It seems like it happened when nobody was looking, the return of the zombie film. They’ve been popping up all over the place. Heck, even the local Cineplex 47 near the mall has been showing ‘em. Great news indeed. Especially for all of us who’d prefer to see the fat zombie on that abandoned boat in the harbor get shot again… rather than resigning ourselves to another evening of “I Screamed On Halloween When I Heard The Legend of The Witch Who Knew What You Did Last Valentine’s Day… Part IV”. It may lead to a surprising revelation to stop and think, for a moment, about who it is that has left the deepest bite-marks upon the neck of this most beloved sub-genre as of late. It’s not Italy, it’s not America and it’s not Spain. Who’s left? Japan, that’s who. They have unleashed some of the wildest, weirdest and wettest zombie films seen in over a decade. Witness the savage and uncontrolled excesses of Wild Zero (2000), Stacy, or Versus (2000), and you’ll see what I’m getting at; anything can, and usually does, happen in these films. Not since zombie-maestro Lucio Fulci was in his prime have I been this excited about the cinematic undead!
Junk (1999) opens in a familiar way. Well, familiar if you’ve seen Zombie 3. Pretty much the same goings on here with a few significant differences. The corpse set for re-animation is a pretty (pretty naked…) Japanese woman. Also, instead of just sitting up and scaring everybody, she rips the throat right off of the doctor (horrible Caucasian actor, by the way) in charge. When I was first told about this, it was described to me as “the Japanese Zombie 3”. Yeah there’s the opening scene and a few other things as well but believe me Junk is its own entity. The military is behind all of the experiments that led to the incidents (of course) that opened the film and now they need some help to cope before it all gets out of control. They turn to Doctor Nakata. He was originally one of the inspirations for the creation of the serum that brings the dead back to life, called DNX, but with its dangerous properties and the militaries misuse of his creation, he decided to leave it all behind and go for a normal life. Didn’t last long.
While all of that is being sorted out we meet a group of would-be criminals, three men and a woman who are about to rob a jewelry store. After it’s done they call Ramon (Tate Gouta). Ramon is the prerequisite Yakuza bad ass with piercing eyes, long silver hair, tattoos covering his body and a vibe similar to a cobra about to strike. Sort of accurate really. His intention is to screw over these amateur hour criminals and keep all the jewels to himself. Ramon tells the group to meet him where? Yep, the “abandoned” factory that’s out of the way of everything. The same place, of course, where the dead now walk.
Cut back to the military now, Nakata insists that they use the computer systems fail-safe. He wants to blow the place to shit. It takes some convincing but the General goes for it. They set the timer and… and… well, and nothing. The clothing-impaired female zombie from the opener has shut down the system locally, leaving a message for Nakata in the process. It’s a message he understands and within moments he is on board an Army chopper heading for the factory. He knows who she is and she knows who he is. Without saying too much more, they had a life together… before. She is not an ordinary zombie, nope, not even close.
As all these little side stories come together the proverbial shit really begins to hit the fan… hard. Saki (Kaori Shimamura), the female criminal (who despises men) and Akira (Osamu Ebara), the drug using small-timer who Saki may have a “thing” for, are soon on their own against Yakuza with big guns, zombies with big teeth, and even zombie Yakuza! That isn’t all though. That female undead (now leather clad), like I said, isn’t your average everyday shuffling maggot bucket. With each “death” (for lack of a better term) she becomes progressively stronger. Even the old standby, a bullet through the brain, only manages to piss her off. When Nakata shows up to put her down once and for all and meets up with Saki along the way (who is definitely of the “I’ve had enough of this crap” mindset), oh yeah, it’s on baby.
Atsushi Muroga was previously behind the derivative 1995 action/crime flick Score (2000) (wrong date listed in link) and some of that influence carried over into this project, which is a good thing. Yes, it’s creepy, moody and atmospheric but it’s also been meticulously balanced with drama and action. These action scenes, like the robbery for example, are amazing to watch. With low angle slow motion intensity and fast pans mixed with high impact violence, these moments leave you remembering them. At the same time, the smoky, backlit corridors feel like they are actually closing in on you. Muroga doesn’t miss any of his targets. Now this is a zombie picture right? So there’s going to be at least a little gore right? Wrong. There’s a LOT of gore! Throats are chewed, torn, ripped and impaled. Heads are removed, shot, splattered and rolled down stairs. Guts are strewn, chomped, ripped out and seem to drip down nearly ever wall in the place. Like his previous outing, this film is full of a bunch of things that you’ve seen before that probably shouldn’t work but… it works. Versus seems to be the film with all the hype yet Junk hasn’t really gotten any of the recognition that it so rightly deserves. It’s violent, filled with strong performances (English actors not withstanding), moves faster then a go-go dancer on amphetamines and delivers on every level, technically and emotionally. You can’t ask for more than that. The tagline is “Everybody Fights” and that’s accurate.
Junk is anything but.