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.

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).

Junk: Shiryo-Gari starts in an American Army laboratory where evil scientist Doctor Kinderman fills a syringe up with a bright green fluid known as DNX which he injects into a corpse of a young Japanese woman named Kyoko (Miwa Yanagizawa) who then comes back to life & bites a large chunk out of Kinderman's neck. Three men, Akira (Shu Ehara), Jun (Nobuyuki Asano) & Kabu enter a jewellery store & rob it but Akira is stabbed in the foot. They flee the store & to their getaway van driven by a woman named Saki (Kaori Shimamura) who speeds off, Jun contacts his Yakuza contact Ramon (Tate Gouta) who arrange to meet in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile Doctor Takashi Nikada has been summoned to U.S. Army base to see Colonel McGriff who asks him to help cover up Doctor Kinderman's experiments which he help start & the Military have been carrying on. Back at the factory Jun, Akira, Kabu, Saki, Ramon & his bodyguards quickly discover that they are not as alone as they first thought when they are attacked by rotting flesh-eating zombies. They are forced to fight the zombies as they try to escape with their lives & the 100,000,000 Yen worth of stolen jewellery...This Japanese horror film was co-written & directed by Atsushi Muroga & I was somewhat disappointed by it. The script by Muroga, J.B. Baker, Yoko Kuzuki & Emiko Terao doesn't make the most of it's promising sounding premise that tries to mix horror & action. It's quite slow to get going & the zombies are some of the worst in film history. They look poor with unconvincing make-up & they move so slowly there is simply no threat there whatsoever, I won't even call it walking because they they more shuffle & I was frustrated that the clichéd 'just have your actor stand there & scream until the zombies catch up' trick is constantly used, why don't they just RUN away? I was screaming at the screen for these idiots to just outrun these pathetic zombies. The characters are threadbare & unlikable the babe of a zombie in leather apart, the plot is full of holes that you could drive a double-decker bus through & any decent ideas Junk: Shiryo-Gari does have it rips off from better zombie films like the American Military involvement from The Return of the Living Dead (1985), the ultra slow zombies from Zombi 2 (1979) & an almost identical scene when a woman is holding a door shut with a piece of furniture & a zombies fingers poke round the door & Night of the Living Dead (1968) style intestine eating & only a bullet to the head will kill them & the bright green re-animation serum stolen from Re-Animator (1985). Junk: Shiryo-Gari feels like an American film using Japanese locations & actors & there is nothing original here. Technically the film is very basic with flat extremely grainy cinematography, mixed special effects, bland production design being set almost completely in an old factory & lacklustre unexciting direction. Director Muroga fails to film any of the films set pieces with flare, pace or originality. The gore was disappointing, a splinter of wood (Zombi 2 rip off again?) is forced through someones throat, there are a couple of intestine eating scenes, a few gory gunshot wounds, a decapitated head & ripped off hand & someone cut in half. The make up effects aren't particularly impressive & the zombies look really poor except that is Kyoko who for some reason looks perfectly human, can talk & can change the colour of her hair in the blink of an eye! She also has a nice sexy line in leather outfits & thigh high boots & is probably worth a couple of stars on her own & is quite possibly the sexiest zombie in horror film history. The acting isn't great as far as I can tell but it's all in Japanese so who can tell? There's a bit of a buzz about Asian horror at the moment with Ringu (1998), Ju-On: The Grudge (2003) & Dark Water (2002) all getting big budget Hollywood remakes but that doesn't automatically mean all Asian horror is good & Junk: Shiryo-Gari isn't, good that is. Do yourself a favour & avoid this, there are much better horror films, much better zombie films & much better Asian films worthy of your attention. The best thing I can say about it is that it provides a reasonable amount of entertainment once it gets going but ultimately it didn't impress me that much.

Zombie-tastic! This has blood, guts, guns, women, gangsters and zombies! What more do you want. Maybe an English dubbed version? The story is simple, jewel thieves arrange to meet a suited bunch of gangsters for their pay. Things go haywire when the meeting place turns out to be a shut down military base used to bring the dead back to life. The movie then goes into over drive when the gangsters turn up only to be greeted by flesh hungry Zombies!The fight for survival has begun as the thieves try to get out of the military base alive before the Zombies eat them!* Spoiler *What makes this movie better than most is it seems to have taken the best bits from other zombie/action movies and put them together well. There are too many to list but it does not detract from the flick at all. Also the movie turns from over drive to hyper drive when we find out not all zombie are the same, one is a fast moving intelligent kick ass female zombie!* Spoiler End *The bad: The movies sexist undertones are a bit over the top, there are a few needless battles of the sexes with the woman get away driver. The good: The movie is fast paced unlike some older zombie films. Camera work and effects are good. The two leads are great, the script is witty in places, the action scenes and scenarios are entertaining. And there's also a nice little twist.If you're expecting Oscar material stay away! If you're a zombie/action fan watch this movie!Director Atsushi Muroga crazy? You decide...