User reviews

Who doesn't love the vastly successful Japanese video game The Oneechanbara? You got a hot sexy bikini cowgirl killing zombies? Add some extra characters for each iteration of the game series and its gets even better. (Im sure the new Wii version makes slicing zombies heads off all the more physically exertive so as to stay in physical parity with the main character who seems quite fit.

Now the plot of the video game is pretty slim to none, so the movie expands on this by adding SOME plot. Some back-story on the characters is good, as well as a motivation to kill zombies and why of course there ARE zombies running amok. But nowhere does anyone ever bother to mention why she is always wearing a bikini and cowboy hat. Perhaps there is a vague "Fistfull of Dollars"/"Galaxy Express 999" reference here, but still, for those of us probing the sartorial functions of Oneechanbara's battle dress, I guess we should just sit back and enjoy it without asking such pointless questions.

The film action then is very much like the game action and therefore lots of fun. The fight scenes are the highlights and really shine. The pathos and drama are pretty standard but necessary. The whole picture tho is quite low budget and lacking any sort of quality acting talent. I believe the main actress was either a DVD pinup idol or a soft core porn star, so we'll just say she's got a good future if the movie turns franchise. Maybe they'll explain more in a sequel. In the meantime, hell, she's a hot zombie killing bikini girl! Take that Milla Jovovich!

Pacing, is the answer. This movie is terribly paced.

This movie is essentially two movies in one. Zombie flick and family drama. It could probably work, but in this movie it doesn't. The setup is terribly corny and if it strikes you as odd, and strangely familiar, that a little group of people can take down a guy that supposedly has filled the world with zombies, you're not alone.

That's not really giving away too much. There are a few predictable twists and turns you can see for yourself, but here's my list of what would have made this movie a little better:

1. Focus on either the family drama OR the zombie killing. Director/writer too inexperienced to handle both properly and the result is a messy concoction.

2. The main character wears a skimpy outfit. And to be fair, it's the main attraction of the movie. So, why isn't she showing it off more? I remarked to my friend that the movie would have been lots better if it was just her doing pole dancing for 30 minutes. Maybe with zombies :)

3. The final showdowns are too long and simply too boring. LOTS of action, to be sure, but you're bored watching them. Tighter editing and pacing would have helped some, but you really don't care about any of the characters due to poor development and pacing throughout the movie.

4. The characters in the movie are two dimensional, extremely so. Precious film time is wasted on many occasions and unfortunately that leaves less time to flesh out the leads. That includes the long winded flashback sequence that runs throughout the movie at intervals.

There's more, but you'll see all that for yourself if you watch it.

It's shot on video. While that in itself is not a problem, when everything else is amateurish, it makes you feel like you're watching something hacked together in a high school film lab. There's a lack of contrast throughout the movie that makes it drab and bland to look at.

There are two high points of the movie. The first is the fight scenes. When they're good, they resemble something out of a violent video game. The fast action actually makes the rest of the movie pale in comparison. If only the whole movie could keep that high speed and action. The second high point is, again, her skimpy outfit. It fits a crazy universe, but it also underlines that the rest of the movie is underdeveloped.

The movie deserves a 4 for being mildly entertaining, but add an extra star for the two high points.

This is probably another case of the description being better than the movie, but not for lack of trying. Chanbara Beauty is a video game adaptation of OneChanbara and another entry in the latest trend of Japanese over-the-top action/horror hybrids. If it's a win as a VG adaptation that has more to do with how low the likes of Uwe Boll and Paul WS Anderson have set the bar in the VG field than how inherently good Chanbara Beauty is.

The plot is thinly stretched and silly, with various subplots filling in the backstory of the characters. Not that it matters really cos it's all about the bikini splatter here, right? Sure the movie delivers lots of katana splatter as dozens of zombie extras in crude makeup get hacked and slashed, but everything is so CGI heavy it takes some getting used to. The action scenes are reeking of video effects: CGI blood, gun flashes, smoke, fast forwards and all kinds of live action anime silly SFX. There's probably some wire work involved as well and the choreography and swordfighting is surprisingly decent.

Chanbara Beauty is bursting apart in the seams but it's entertaining enough to warrant a view for exploitation hounds. If you can stomach the cheapo video SFX (which are becoming a staple in Japanese flicks lately), you'll probably have a good time, but not without a yawn or two in the middle. It plays like a less gory, less insane, less action-packed, less well-made version of The Machine Girl but if you want your fix of Japanese action/horror exploitation this one's OK I guess.

I write this review 5 minutes after watching the movie, because I'm not sure I'll remember much about it in a few hours except there was a chick with a katana. Aya is on the hunt for her sister (who helped killing their father) and Doctor Sugita who created hordes of zombies. Helped by another lady with a gun, they are mowing down the zombies and then face the above mentioned for revenge - nobody could come up with a more simple story line. It wouldn't be much for a manga you could read in 30 minutes, but it is very little to fill 90 minutes of a movie. No surprise it feels a bit stretched, some fights are lasting too long.

Fortunately, it looks really good at least. I liked the digitally enhanced flash of the blade which was very comic-strip like, the little (also digitally painted) blood drops on the camera lens, the well placed flashbacks and slow motion shots, such as the moment when the girl in the white dress is shot, you see the cloud of smoke - and then, already the zombies in the background come nearer. Due to its clever style, it's fun to watch once, but regrettably not the kind of cult flick you'd want to see again and again.

... ruined by its director. Give the script to someone like Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror) or Noboru Iguchi (Machine Girl) and you'll have yourself a very entertaining film, but this director seems to have the talent of a high school hobbyist and just couldn't manage to turn it into even a film so bad it's good. The pacing is incredibly slow, the sex is utterly out of place and awkward, the characters are too two-dimensional, the video quality is sub-par, the action is cheap, the special effects are simply pathetic, etc... As much as I love to watch an occasional Zombie film, I simply couldn't find anything worthwhile about this film... And this is coming from someone who found Blade 2, 28 Weeks Later, Zombie Diaries and Zombie Self Defense Force enjoyable in spite of their weaknesses.

Unfortunately I paid 6,5 Euro for his and even more unfortunately I figured a film with this concept couldn't really suck so I bought the sequel as well. What a waste of money, it seems now...

"So, feel like killing some zombies?"

Zombies doing karate. Hot girls in bikinis (and cowboy hats) fighting school girls with samurai swords. Copious amounts of blood and gore. Yep, this must be Japanese.

Onechanbara is another entry into the quite popular ultra-gory, shock-action genre of Japanese movies. It's over-the-top in a thousand different ways, and more akin to a video game (which it's based on) than most movies. All the violence is stylized and not the least bit realistic, which fits the tone of the movie perfectly. There's lots of random slow-mo and guns that never need to be reloaded, and even the emotional moments and special effects are handled in a thoroughly cheesy way. There's lots of fighting and enough of a plot to string it all together. What more do you need?   

As for the story, there's an evil scientist with a weird eye, something about a search for a couple of sisters, and (more importantly) loads o' zombies. I have no idea how closely the plot adheres to that of the games, and I'm pretty sure that the people who made the movie probably don't, either. If you're curious about why Aya wears a bikini and has a sword that appears to be magic, or why Reiko's shotgun never runs out of ammo...well, you're watching the wrong movie. This nothing more than absurd action entertainment, and it ended up being better than I thought it would be.  If you're a fan of movies like Machine Girl, you'll be right at home, here.

For a low budget horror / girl-buddy road picture, with two pretty girls taking on zombie hordes, this could have been worse. The budget was well used, and the camera-work was enthusiastic and imaginative, including an effect where blood spatter would appear to land on the lens. The effects were below the standard of something like Tokyo Gore Police, but good enough to convince and the massed Zombie attacks actually got more elaborate as the movie went on, as if the director got more confident with his action scene staging. The actress playing the central role of the bikini wearing samurai, Eri Otoguro, is a cipher. She handles the action well enough but gives nothing in the way of a performance beyond the occasional stern look, which frankly comes off looking more confused than anything else. The secondary lead, Manami Hashimoto as a leather clad, shotgun-toting bad girl, is an older and obviously more competent actress, and she actually winds up carrying the middle part of the picture. Very watchable, but like all Japanese ultra-violence, this one is not for the squeamish.

Sure, the plot isn't exactly award winning but if you are looking to watch a gory Japanese action horror involving a bikini clad babe slicing up zombies then look no further.

This movie can't be taken serious in any way at all, but it dosen't either. so the blood spatters on the screen, and the horrid effects, just make this film More enjoyable. The movie dosn't really follow the game, the sequel does though, but has an interesting plot, and can really be enjoyed. The actors do their job, and has some funny moments. It also had a part where my wife had cried so, this movie has a little bit of evreything. I can't wait for the sequel to be dubbed so i can watch it. So if your a fan, or someone wanting to watch bikini zombie slayer this movie is definitely for you.! 1 2 3 BIKINI ZOMBIE SLAYERS UNITE!

Based on the video games, this movie version has its good and bad points. The premise is fairly simple. We have Eri Otoguro, bikini, katana, and not much else, dispatching zombies left, right, and center, as she searches for her sister.

Then there is the doctor who's managed to revive the dead, hence the zombie infestation. Both sides meet, and guess which side wins?

Overall, not bad, but there are a couple of problems with this flick. One, after the initial swordfight--which is fun, in its own way--the pacing is slow and the direction isn't very inventive. The family drama of the sisters meeting each other isn't that well played out, and there's never any reason given why our bikini-clad heroine is dressed that way. (Not that I'm complaining, but still...).

On the plus side, Ms. Otoguro is gorgeous, the swordplay is over the top and inventive enough to make the viewer believe that she can handle a katana well, and the action, when it comes, is fast and bloody. There's also the role reversal of Ms. Otoguro being the samurai master (actually mistress), and her retainer is a fat dude (a comedian, IRL) who's her confidante and follows her faithfully. Not a bad idea, really.

Overall, it's a fun watch if you don't take it seriously. Skip the sequel, though. The lead actress is gorgeous, but she can't act, and the screenplay was pretty much non-existent.

Even for a cheesy Japanese samurai flick, this is lame. Don't get me wrong: it's cheesy. It's just a very bland cheese. Where's the 30 seconds of lips moving for a simple challenge of "Want fight!?" More lips moving "Fight me!" Where's the 4 solid minutes of a samurai deflecting and dodging a cloud of 50,000 arrows? I guess deflecting the gunshots was okay, but it was a poor substitute.

I was hoping for...something better. I guess the over-the-top fight scenes were okay. A bit lackluster for the genre, but passable. The infinite ammo shotgun was a nice touch, but that's probably the only thing noteworthy here. On the whole, Onechanbara lacks the charm of any of the several typical, cheesy Japanese samurai movies I've come to know and love. It feels like this has all been done before, and done better.

Oh, well... At least there's was brief nudity. Briefly.

First of all, I don't know the game it is based on but just like Final Fantasy The Movie this is really a weird film. Weird isn't maybe the correct word. It contains to many effects like in games, she moves ultra fast and her sword gives her some kind of strong ability. That she moves in the air and so I don't mind that's typical Eastern. But it just didn't work out for me. Just have a look at her arm, she has a rose tattoo but you can easily see that it was that kind of tattoo that's being given in a surprise egg and you have to add with water. But not only that, some zombies look ridiculous, you just see that they have put black make-up around there eyes. Some zombies do look fine and are doing gory stuff (the one that's eating from a corpse) but most effects are pure CGI, even the gun shots are CGI and that was a let down for me. Of course the movie has to do it with the leading ladies and I must say, they all look gorgeous and sexy (leather suit and bikini's). It could have been really good but as most stories based on comics or games the fail to deliver some goods. Just have a look at the fight at the end, it's too long. Not my cup of tea, still I have to see part 2.

For the avid cinephile who will watch anything, curiosity can be dangerous. I had no expectations that this would be any good. Marketing materials that show the protagonist's costume design speak volumes. Just to be sure I had the "full" experience, I checked out a video of gameplay from the videogame series, and stopped after only a few minutes after I confirmed that (a) yes, I've seen games of a broad similar style before, and (b) this franchise in particular was very emphatically made for prepubescent twelve-year old boys (and grown men who are 25 going on 12) who giggle uncontrollably at the very sight of a nude magazine, and who women reasonably spurn for their immaturity. But in all sincerity, just how little value might we anticipate of a "film adaptation" (using the phrase loosely and generously)?

I've beat around the bush enough: This is awful. Totally rotten. Unforgivably bad, and bereft of meaningful value. Whatever it is you might theoretically want out of 'Onechanbara,' sometimes also referred to as 'Bikini samurai squad' (gag me with a spoon), you can get it elsewhere without the senselessness to which we're subjected in these eighty-five minutes.

I wonder if there was one person who earned a paycheck from this who actually cared about what they were making. It certainly can't be Fukuda Yohei, neither as director, as cinematographer, or as co-writer alongside Murakawa Yasutoshi. The direction would be laughable if it weren't so sorry, and the cinematography is at best uninspired. The dialogue is complete trash, the characters are pointless, and the scene writing is abhorrently crude, being the bare minimum to provide foundation for all else and to propel the plot, and more than anything else just emptily mimics like notions from other flicks. The scene writing, by the way, is never worse than when it tries to slow down for a relatively quiet moment between characters. The plot is lousy too, though - halfhearted, unconvincing, and heedlessly considered in the first place, nothing more than a pathetically meager excuse for (i) zombies and (ii) pretty women in very tight and/or very revealing clothing. Almost purely nonsensical, truth be told. Fujino Chika and Ikari Hideki's music bears rudimentary thoughts of "dramatic and moody," "electric guitar and driving beats," or "indifferently lighthearted," and was clearly slapped together with no more passion or earnestness than anything else here.

Tropes galore greet our eyes alongside bottom-dollar production values and heavily stylized and therefore deeply uninteresting action sequences. It's right and fair to lambaste countless modern action pictures for substituting overzealous camerawork and editing for the actual choreography, strikes, blows, and blocks that we should be seeing; here such recklessness is actually welcome just because it means we don't have to put up with the tiresome direction of Fukuda, or of action director Ohara Go, who prioritize not the physical impact of violence but the "wow gee golly, look how slick and cool this is" Awesome Factor. I'm unable to care at all about the choreography, practical effects, stunts, or special makeup that we do see; the computer-generated post-production visuals were outdated by at least 10-15 years even when this was released in 2008, not to mention being excessive and outright gauche. To wit: think of the most obviously artificial muzzle flashes you've seen in SyFy TV movies or works of The Asylum, and you'll swiftly come to understand how gunfire and sword slashes look here. Even the lighting and editing is appalling.

Gratuitous sex and nudity, check. Boorish and/or unfunny humor, check. Juvenile sensibilities generally, check. Garishly over the top action adjoined with slothful, dragging direction, check. Acting that is never more than dull, unremarkable, and baseline serviceable from stars who sure are present, yes they are, yes indeedily doddily doo - check. Yes, much of the acting really is just plain crappy, too. Is there anything here that is done well, or that is remotely deserving of praise? Frankly: no. No, there is not. True, I'm not the target audience anyway, but be that as it may I have a very hard time imagining that anyone at all could find this entertaining. If you like "hack and slash" action videogames, you don't even get the instant gratification of pushing buttons to make things happen. If you like the primary composite genres of action and horror, both the action and the horror are rancid and wanting for how poorly they are treated. If you are a fan of cinema at large, receptive to whatever might come your way, you will surely find this just as loathsomely sloppy, weak, dubious, unsatisfying, unfulfilling, and downright terrible as I did. Why, even if it's nothing more than scantily clad women that you want, to be honest there's a bizarre paucity even of skin!

I don't know if I can even bring myself to hate 'Onechanbara.' It's just painfully, absolutely, perfectly boring. And that's even worse. This is a STRONG contender for the category of "worst films ever made," and it somehow only ever becomes more egregious as the minutes tick by, all the way through to the end. Rarely has something that clocks in at under ninety minutes seemed so achingly endless. Please do yourself a favor and give this dreck a very, very, very wide berth. You'll be extremely sorry if you don't.

If you watched all of the movies involving both bikinis and samurai and took the time to absorb their message, you probably have more time on your hands than is good for you. This movie is the standard of its genre, you must remember that its genre isn't very good.

The movie seems to be shot on video tape. Instead of squibs, special effects handle most of the blood and bullets. It isn't a bad effect for such a cheap one. Since the work is based on a comic book, they might even say that they planned the effects to look somewhat gaudy. And, more power to them.

The movies starts off well, with some great magic sword effects and splatterly gunshots; however, it devolves into a wizard of oz type scenario, where each character finds who they are looking for...albeit ironically. By the end, it looks more like an episode of power rangers. The acting is sincere, but this movie is definitely one best chosen when the only other alternative is infomercials.

Not for kids. Amazingly unappealing exposed breasts...

Some mad scientist, some bikini girl wearing a cowboy hat, crushes with her blade through a zombie infected world. If this sounds right up your street, you may try this one, but be warned: the production is rather on the low budget side and this is more manga than a "serious" horror movie.

Onechanbara: Aya the world's greatest warrior, this superpowered Princess would have taken out Thanos in seconds had the avengers bothered to call. In a world of Zombies created by a mad scientist and a little sister who murdered her father. Now with her trusty man servant she protects and a gun toting badass biker chick, Aya will save the world the only way she knows violence and pain! Don't get in her way, you were warned!

The lovely Eri Otoguro stars as Aya, a sword swinging babe who frequently discards her poncho to do battle in just her bikini; fighting at her side are her overweight male friend (Katsuji Tomohiro Waki) and buxom, leather-clad, shotgun-toting beauty Reiko (Manami Hashimoto). Between them, this trio of fearless zombie killers hack, slash and shoot a swathe through the undead in an attempt to find Aya's sexy little sister Saki (Chise Nakamura) and battle evil scientist Dr. Sugita (Tarô Suwa), the man who has been reanimating the dead.

It's amazing just how forgiving I can be when a film features several hot Japanese women in revealing attire kicking ass, as is the case with live-action manga Chanbara Beauty. The fact that the film suffers from a weak, muddled plot and unconvincing special effects certainly didn't stop me from having a pretty good time with this very silly zombie flick in which the women are as deadly as they are tasty. Otoguru looks absolutely amazing in her teeny bikini, Hashimoto's leather get-up shows off her great figure and cleavage, and Nakamura is hot in her schoolgirl outfit; none of their fighting looks all that convincing, but it doesn't really matter when there is so much eye-candy to enjoy.

UK title - Chanbara Beauty. Japanese adaptation of a video game, that I am totally unfamiliar worth. Eri Otoguro plays Aya, a very sexy, scantily clad zombie killer who is pretty good with her sword. She has a sidekick in a comic fat guy. They team up with another hot, mysterious chick called Reiko and take on the evil Dr Sugito and his horde of zombies whilst searching for Aya's sister Saki (who is also pretty handy with a sword). As a zombie flick this is lame. The over the top, far fetched action is non stop but the special effects are pretty poor, not helped by poor lighting. The plot between Aya and Saki is the more interesting part of this movie, which culminates in a big showdown. The only really good thing about this film is Aya. She sure looks good doing her stuff and for that reason alone it may be worth a glance.

Living in an overrun wasteland, a warrior and her friend find that a fellow woman is looking for the same person she is and set out to find her amongst the horde of zombies created by a mad doctor through a series of regeneration experiments and soon discover something far more sinister at hand.

There was quite a lot to like overall here. One of the strongest aspects of the film is the impressive amount of action featured throughout here. Managing to bring martial arts skills into a zombie film, the hand-to-hand fighting that's brought into the film such as the opening battle in the pub or the battle with the zombies at the abandoned ruins. As the swordplay use borders on the mythical, the inclusion of the weapon not only in the martial arts battles but also the series of training montages of straightforward swordfighting including some skilled performers offers some nice action. That also leads to another strong factor in the emotional resonance some of the action scenes feature. Since both girls are given incredibly sympathetic backstories involving younger siblings, there are scenes for each one here that plays this up very nicely. As the connection between the young girl in the factory to her own daughter is made clear, the eventual payoff in the hospital, as a result, becomes heart-wrenching due to realizing the inevitable outcome. With the finale featuring the swordfighting encounter between the sisters that plays off their relationship interspersed with the flashbacks to their early training, there's a touching resonance here leading to an emotional resolution. Alongside the great action elsewhere as they combat the zombies, with the over-the-top battle with the zombies crawling over the hideout as the covered on multiple levels with zombies descending down to get in close quarters with the girls and begin firing off endless rounds of gunfire or big swordfighting battles that really highlight the action present, this has plenty of solid and enjoyable elements. There are some flaws that hold it back. The major issue is the complete lack of coherence regarding what's going on as so little is explained about this one. There's little here as for why her sister feels the need to stay with the doctor once he started making zombies, or even what makes him want to make zombies to begin with. He has several scenes detailing his madness and quest for power but that doesn't account for what his purpose is creating the creatures. The other flaw here is the low-budget quality CGI, swarmed over the film in way too many areas the causes the film to look incredibly cheap. Otherwise, there isn't much else to this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.