Dir. Tetsuro "Director Wolf" Takeuchi, 2000
The Ramones + Night of the Living Dead + hyped-up manga aesthetics = WILD ZERO.
Japanese band Guitar Wolf (which it turns out is also the name of the main dude, backed by the bazooka-wielding rhythm section of Bass Wolf and Drum Wolf) stars in this zombie rock opera. Essentially, meteor strikes and wikkid UFO's cause an epidemic of zombies all over the globe, the only cure for which is MORE RAWK. And cock.
On the side of the good guys:
--Guitar Wolf himself, who comes to the aid of a young fan (Ace) who demonstrates a passionate committment ot the art of rocking. In fact, Mr. Wolf gives him a whistle to blow whenever he's in trouble ("You know how to whistle kid, don'tcha?" etc.)
--Ace, who comes to the aid of a young lass/lad (Tobio) who demonstrates an ability to faint at will.
--Hanako and Toshi, punk rockers in love until death and beyond.
And the bad guys:
--The never-seen Aliens.
--The Zmobies.
--A bad-ass female arms dealer who keeps a gun by her shower and is only out for herself.
--A gangster who used to manage Guitar Wolf and looks great in his trademark short shorts. At one point I thought he was redeemed when he randomly started shooting the UFO's with bolts from his eyes, but apparently this was not good enough for GW.
Moral: "Love and rock n' roll have no boundaries, nationalities, or genders!"
Contribution to the zombie canon: Zombies in love!
Favorite moment: Guitar Wolf's microphone shoots fucking fire whenever he's singing!
Okay, it's a pretty ridiculous and semi-sensical movie, but good fun. I wonder if Romero likes J-rock?
2 comments:
The idea of love among the zombies has been demonstrated beautifully in Cemetery Man (romantic), Shaun of the Dead (familial) and Day of the Dead (mentor-mentee). This was a particularly touching presentation, though. In my opinion the elements this movie brought to the zombie canon (as far as my familiarity with canon goes) were homoeroticism, rock, and manga sensibilities.
This comment has been subtitled:
ROCK N'ROLL FOREVER!
Admittedly, the only other zombie-on-zombie action I can immediately recollect is the Boyfriend and Girlfriend Zombie couple walking around in Land of the Dead. (They seem to be credited as Dead Teenage Zombies on IMDB, but they staggered around holding hands in the movie.) I've been working off the assumption that any time a zombie shows love, it's notable. That may be too narrow a definition of zombie love.
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