Uriah43
This movie begins with the United States Army conducting an experiment consisting of bringing a beautiful Japanese woman named "Kyoko" (Miwa) back to life. What the scientists don't count upon is the fact that they have created a zombie who cannot be controlled. Not long afterward some jewel thieves agree to meet some members of the Yakuza to sell their goods at the same abandoned warehouse where this experiment was conducted. The negotiations break down and both factions end up battling each other for the jewels which results in a chemical spill that creates even more zombies. Complete chaos soon follows. Anyway, while this is clearly a low-budget film I thought the director (Atsushi Muroga) did a fairly competent job up until about the last 20 minutes or so. Things got a bit silly after that. In any case, the premise was pretty good and I liked the presence of both Kaori Shimamura (as "Saki") along with the aforementioned Miwa. But because of the breakdown at the end I have to rate it as slightly below average.
Vomitron_G
Not the best zombie movie ever, but certainly not the worst either. Fun splatter effects, but boy, weren't those the slowest moving zombies you've seen ever! My grandpa even moves faster than that, and he's dead for over 15 years... But that evil Japanese zombie-chick was so cool! Naturally, this film shouldn't be taken too seriously, as the filmmakers never intended it that way either.You'll be able to spot several winks/homages to other films. The zombies are styled after the blue-ish ones from Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD. We get to see the syringe filled with green fluid from RE-ANIMATOR. And since we're dealing with thieves and yakuza here, all running around in an abandoned factory, you might as well add Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS to the list.JUNK (2000) would make up for a fine and fun Japanese zombie double feature night together with STACY (2001).
cantthinkofname
Mooshing together the "Reservoir Dogs" plot with a dose of "Re-Animator" and "Dawn of the Dead", this concerns a bunch of diamond thieves who meet up with mobsters at an abandoned military base, only to be ambushed by the living dead. Gleefully fast-paced, with zombies resembling the ones featured in "City of the Walking Dead"...i.e. the zombies look like they have mud all over their faces. Good gory fun, without the hassle of a plot. Too bad there ain't more of this kind of stuff these days. Most of the zombie stuff of late (House of the Dead, Resident Evil) treat zombies as just another shoot-'em-up element. Here they are the thrust of the story...what story there is.
PlutonicLove
Throughout the late 18th century a grand Japanese-fever swept the regrettably not vaccinated western nations like a swarm of African killer bees from Irvin Allen's archetypal classic of the same name, leading, among other things, to myriad French impressionist art works and Gilbert and Sullivan's `The Mikado', which is for all intents and purposes about as Japanese as Shepard's pie - and for that we shall be forever be indebted to Mr. Gilbert's and Mr. Sullivan. Now, with many of the Japanese's recent imports, the unabashed scrounging of the other culture's art technique has come full circle. So enthralled are the pitiable, deluded fools by our lowest common denominator pop culture orts that they expend large amounts of their time and energy on plagarizing what is already watered down Tarantino, Romero, and Zimmer, by which I mean that this movie has in fact more in common with Paul Anderson's awful adaptation of the `Resident Evil' games, in themselves a tribute to Romero's classic `Living Dead' trilogy, Roger Avary's almost equally awful `Killing Zoe', needless to say a very second-rate imitation of `Reservoir Dogs', and the musical excretion of Klaus `The Uncomposer' Badelt, who has become rich and famous by simply imitating his only slightly superior and in general grossly overrated mentor Hans Zimmer.The fundamentals that make up this movie's meager `plot' are recognizably familiar: The Avarian bank heist, the bickering gangsters, the Yakuza double-cross, the James Whalian ersatz-Frankenstein who crosses a line man was not meant to cross in order to reanimate his beloved dead wife, the Bay-esque macho military men with their Sam Elliot moustaches and Manuel Noriega-like skin, as well as the hilarity and wackiness that ensues when these forces clash. However, the imitation is not of a very high caliber, lacking the flaire and technical skill of a Tod Browning, a Romero or even, and this is particularly embarrassing, a Michael Bay or Roger Avary (I suggest the people responsible, especially the director, graciously commit harikari immediatly). Even without understanding a word of Japanese, the overacting and awkward, at times even idiotic, scripting is painfully obvious, as is the film's complete lack of original or memorable visuals. The pseudo-Badelt score is possibly the film's worst single aspect, full of hyperkinetic, depth-free, poorly synth-orchestrated, ultra-simplistic power-anthems of such a monumentally turbid, desiccated lifelessness that even if it fell off a junk, in this case not referring to the movie but to a Chinese flatbottom ship with a high poop and battened sails, it wouldn't be capable of rehydration.Still, one does have to give credit to any movie that has the guts to call itself `Junk'.
