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Chanbara Beauty

02.12.11

An evil-corporation-backed mad scientist with a god complex begins resurrecting the dead. Soon, zombification spreads worldwide, leaving only a handful of survivors doing what they must to remain alive.

One of these people is Aya, a young woman who roams the countryside, hunting the marauding undead with a katana and a scowl. She and her companion, Katsuji, are soon joined by the leather-clad, shotgun-toting Reiko and the three of them hunt down Dr. Sugita, the scientist responsible for the outbreak, and Aya’s sister, Suki, who just happens to be the good doctor’s sidekick…

Video game to movie adaptations have a rough deal. When the high-water mark of your genre is the first Resident Evil film, people tend to expect your effort to be as DOA as, well, DOA. However, when the adaptation in question demands of you “Babes, blades and bikinis: what more do you want?” you can be forgiven for not immediately forming a coherent response.

A possible answer, however, is ‘story’. And, perhaps surprisingly, Chanbara Beauty delivers. Much care is given to provide detailed back-story for the characters, making an admirable attempt to get the audience to empathise with their plight and feel concern when they’re in danger. Not a bad effort in a film where the day job of half the featured cast is gravure model.

Source: Subtitledonline.com (blog)