20131214: Horror Reviews--Chanbara Beauty

Chanbara Beauty: the Movie - Vortex

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese live action feature length film, 2009, NR, 88 minutes, action, horror, zombies.
2. IMDB: 4.7/10.0 from 182 audience ratings.  Spoken word is in Japanese; subtitles are in English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet, ' and 'No score yet.'
4. Netflix: 2.2/5.0 from 1,969 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Tsuyashi Shoji.
6. Starring: Yu Tejima as Aya, Akari Ozawa as Saki, Youhei Hoshino as Ryo, Kaoru Yuki as Mimiko.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Derived from a related video game. Further, this is a sequel to the 2006 film, Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad.  We're pretty far down the road of turning the original concepts into mush.


2. The setting is post zombie apocalypse in Japan.  Zombie hunting sisters Aya and Saki lost their parents to kidnappers when they quite young, and somehow stayed alive to late teen and young adult ages.  They hear of a group led by Himiko, and a supposed method for bringing their parents back to life.


3. Saki is much more into the quest, and goes directly to meet Himiko.  Aya follows with Ryo, a young man from a zombie killer group they met along the way.  Aya and Ryo discuss 'Imchi blood' while walking.  When blood touches someone with Imchi blood, they become uncontrollable killing machines who slaughter friend and foe alike.  Himiko's target group is interested in obtaining Imchi blood.


4. Saki shifted allegiance to the group who kidnapped her parents, since she still believes they can be revived.  She has found their corpses, and the group has done some rituals with her blood.


5. During the conflicts, Himiko reveals that her use of Saki's blood was merely to fuel Himiko's desire for immortality.  Saki shifts allegiance back to her sister, and abandons the false hope of resurrection.


6. Will the sisters survive?  Will Himiko be put down permanently?


3. Conclusions
1. According to one IMDB reviewer, this film toggles between blood splatter and 'great wobbly massive hooters.'
2. One line summary: Desire for immortality drives the plot, not zombies.
3. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 3/10 Has the same sort of stylized ugly as Sin City, only not as well done.  The 'blood on the lens' effect is way over used.  Many of the images are washed out by flare and overexposure artifacts.  Overall, colour seems to be washed out. Many passages are in grey and red: neither in colour nor in black and white.


2. Sound: 3/10 Amazingly irritating.  The background music volume level is generally much higher than that of the conversation.  The choice of music is rather like bad techno music from the 1970s.


3. Acting: 4/10 Saki dresses in a sailor suit.  Aya dresses in a costume reminiscent of Motoko Kusungai (草薙 素子) of Ghost in the Shell.  It is difficult to put much credence in such characters, and those two characters dominate the film.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 Himiko wants to live forever by obtaining special blood from Aya and Saki.  All the rest is filler.  Looks like about 10 minutes of plot stretched over 88 minutes.


5. B-movie zombie pack: 4/10
   1. Gore: 5/5 There is a lot of it, anyway.
   2. Zombie speed: fast
   3. Zombie appearance: 2/5 This is incredibly variable. Some zombies have almost no makeup, others have detailed makeup.  Go figure. 
   4. Zombie deaths 1/5: look suspiciously like vampire deaths in True Blood: solid bodies transform into constellations of blood spheres that immediately fall and splatter.
   5. Zombie relevance: 0/5 in this film, zombies are only an extra danger, and the cause of a lot of fighting.  The plot driver is Saki's desire to have her parents resurrected from the dead.