(2000)

review by:

1-23-04

Written by: Directed by: Atsushi Muroga Starring: Osamu Ebara, Kaori Shimamura, Miwa Yanagizawa

A gang of robbers arranges to meet a yakuza boss at an abandoned military facility. What they don't know is that the place is infested with zombies... Well...a horror movie that's both about zombies and Japanese! How could this not be the best movie ever? Easily. Junk, as I learned a few minutes into the film, is not one of the great shit-yourself horror films, but it's not bad for a fun little zombie flick. When the powder-white Japanese corpse is standing over a body with a meat chunk in her mouth, you know exactly what quality movie this is going to be. Actually, you're shown that a few seconds before, when the corpse is injected with a glowing green liquid apparently stolen off the set of the ever-great Re-Animator. This film won't be extremely original, but it could be entertaining. And that's pretty much what it is. Junk's yet another movie about people on a military base surviving a zombie outbreak, with the standard low budget. This film does offer one new thing, though. Throughout the movie the ever-coveted stolen jewelry, pretty much the reason all this happens in the first place, keeps changing hands between thieves and yakuza. It's a clever angle which is used pretty well, and it provides an actual reason for the characters to remain on the base. But it's not like the characters would run, anyway. God, some of the people in this film are dumb. Certain deaths are welcomed with a cheer, and certain characters' refusal to die tear-inducing. The character of Akira, however, is just plain cool. He's a great, funny character, and most important, smart. But intelligence rarely matters in these films, right? As for the visuals, Junk does pretty well in the gore department for a low-budget movie. The zombie makeup looks pretty good, but the mastery shows in the very convincing blood and guts, of which there's plenty. And yes, there are the obligatory sitting-around-eatin'-intestines scenes. It couldn't be Romero-esque without them. But that's really all Junk ever achieves, being Romero-esque. In this movie, most of the characters and scenarios are just...dumb. I'm sorry, but the military does not send just two guys, only one of which is actually a soldier, to blow up a base they know is infested with zombies. It's like telling a fourth grader to reprogram Optimus Prime while he's covered with Gremlins; it takes lots of people with ample preparation, and a thirst for blood. And then there's the whole issue of the computer-hacking super zombie. But...whatever. Junk is one of those movies you let wash over you, not one to be analyzed. In the end, Junk isn't all that bad. It doesn't particularly feel Japanese, seeming like another average American zombie flick, but if that's what it's going for it has succeeded. Give it a look if you like Lucio Fulci's Zombi films, but DO NOT eat pizza as you watch...

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