Product Details

• Actors: Tadanobu Asano, Sho Aikawa
• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Japanese
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Anchor Bay
• DVD Release Date: April 7, 2009
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001DHXT16
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,489 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

TOKYO ZOMBIE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the wackiest zombie comedy adventures of all time, February 22, 2009

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tokyo Zombie (DVD)

A lot of fans seem quite excited over the long-awaited North American release of Tokyo Zombie on DVD, and I can't say I blame them. I've seen some seriously wacky Japanese films in my day (and you don't really know what wacky is until you've seen the Japanese variety), but this over-the-top zombie comedy thoroughly revels in its zaniness. I have to say that some parts of the film didn't really click with me, but Tokyo Zombie's originality and sheer chutzpah go a long way toward minimizing whatever complaints I might have - and I'm sure many a fan will enjoy Tokyo Zombie more than I did, especially those familiar with the original manga by Yusaku Hanakuma (illustrated in the "so bad it's good" heta-uma style). Heck, just thinking back on it makes me realize I like this film even more than I thought I did as I was watching it. It does have a little bit of everything - zombies, black comedy, social commentary, class warfare, gore, sex (including a zombie BJ, which really isn't the way you want to go out), etc. - and it features cult film stars Tadanobu Asano (Ichi the Killer (Unrated Edition)) and Sho Aikawa (Dead or Alive (Unrated Director's Cut)) as the best buddies at the center of the weirdest zombie apocalypse I've encountered in quite some time. I might also mention that the film is directed by Sakicho Sato, the man who wrote the script for Ichi the Killer.

Fujio (Tadanobu Asano) and Mitsuo (Sho Aikawa) - or, for the sake of convenience, Afro and Baldy - are two blue collar workers at a fire extinguisher plant who spend most of their time practicing jiujitsu (which involves far too much rolling around on the ground together, if you ask me). Their mean boss doesn't appreciate their dreams of becoming fighters, which leads to his accidental death. The two friends decide to bury him on Mount Fuji, a huge trash dump that has grown up in the middle of Tokyo (and a popular place for disposing of future mothers-in-law and other folks you want to get rid of). Unfortunately, the place is so full of dead bodies and dangerous contaminants that some sort of chemical reaction begins reanimating the dead in the form of shambling zombies. So the rest of the film must be your basic survivors trying to survive the zombie apocalypse, right? Au contraire, my friend.

The two friends are separated before they can follow through with their "real men go to Russia" plan, at which point the story leaps five years into the future. Tokyo is now a three-class society, as the rich and elite who managed to survive the zombie apocalypse have enslaved their fellow survivors and like to pit the strongest of them against zombie opponents for their own amusement. Fujio has become one of the human champions, even though his commitment to jiujitsu makes him a "boring" fighter that the crowds love to hate (although the fight promoter is overly fond of him). Don't let the film's abrupt transition mid-way through get you down, though, as the zany comedy continues in full force all the way through the film's sequel-begging conclusion. I hesitate to say any more than that about the plot.

I don't think there's much middle ground to be had here, as most viewers will either love or hate this film. Many Western viewers will undoubtedly watch this film expecting to see a typical zombie bloodbath, and some will be disappointed because that isn't what this movie is about. Yes, there's a limited amount of gore, but it's far from realistic. Those who can't adapt to what they are seeing and embrace the story as an exceedingly weird and far-reaching comedy may feel cheated. That being the case, I certainly wouldn't recommend this film to anyone unfamiliar with Asian cinema. The more familiar you are with Asian - especially Japanese - horror in all of its amazing and oftentimes brilliantly original guises, the easier it will be for you to recognize and embrace the dark, wacky genius of Tokyo Zombie.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Karate Zombies!, July 24, 2010

By 

John Lindsey "John" (Socorro, New Mexico USA.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tokyo Zombie (DVD)

In Tokyo on a large rubbish pile, there are some hazardous radioactive waste that have been bringing the dead back to turn including turning people into flesh-eating creatures. Karate artist Fujio (Tadanobu Asano) and mentor Misuo (Show Aikawa) are two slackers who studied Jujitsu that is until zombies invade their turf and must find a way out. Five years later after Misuo supposedly died, Fujio gets a wife and kid as he's living in a special colony in the city away from the zombies out there as he's a fighting champion who fights zombies for people's entertainment.

Enjoyable and sometimes funny Japanese horror-comedy from the writers and stars of the cult classics "Gozu" and "Ichi The Killer". It's not too gory even though there are good gore effects in this movie and the performances by the cast is OK but the movie is like a cartoon brought to life. It's been called Japan's answer to "Shaun of the Dead" but i can't agree on that where "Shaun" was funnier but this had a few laughs, it's still worth watching.

This DVD offers the film in it's Japanese language with English subtitles with English dubbed versions with cool extras like featurettes, trailers and teasers, and interviews.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Silly fun., March 16, 2010

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tokyo Zombie (DVD)

Tokyo Zombie (Sakichi Sato, 2005)

Put Tadanobu Asano (Mongol) and Sho Aikawa (Ley Lines) in a movie based on a manga. Get Sakichi Sato, writer of some of Takashi Miike's most beloved movies (Ichi the Killer, Gozu) to direct. Throw in a very hot rising star, Erika Okuda (who has since scorched the screen in films like Topless), as the female lead. How can you go wrong? Well, you can, but if you take Tokyo Zombie for what it is, it's an amusing little ride.

Asano and Aikawa play Fujio and Mitsuo, a pair of slackers who work as garbagemen in a near-future Tokyo where the garbage problem has so gotten out of hand that the center of town is now a huge landfill known as Black Mt. Fuji. Black Mt. Fuji is a haven for those working outside the law, including the Yakuza (who use it as a body dump) and toxic waste dumpers, as well as job security for wastrels like Mitsuo, who'd rather spend all his time teaching Fujio jiu-jitsu, and Fujio, who'd rather spend all his time napping. Life goes on as usual until the toxic waste and the bodies get together, and everyone who's buried in Black Mt. Fuji starts rising from the dead. They infect others, and within a couple of months, zombies have taken over all of Tokyo save a few complexes where humans still live. The focus of the second half of the film is life in one of those complexes, where Fujio is now employed in the zombie pens, using the jiu-jitsu Mitsuo taught him to entertain the rich by fighting zombies in a makeshift arena.

When you read manga, which is episodic by nature, it's sometimes possible to see where the author got off track, and then decided to take the tangent and make it into an entire storyline. The film adaptation of Tokyo Zombie is the first time I've seen that tendency faithfully translated to the screen; the first and second halves of this movie could have been a Part 1 and Part 2, had each been long enough. In the manner of film-and-sequel, they're tangentially related by a few characters and the setting, but otherwise, they're different movies entirely. The disconnect between them is bridged by a long voiceover that gets kind of annoying after the first minute or so (it could have probably been replaced with a simple "fast-forward five years..."). The action itself is episodic as expected, but more, there's nothing really new here; the screenplay borrows heavily from a number of other zombie (or kinda-zombie) pictures of very recent vintage (this came out not long after 28 Days Later... and Land of the Dead, both of which are strongly referenced), and that does leave a sour taste in the mouth sometimes. Still, Asano and Aikawa are both actors who are capable of turning in strong performances no matter how bad the material they're working with, and they do so here. Okuda is gorgeous and shrewish, and Isao Ishii's cinematography has an appealing grubbiness to it, even before zombies take over the world. It's slapstick, and silly, but kind of appealing every now and then. ***