User Reviews

Zombie-tastic! This has blood, guts, guns, women, gangsters and zombies! What more do you want. Maybe an English dubbed version?

The story is simple, jewel thieves arrange to meet a suited bunch of gangsters for their pay. Things go haywire when the meeting place turns out to be a shut down military base used to bring the dead back to life. The movie then goes into over drive when the gangsters turn up only to be greeted by flesh hungry Zombies!

The fight for survival has begun as the thieves try to get out of the military base alive before the Zombies eat them!

* Spoiler *

What makes this movie better than most is it seems to have taken the best bits from other zombie/action movies and put them together well. There are too many to list but it does not detract from the flick at all. Also the movie turns from over drive to hyper drive when we find out not all zombie are the same, one is a fast moving intelligent kick ass female zombie!

* Spoiler End *

The bad: The movies sexist undertones are a bit over the top, there are a few needless battles of the sexes with the woman get away driver.

The good: The movie is fast paced unlike some older zombie films. Camera work and effects are good. The two leads are great, the script is witty in places, the action scenes and scenarios are entertaining. And there's also a nice little twist.

If you're expecting Oscar material stay away! If you're a zombie/action fan watch this movie!

Director Atsushi Muroga crazy? You decide...

Junk

Before considering with you should give 91 minutes of your life to junk you need ask yourself why you watch zombie movies. If you love the Romero zombie movies for there sly commentary hidden in a nightmarish vision well don't bother. If you are a splatter fan that doesn't really mind little things like plot, acting or a budget on a film Junk is your ticket! It all comes down to what you are looking for in a zombie film.

In fangoria the director stated that From dusk til dawn was a big influence and you can see that in how the film is structured. The plot starts off with little to do with zombies but with Japanese gangsters and thieves involved in a jewelry heist. To bad they intend to sell the jewels on the site of factory where Japanese scientists and the U.S. military develop Herbert west's special sauce for undead making.

Boy this is one bad zombie movie. Of course that maybe exactly what you are looking for. I can respect what was done for the money that they had. Some moments are sorta effective.

****spoilers****

On to the spoiler comments. Naked zombies, only the lead woman zombie. If she is intelligent enough to turn off the nuclear warhead(connected to a pretty chaeap-ass looking PC) I think she could have mastered getting some attire. When the Japanese scientist realizes the intelligent zombie is his wife I understand why the director choose to flash to pictures of them happy. I am not sure why he continued to after she started trying to eat his flesh.

The character Akira, had his foot stabbed but after 20 minutes it seems to have healed. And the American `actors'…Christ. How wooden could they make dialogue. All that being said Junk is ok considering what amount of money it was made with.

Junk: Shiryo-Gari starts in an American Army laboratory where evil scientist Doctor Kinderman fills a syringe up with a bright green fluid known as DNX which he injects into a corpse of a young Japanese woman named Kyoko (Miwa Yanagizawa) who then comes back to life & bites a large chunk out of Kinderman's neck. Three men, Akira (Shu Ehara), Jun (Nobuyuki Asano) & Kabu enter a jewellery store & rob it but Akira is stabbed in the foot. They flee the store & to their getaway van driven by a woman named Saki (Kaori Shimamura) who speeds off, Jun contacts his Yakuza contact Ramon (Tate Gouta) who arrange to meet in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile Doctor Takashi Nikada has been summoned to U.S. Army base to see Colonel McGriff who asks him to help cover up Doctor Kinderman's experiments which he help start & the Military have been carrying on. Back at the factory Jun, Akira, Kabu, Saki, Ramon & his bodyguards quickly discover that they are not as alone as they first thought when they are attacked by rotting flesh-eating zombies. They are forced to fight the zombies as they try to escape with their lives & the 100,000,000 Yen worth of stolen jewellery...

This Japanese horror film was co-written & directed by Atsushi Muroga & I was somewhat disappointed by it. The script by Muroga, J.B. Baker, Yoko Kuzuki & Emiko Terao doesn't make the most of it's promising sounding premise that tries to mix horror & action. It's quite slow to get going & the zombies are some of the worst in film history. They look poor with unconvincing make-up & they move so slowly there is simply no threat there whatsoever, I won't even call it walking because they they more shuffle & I was frustrated that the clichéd 'just have your actor stand there & scream until the zombies catch up' trick is constantly used, why don't they just RUN away? I was screaming at the screen for these idiots to just outrun these pathetic zombies. The characters are threadbare & unlikable the babe of a zombie in leather apart, the plot is full of holes that you could drive a double-decker bus through & any decent ideas Junk: Shiryo-Gari does have it rips off from better zombie films like the American Military involvement from The Return of the Living Dead (1985), the ultra slow zombies from Zombi 2 (1979) & an almost identical scene when a woman is holding a door shut with a piece of furniture & a zombies fingers poke round the door & Night of the Living Dead (1968) style intestine eating & only a bullet to the head will kill them & the bright green re-animation serum stolen from Re-Animator (1985). Junk: Shiryo-Gari feels like an American film using Japanese locations & actors & there is nothing original here. Technically the film is very basic with flat extremely grainy cinematography, mixed special effects, bland production design being set almost completely in an old factory & lacklustre unexciting direction. Director Muroga fails to film any of the films set pieces with flare, pace or originality. The gore was disappointing, a splinter of wood (Zombi 2 rip off again?) is forced through someones throat, there are a couple of intestine eating scenes, a few gory gunshot wounds, a decapitated head & ripped off hand & someone cut in half. The make up effects aren't particularly impressive & the zombies look really poor except that is Kyoko who for some reason looks perfectly human, can talk & can change the colour of her hair in the blink of an eye! She also has a nice sexy line in leather outfits & thigh high boots & is probably worth a couple of stars on her own & is quite possibly the sexiest zombie in horror film history. The acting isn't great as far as I can tell but it's all in Japanese so who can tell? There's a bit of a buzz about Asian horror at the moment with Ringu (1998), Ju-On: The Grudge (2003) & Dark Water (2002) all getting big budget Hollywood remakes but that doesn't automatically mean all Asian horror is good & Junk: Shiryo-Gari isn't, good that is. Do yourself a favour & avoid this, there are much better horror films, much better zombie films & much better Asian films worthy of your attention. The best thing I can say about it is that it provides a reasonable amount of entertainment once it gets going but ultimately it didn't impress me that much.

Here's a low-budget Japanese zombie flick that delights in referencing the good old Western zombie films of old. Throughout this movie – which hasn't got even a single spot of originality – we witness references to and plot elements from such diverse films as DAWN OF THE DEAD (a gang of blue, shuffling zombies, one of whom acts like 'Flyboy' in the Romero film), RE-ANIMATOR (the bright green 'zombie serum' injected through syringes), ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS (a victim suffers a reverse-impalement on a door) and THE EVIL DEAD (a zombie spitting milk) as well as many more. The resulting concoction may not be surprising to anybody who's seen any of those previous films, but it does create a pleasing sense of nostalgia for the genre and the film is an obvious fan-pleaser.

The first half an hour is a bit disappointing, offering up a lacklustre robbery and introducing the rather uninteresting protagonists. However, at the thirty minute mark, the zombies are introduced and things never let up until the over-the-top, explosive climax. There isn't much wit or intelligence involved – it's simply a case of the anti-heroes battling zombies and being picked off one-by-one – but as is often the case with Asian cinema, the action moves swiftly along and there's plenty of fun to be had along the way. The acting is adequate, with the actors required to do little more than scream, and the presence of some Americans in the cast makes things a little unusual. The only really unique plot element is the presence of a 'super-zombie', a naked girl who possesses the ability to think and talk, thus making things very difficult for the humans opposing her. Sure enough, things get really bizarre in the last twenty minutes – this super-zombie's hair and eyes change colour at will – but it never stops being a whole lotta fun for zombie fans.

Despite the obviously low budget, director Atsushi Muroga gets the maximum from his special effects team. The rotting, bluish zombies are a frightening menace, and the gore flows freely throughout the production, with an emphasis on gut-munching, people getting bitten, heads exploding when they're shot, as well as body parts flying around for the climax. It's all very rubbery and not particularly convincing, but horror fans will have a ball. JUNK may not be the world's most original zombie film – and it may add absolutely nothing new to the genre whatsoever – but it's fun, exciting and pretty scary at the same time. I loved it.

This was a pretty cool Asian zombie movie.

The deal is a group of thieves rob a jewelery store, and go to a remote warehouse to sell it. Unfortunately for them, the warehouse is a secret US Government experiment lab, and a re-animated corpses is on the loose inside.

One thing I did like was the amount of gore i.e a hell of a lot. There are many the shootings, disembowellings, maggots, and the red stuff spurted everywhere. The plot is also a nice way to set up the inevitable 'escape from the building" scenario.

Things I disliked included the fact that some of the special effects looked a little fake, which was a shame considering how good the gore was, and the fact that I knew exactly who would survive 20 minutes in. But hey, that's the zombie conventions fault, not mine.

Overall, this was an enjoyable zombie movie, but like most other zombie movies, seen one, seen them all.

7/10

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

I bought this DVD. A bunch of thieves go to a warehouse to sell their stolen jewels to the Yakusa. It's too bad for them that the military was experimenting with zombies there. Soon everybody will have to fight for their lives as the zombies are starving for gangster brains.

Basically, "Junk" is a Japanese Blender movie. They didn't want to make just a Zombie movie. They wanted a Yakusa movie and a Heist Movie as well. So they shoved all the genres in the Blender and let it rip. It was a tasty cocktail. If you're a B-movie nut, you'll get into it. There's plenty of good gore and gut munching. If you're not a B-movie nut, you probably don't know this movie exists and are not reading this comment anyway. Either way, I say go for it.

One last thought, I love Jack Boots. All women look good in boots, especially Jack Boots. You know, the boots that go all the way up and over the knee. The kind of boots Ilsa wears, (in "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS" among others). "Junk" has a Zombie babe attacking wearing Jack Boots. My God, it was ecstasy for me. That's how I want to go out: A Zombie babe lusting for my brains as she tears into my neck. When the darkness washes over me, I'll reach out to touch her boots one last time. Ahhhhhh....

SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!

Re-Animator meets Return of the Living Dead and just about any action Yakuza movie. Teaches the lesson of considering rejuvenating relationships with the "Ex" when "Ex" means "dead" rather than "divorced." Nice story of amateur jewel thieves meeting up with their Yakuza buyers at a factory that happens to be a secret US research hot spot in Japan where the all too familiar neon green caught syrup has a tendency to cause carnivorous appetites in the reanimated dead which of course there are a stockpile of pending use as test subjects. Well shot, excellent industrial environment and a less than painful story to boot. A few Tom Savini tricks stand out, like little obvious bits like rubber meat and replacement heads, but frankly no harm no foul there considering how juicy and tight the rest generally delivers. Though not as over the top as Versus this ends considerably better and leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy afterwards. Liked the added twist of an intelligent zombie, no complaints about her lack of costume for much of the film either. Small grumble that she isn't developed further, relegating her to a mid-level ladder style video game boss or second string average Buffy the Vampire Slayer villain. And while the film explains where she picks up the jacket, the boots had no explanation unless thigh high female boots are standard regulation emergency gear for factories should one of two women on the premises suddenly find themselves in dire need of fetish footwear. Her sudden hair color change could have been left out as this is distracting at best. Yes, I'm nit picking. I can't help wish that she were a stronger element when structurally she is the catalyst for the zombie outbreak and an evolution above the rest of the flesh eaters. She even speaks coherently with her hubby. This was a cool idea, could have been more instead of relegating her into the typical schlock gore ghost ghoul shtick.

"Junk" is far from original. Mixing elements of "Zombi 2", "Re-Animator", "Return of the Living Dead 3", and others with a Tarantino-lite subplot, it's still a fun little movie.

Plot: A group of jewel thieves, Yakuza, a scientist, and some really bad American actors end up knee deep in it at an abandoned factory-where the American military did experiments on the dead, and we all know what happens in movies when people experiment with the dead. Oh, and there's a hot zombie chick who's naked much of the time.

The end result plays like the best zombie movie that Italy never made. There's bad acting(especially from the American actors-oh boy...), some nice gore (including an awesome sequence with a zombie consuming it's own flesh), gun-play, nudity, hot chicks, and more.

In the end, you've seen a movie like "Junk" before, but it's still a lot of fun, and is a nice little throwback to Italian zombie flicks. Recommended.