Junk

I like zombie movies, and I like Japanese movies, but this one was just too amateurish. The acting went from bad to worse, at times getting so bad you couldn't concentrate on the movie - you had to stop and marvel at a line delivered particularly badly, wondering why it wasn't edited out and if that actor was possibly a funding source for the movie. To be fair, the Japanese actors, in general, did a much better job than their American counterparts.

For a better example of the Japanese zombie movie, see Bio Zombie. That at least has a decent level of humor. Junk had little to no humor, indicating that they took the movie a little too seriously. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't finish watching, but it was so bad I knew I'd never watch it again.

In an abandoned factory on the Japanese island of Okinawa, the U.S. army secretly developed a serum called "DNX" that is able to bring the dead back to life. Something went wrong and all scientists were killed. Now meet Saki and her gang. They just robbed a jeweller and are on their way to meet some Yakuza for a big deal. Guessed their meeting point? It doesn't take long time and an army of bloodthirsty zombies is after them. Soon everybody is running and fighting for his life...

20 years after the heydays of ultra-gory Italian zombie movies, the Japanese start to produce somehow very similar movies like this one. Heavily influenced by such films as George A. Romero's zombie trilogy, Italian and Spanish shockers from the late 70's and early 80's and the 1992 Japanese film "Living Dead in Tokyo Bay", this is a fun splatter film, and as such it delivers what fans would expect. The gory special effects are done very well most of the time - if you can't stand dismemberment, heads blown into pieces and gut-munching zombies, stay far away! On the other side, splatter movie fans will have plenty of fun with this movie.

I like Junk: sure, it's extremely derivative stuff (female super-zombie aside, of course), but it has absolutely no pretensions, delivering fans of your more traditional shuffling undead all the gut-munching, brain-blasting action that they could ask for.

The plot sees a gang of amateur jewel thieves (including sexy getaway driver Saki) bite off more than they can chew when they arrange their meeting with a Yakuza fence and his men at an abandoned factory: the derelict building is, in fact, a top secret army base where experiments in raising the dead have resulted in flesh-eating zombies, and it's not long before the criminals are fighting for their lives against hordes of mouldy walking cadavers.

This weak set up is simply an excuse for a series of violent gun-fights and bloody encounters with manky zombies, so it is easy to forgive the silly script, many glaring plot-holes and terrible acting (particularly from a handful of westerners, playing US Army dudes). Director Atsushi Muroga (who also directed jewellery-heist-gone-wrong action flick Score) wisely keeps the action flowing thick and fast, and ensures that gore-hounds are kept happy with plenty of splattery effects.

Eventually, things get very daft indeed, with the aforementioned super-zombie stealing the show in the film's finale: wearing thigh high kinky boots, this surprisingly sexy corpse runs rings around the surviving gang members, before being shot in the head. Unfortunately, this only makes matters worse: the she-zombie becomes even stronger (and, inexplicably, albino!), fighting on after having been completely cut in half!!!

Cool, crazy, and covered in blood, this undemanding undead actioner is recommended to those who want to switch off their brain and simply enjoy some gory mayhem.

A group of jewel thieves is to meet some Yakuza members at an abandoned facility to hock the hot ice...little did anyone seem to know that this "facility" was a former military installation that was doing work on the dead, namely - bringing them back to life. Guess it worked, 'cuz now the place is crawling with the undead. The jewelry deal goes bad, and now we have some people to supply lunch for the zombies...

JUNK is a pretty cool zombie film. Nothing really ground-breaking or spectacular, and seems to be much more related to the American, Romero-type zombie films than the typically whacked-out Asian stuff. The story is pretty simple, there's plenty of gore to go around, and the film is never really self-indulgent or too serious. A fun way to spend a couple of hours, but not a "great" film either. I personally tend to like JUNK less than most others that I talk to....still would recommend a look- 7.5/10

Director Atsushi Muroga does it again... after having taken parts from "Reservoir Dogs", "Natural Born Killers", "The Getaway" and numerous other action/crime films to mix it all together for his gore loaded actioner "Score" (1995) about jewelry robbers versus criminal couple versus double crossing Yakuzas, he mixes Lucio Fulci's "Zombi 2" (aka "Zombie Flesh Eaters" etc.) with George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" and "Day of the Dead" and "Re-Animator", plus "Return of the Living Dead" 1 and 3, and, concerning the basic plot, his own "Score" (which means the film has also elements of the above mentioned American non-Zombie productions) to create a modern Zombie movie that looks like one that was made in the early 1980s: almost nostalgic.

That doesn't mean that the movie is totally unoriginal. It's the first of a recent "Zombie wave" from Japan, followed by the nonsensical "punk rock horror" movie "Wild Zero" and the best of the bunch, the stylishly but a bit too long "Versus". "Junk" delivers all a Zombie fan needs, although it's been all there before, and - at least concerning the ideas lifted from Fulci and Romero - it has been there better. But all the blood and guts, plus the relentless action Asian cinema is known for, make this film entertaining 83 minutes, best consumed with fellow Zombie freaks, enough beer (or else) and snacks.

Obviously Atsushi Muroga doesn't intend to reinvent well known genres or plots. But he wants to give the audience a good time with popcorn action and horror - and gore. And this he does very well. Rating: 6 out of 10.