Search - Tokyo Zombie (Widescreen) on DVD

Jefferson N. from BLAIRSVILLE, GA
Reviewed on 12/10/2012...

Tokyo Zombie is a zom-com from Japan about a mountain of garbage that has been used as a graveyard and as a toxic dumping ground in Tokyo that has now become a breeding ground for flesh-eating zombies! Two moronic friends that would rather be practicing wrestling than working, are dumping the body of their boss that they accidently killed. They then run into an army of zombies that are crawling from the wreckage and descending on Tokyo. Thus begins the zombie apocalypse. The movie then jumps to five years later where the survivors are trying to escape the wreckage of the city and go to Russia (!) for safety.

This is Japan's answer to Shaun of the Dead. I'm sure I will offend a large chunk of horror comedy fans by saying this, but I wasn't really a fan of that film and this one hasn't made a believer of me, either. To me, horror comedy is a hard genre to do because you have to have a good mix of both. Good examples to me are Evil Dead 2 and Dead and Breakfast. Shaun of the Dead to me would have been a better movie if they had shot for more comedy or stuck to pure horror. The movie flip-flopped in tone a lot and that just kept me from getting really into it. But I'm not reviewing that film...I'm reviewing Tokyo Zombie. So, back on track...While Shaun may have just not hit my funny bone...which is possible since it's pretty widely loved by most horror fans (check it out if you haven't seen it and you like zombie comedy...you may very well love it)...Tokyo Zombie may be a bit off-putting to American fans. You have to realize that the Japanese film industry is pretty liberal about making fun of rape and mentally-handicapped people. And this one really plays subplots of child molestation and older guys trying to rape teenage girls. Before you flip out, it's not really graphic, you just have to remember that the sense of humor there is a bit more liberal than here. Think Troma and you're just about there. The other weakness is that a lot of times, a certain aspect of the humor may be lost because of cultural differences that just don't translate well in subtitles. Imagine someone from another country trying to get Dude, Where's My Car? Yeah, that one's hard to take even if you're FROM this country, but I think you get the picture.

If you like zombie movies and Asian pictures, you might get a kick out of this. Give it a shot. It's one of the few zombie films from Asia that deals almost entirely with Romero-zombies other than mystical, sneaky shadow undead, so it's notable for that at any rate. If you don't like Asian, subtitled flicks and you're expecting a Romero movie, you might not want to bother. Yes, there are flesh-eating zombies, but the humor is what is the main thing here, not tons of gore.

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