Boring! You'd think any Japanese zombie film was worth picking up, but this one seems more concerned with Jujitsu than anything else. It also tries to do a switcheroo halfway through, but the whole thing feels like a bit of mess to me.Two guys working in a fire extinguisher factory spend most of their time wrestling. The older, balder guy thinks he's dying, and wants to teach his pal jujitsu. When they accidentally kill their boss, they decide to bury him on Black Fuji, a mountain made of trash. Then, zombies rise up etc etc.There's not much zombie action in this film, and the humour is very broad (and not funny). Take it from me – I'll watch any crap, but this one was an ordeal to sit through, especially when the film jumps ahead five years and totally grinds to a halt with some sort of post-zombie rising pit fighting and loads of arguing. Not for me, this on – and I loved Wild Zero – so just watch that one instead. Much better

In the last twenty years, the "zom-com" has had a burgeoning rise throughout the world. A major proponent in this rise as of late is SHAUN OF THE DEAD. Films take the zombie genre and twist it into all sorts of bizarre directions. Sakichi Satô's TOKYO ZOMBIE is no different. It's essentially a buddy comedy immersed in the apocalyptic environs of Tokyo where a zombie plague(..caused by the polluted industrial waste buried in a rubbish heap containing the buried dead, murdered by others using this area to escape crime conviction)rises from a mountain of trash nicknamed "Black Fuji". Two working class Japanese men, older bald Mitsuo(Sho Aikawa)and his "Jujitsu student", Fujio(Tadanobu Asano) must bury their disgruntled boss after accidentally killing him after a clunk over the noggin with a fire extinguisher. They bury him in Black Fuji, encounter the dead, and must find a way out of Tokyo with designs of tripping to Russia so Fujio can "become a man"(..because Russia is a "tough country"). Mitsuo reveals to his protégé that he's dying of stomach cancer and soon, after Fujio forgets to grab a toothbrush and cigarettes when taking food from an abandoned grocery store, they discover a young women, Yoko(Erika Okuda), who expresses firmly her resistance towards joining up with them. Yet, Mitsuo insists and loads her in their van against her will, getting bit in the process(..the bite is an amusing gag, revealed at the end of the film). Soon, the van is stolen by another bald guy, Mitsuo leaps off a bridge presumably to his death, with Fujio and Yoko left to squabble endlessly slapping each other around before diving off a bridge to escape zombies coming towards them. Soon, Tokyo falls to ruin, a massive wall is constructed around a giant pyramid with the poor and zombies used as slaves for the rich(..which seem to be mostly loud, demanding women), & Fujio takes the fighting lessons taught to him by his mentor into a ring where he battles zombies for an audience who voices their criticism when his matches end early.The character of Fujio is run through the ringer. His only means of resolve comes from his dedication to Mitsuo, who his fights are won for in the respect of Jujitsu. He is burdened by the shackles of a marriage to the insufferable Yoko, his daughter is mute(..and adorable), his boss(..the ring announcer)wants to have sexual relations(..always coming from behind Fujio, attempting to engage in carnal activity, socked by kicks for his trouble), his best friend is seemingly gone forever, and he must endure the hardships of poverty, dealing with constant combat against foes whose bite can kill, and deal with the constant angered boos of a despicable audience. The poor guy barely hangs in there. Before all this misery, the film seemed to work as a confined story about two men against the backdrop of a fallen city, which I think works rather well since both actors have good chemistry with each other. Jujitsu is a major part of their relationship as Mitsuo uses this skill as a means to prepare him for a harsh world. When Yoko is introduced, Mitsuo leaves the film for a while, and we enter the last leg of Fujio's story, the film became a bit of a trial for me. There's a dark, perverted sense of humor(..pedophilia gags galore, and a group of children attempt to hold up an office worker with a knife)and the expected zombie gore is present(..the violence is so over-the-top, it becomes a parody of the zombie films that came before). Lots of unusual images through the use of CGI and plenty of histrionics by the cast who have animated faces and reactions towards each other(..particularly when characters assault each other). The Black Fuji sequence, at the on-set, is simply bizarre.

A great fun watch. Two workers who prefer to spend their time training in jujitsu accidentally kill their boss and bury him on Black Fuji, an enormous pile of rubbish. There are some great scenes on Black Fuji with the young couple burying the mother of the boy while she continues to call the girlfriend a tart. When the girlfriend soccer kicks her head off the mother still yells abuse. This sets the tone for the whole movie. Our unlikely heroes are afro-ed and bald and spend a lot of time wrestling with each other. When the zombies attack the main motto is "head north to Russia and become a man". American is dissed and maybe that's why Americans haven't taken to this excellent cult manga film. It's not overly violent and has lots of humour.

Two Japanese friends accidentally kill their boss and dump his remains in Black Fuji, a mountain/landfill hybrid. This leads to poor results when the chemicals of the landfill mix with the corpse (and many other corpses) to give rise to a zombie infestation in Tokyo.This is a pretty bizarre film. Two men fight zombies with jujitsu. Not swords, not guns, but face-smashing jujitsu. One of them has a 'fro haircut while the other is bald. It's just an odd pairing. The film has been called the Japanese "Shaun of the Dead". I see it. I think it's a stretch, but I see it. Comparisons to other recent Japanese films, such as "Machine Girl", seem more appropriate -- there's a similar style of dark humor and violence coupled with cheesy CGI.There's also an attempt to connect this to "Ichi the Killer". Don't be fooled by that. "Ichi", along with essentially all the work of Miike, is better than this film. "Q", "Audition", and others just put "Tokyo Zombie" to shame. Perhaps it has the same writer, but the fact this film was based off a manga is evident and infuses a humor that doesn't play as well in live action.This film's biggest flaw is a lack of zombies. Sure, we have plenty of zombies, but there still seems to be a shortage -- there are periods of up to ten minutes without zombie action. These scenes are often filled with sentimental blather. Maybe in the original language this comes off better, but I had little interest in hearing people talk sentimentally to each other.Typically I watch films while drinking, but due to a cold I was not drinking during this one. That is unfortunate. While this movie was above average, it would have been even better with alcohol. The humor is lame at some points, and is either a cultural thing or just plain dumb. I'm uncertain. But all I know is that parts that were clearly meant to be funny fell flat for me.If you like "Machine Girl", I'd say give this one a chance. Perhaps even if you liked "Shaun of the Dead", though the connection is slight. A double feature with this film and a stronger Japanese film, such as "Battle Royale", would make for a good evening. Show this one first, of course. It's decent but by no means a headliner.