You'll have to be in a very undemanding mood when you decide to step aboard YOROI: SAMURAI ZOMBIE, a low-budget splatter-comedy with a limited cast and limited locations. Yes, it's pretty crazy. Yes, it's sprinkled with gory bits and bloodshed. But after an amusing start, it becomes rather dull in the mid-section. A gangster couple hijacks the car of a family on a holiday, and makes them flee together with them. They end up in an abandoned settlement – a ghost town, if you will - where samurai zombies have just been awakened. The tedious middle section could have used a bit more original, blood-spraying jokes to keep the pace going. Of the climax at the end – that tries to be amusing, but fails due to a decreased interest of the viewer – only the silly, evil twist was worth it. This Japanese zombie effort may be just good enough for a splatter-horror night with friends, beer and pizza.
I might be a bit harsh on SAMURAI ZOMBIE, but you'll have to forgive me: It was the last in a series of six films I watched back-to-back on one and the same day at a film festival. So maybe I was a little tired by then. But still, I felt like the film didn't really kick the bucket, while the previous five, rather unrelated features, did. Maybe SAMURAI ZOMBIE might not be too bad a choice to throw in between a triple feature Japanese zombie-night, together with STACY (2001) and JUNK (2000). And if you didn't enjoy these two, then you can forget about SAMURAI ZOMBIE all the same.
I might be a bit harsh on SAMURAI ZOMBIE, but you'll have to forgive me: It was the last in a series of six films I watched back-to-back on one and the same day at a film festival. So maybe I was a little tired by then. But still, I felt like the film didn't really kick the bucket, while the previous five, rather unrelated features, did. Maybe SAMURAI ZOMBIE might not be too bad a choice to throw in between a triple feature Japanese zombie-night, together with STACY (2001) and JUNK (2000). And if you didn't enjoy these two, then you can forget about SAMURAI ZOMBIE all the same.