From Shock 'Till You Drop: While everyone is debating whether Slumdog Millionaire deserves the Best Picture nod, or if the Academy would dare deny Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar, here in manga movie land, we've gotten word that the live-action trash cinema version of Tokyo Zombie will be released on DVD in April 2009. While it's pretty safe to say that this flick won't be vying for Best Foreign Film any time soon, fans of Yusaku Hanakuma's over-the-top, whacked-out rampage of the undead are probably pretty pumped about this coming attraction.
Originally released in Japan in 2005, the live-action version of Tokyo Zombie was written and directed by Sakichi Sato, the scribe behind Takashi Miike's cult-film classic, Ichi the Killer. Tadanobu Asano (an actor that iMDB describes as "a cross between Johnny Depp and Toshiro Mifune") stars as Fujio, the jujitsu-loving slacker with a 'fro, and Sho Aikawa co-stars as Mitsuo, his balding buddy.
For those unaware of Tokyo Zombie's plot, it focuses on two working class stiffs who kill and bury their annoying supervisor in the Dark Fuji dump. This act sets off an invasion of the undead that turns Tokyo into a zombie-ridden wasteland. There's lots of wrestling, lots of violence and just for good measure, pig-surfing too.
The Anchor Bay Entertainment and Manga Entertainment's DVD edition of Tokyo Zombie will also include a bunch of extras, including Making of the Dead, a documentary about the making of the flick, interviews with the actors, a Q & A session with cast and crew, video of the actors' in-store appearances to promote the film in Japan, and the original trailers too. Look for this DVD release on April 7, 2009, or if you're curious, check out the Japanese trailer on YouTube.
Tokyo Zombie was also one of the winners in the 2008 Readers' Poll, taking home the win in the Best One-Shot Manga category. For more about this heta-uma one-shot, check out my review of Tokyo Zombie, or visit Last Gasp's Tokyo Zombie page.
Image credit: © Yusaku Hanakuma
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