutes Director: Kenji Murakami
Main Cast:
Maimi Yajima as Aiko
Saki Nakajima as Kanabun
Tomu Miyazaka as Hashimoto
Miyuki Torii as Yasude
.... and a few others, hard to find a cast listing but the film mainly just featured those four.
Didn't entirely remind me of it but there were sure many similarities between this and "Stacy" which came out in 2001. If you haven't seen that one then you're really missing one fun packed, gory zombie movie and I highly recommend it. "Zomvideo" is also a fun packed film and one that's perhaps even gorier which is surprising considering who the main leads are in the film. The whole movie takes place in about a 3-4 hour stretch so it shouldn't to review, have my fingers crossed that it won't.
Maimi plays the lead character in the film who is named Aiko, she works at a small video video editing company, One afternoon she's asked to find a certain video but the company's videos are all piled high in a closet and all are unmarked. Aiko starts viewing all of them and in her watches comes across a very strange video that seems to have been made in the 1970's. Aiko is quite confused about what kind of video it it's supposed to be, her workmate Hashimoto though really starts to get into it as he's a huge zombie freak which is what the video is about.
At first it appears to be an old zombie movie though it's confusing to Hashimoto how a zombie expert like him wouldn't know of this movie. However the video doesn't turn out to be an old movie but one that was created by the Japanese Zombie Commission to help it's citizens ward off zombie attacks. Back in the 70's Japan had been overrun by zombies but had managed to thwart their attacks and somehow what had happened never made it into the history books.
Good thing the pair was watching a 'How to stop a Zombie' video as while they were viewing it a zombie appeared in their office. As we all know when a human is killed by a zombie they also will turn into one, this zombie in the office was a regular customer who had just turned into one. The zombie proceeded to kill the company's boss and now turned it's sights on Aiko and Hashimoto. Aiko is one tough broad and one I wouldn't want to mess with, soon the zombies will have those same thoughts. The 'how to stop a zombie' video keeps playing and Aiko gets some tips form it during her battle with the zombie. There are various ways to kill them, Aiko manages to chop the head off the body, now another zombie has arisen who happens to be Aiko's ex-boss.
She also eliminates him fairly quickly with help once again from the video, now Aiko and Hashimoto are about to attempt to flee the building. Not a good idea as zombies are now overrunning Japan and the country is now in a state of martial law. So there's no escaping outside for the pair and to make things even worse zombies by the dozens have broken into the office building. Aiko's uncle had an office in the building, along with Hashimoto she goes to his office which now makes it a threesome against the endless onslaught on zombies.
Controlling the zombies is a pair of sisters led by Yasude and her younger sister Kanabun(Saki). We learn a bit about the sister's past and it's one hard to believe. Seems Yasude has been a semi-zombie since the 70's and had been hidden underground for close to 40 years, she looks to be in her young 20's so perhaps zombies don't age(?). Kanabun is even younger as she appears to be about 18 but she also says she was underground for 40 years but that's what her sister told her, is it true?
The heroine Aiko.
When Aiko and Hashimoto fled to her uncle's office they were wise enough to bring the video along as it's been helping them ward off the zombies. Actually it's mainly been Aiko defeating them, Hashimoto though a zombie expert is also a world class chicken and hides away every time there's an attack. Movie continues along these lines for a while with Aiko repelling the zombies but why are they so focused on killing her uncle, Hashimoto and herself.
The key to them constantly getting attacked is the video, with it they can thwart the attacks so Yasude has ordered the zombies to obtain it at all costs. Once Yasude has the video there will be no stopping her so actually not letting the zombies get the video could save the world. The zombies could never defeat Aiko and her comrades so the conclusion of the film comes to a showdown between Aiko, Hashimoto and the two sisters.
During the showdown it comes out that Kanabun probably isn't Yasude's sister, as a matter of fact Kanabun isn't even a zombie! Neither is Yasude but she got bitten by a zombie back in the 70's, for some strange reason as long as she eats Beef Jerky she won't turn into a full fledged zombie. It now turns into a battle between Aiko and Yasude as Hashimoto has been bitten and turned into a zombie, Kanabun is unsure what side she should fight for.
Meanwhile Aiko's uncle is still in his office, there's a second video in the 'how to stop a zombie' collection which he's been watching. The video shows how to turn a zombie back into a human, now all Aiko has to do is defeat Yasude and let Hashimoto watch the video which should cure him. Their final battle never really takes place as Hashimoto goes back to the office to kill the uncle, Aiko flees there to save him. She was too late for that but Hashimoto is watching the second video, is it going to turn him back into a human?
The sisters, Yasude and Kanabun.
There was no need now for Aiko to go against Yasude as Kanabun has taken care of that for her. Kanabun was a much smaller female but she managed to defeat her 'sister' and removed her brain, yes the film truly is that gory and bloody. Back tot he office then and the video actually does more bad than good as after watching it Hashimoto does stop being a zombie but watching the video has turned him into a mutant! Aiko manages to reach the TV set and smash it thus ending the video's playing, however that happened as she unfortunately had to kill Hashimoto.
Not quite the end of the film as though the office was cleared of the zombies they're still everywhere in Japan, Aiko's mission in life now is to rid the country of them. She's such a tough gal don't think she'll have a problem but then again there have to be millions of them. Aiko will be fighting them solo as Kanabun is staying behind and will take care if her 'sister', by now she realizes Yasude isn't her true sister but she still has feeling for her and will now take care of the brainless half human-half zombie. That's the conclusion as Aiko jumps on her motorcycle and is prepared to save the world.
Realize my film likes are kind of quirky but to me these B-Horror movies could be my favorite genre, have mentioned that a few times lately. If you're into blood, gore, action and everything else that's associated with a zombie movie that would definitely recommend this one, kind of a spoof but it's also serious in kind of a lighthearted way if that makes sense. My rating for this would be an 8.5/10, enjoyed it so much will be watching it again. Though a relatively unknown movie it's not too hard to find, quality and the subs for it were fine.
Maimi as mentioned was one tough cookie in this film but wow(!) did she look so alluring covered in blood! Saki's role wasn't that big in the first half but luckily for us it was in the second half, now we know how they came up with the group's name of C-ute. Have a few more screenshots here but the next post has about 40+ more of them. Also after these pics have the film's trailer and as a bonus also have the trailer for the "Stacy" movie, there's enough reviews out there for it and all are positive so if you haven't seen it and if you're a zombie fan then it's truly deserving of a watch.
Hi :)
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