20131212: Horror Review--Zonbi asu

Zonbi asu (Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese live action feature length film, 2011, NR, 85 minutes, zombies, horror. The spoken word is in Japanese; subtitles in English.  Aspect, 1.85
2. IMDB: 5.0/10.0 from 538 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet...' and 100% liked it from 44 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.3/5.0 from 2,974 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Noboru Iguchi.  Written by Noboru Iguchi and Tadayoshi Kubo.
6. Starring: Arisa Nakamura as Megumi, Mayu Sugano as Aya, Asana Mamoru as Maki.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Five Japanese teens go on a day trip in the woods in the mountains. Maki wants to find a tapeworm so she can stay thin for modeling purposes.  The others catch a trout which contains a tapeworm. Maki grosses everyone out by eating the tapeworm.  They encounter a zombie, who bites off a finger of Tak's hand.  They lose their van to a thief soon after.


2. They happen upon some old buildings, and Maki decides to use the outhouse.  While about her business, she is attacked from below by zombies.  Maki gets lost in the crowd.  Megumi leads the others to relative safety.  They fight the zombies, and ultimately get help from Dr Tanaka with a sick daughter Sachi.  He explains the transmission method, fish to animal to humans.  Tak is infected more directly by the zombie who bit his finger off.  The hatching eggs plus Tak's drug use cause the parasite to be quite upset; in this case, Tak's head explodes.  


3. Later, Megumi witnesses Tanaka beating a zombie to get him to throw up a parasite so that Sachi can take it down her throat.  Then the previous parasite exits.  Megumi lets out a startled sound in the middle of this.  Megumi and Tanaka have a talk; Megumi's friends walk in during this.  Tanaka explains that Sachi has leukemia, and that the parasites keep the disease in check.  In return, Tanaka supplies the parasites with hosts.  To further that end, he laced the spaghetti he fed them earlier with parasite eggs.


4. Will any of our heroes emerge alive from this nest of horrors?  Will Naoi (the nerdy boy of the group) ever get his courage?




3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Yet another (quite gross) explanation of zombie origins.
2. One star of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 6/10 Too bright and washed out; sometimes soft focus and low contrast.


2. Sound/subtitles: 4/10 There are several sections where there are no subtitles.  This does not aid the understanding of the action of the film.


3. Acting: 2/10 Not much was required, and less was delivered.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 Floor sweepings.


5. Grossness: 10/10 This is from Tokyo Shock, after all.  Flatulence, tentacle penetration, excrement, vomiting, zombies, exchange of bodily fluids with zombies, ingestion of parasites.  Did I mention zombies?  Consumption of human flesh, dismemberment, gore, blood fountains; ugly, rotting, dead zombies; flies on zombies.  Alien parasites entering the beginning of the alimentary tract, and exiting the lower end.  Exploding heads, and flying via flatulence.