The thinking, I suppose, is that if a group of idol singers were portrayed as tough, capable chicks, it might alienate their core fanbase.īut how are the zombie action scenes in “School-Live!”? Dead on arrival. One would think the only four students to survive a zombie outbreak would show a little more prowess. In their defense, even Oscar-winning actors might choke on dialogue like: “Don’t worry about me! Save yourself!” “No, we’re getting through this together - all of us!” Aside from delivering stale lines, the girls do a lot of falling down in fear in front of approaching zombies. Instead, the members of Last Idol are forced to play it straight, often to cringeworthy results. Unlike manga writer Kaihou, who seems to revel in the gap between his cutesy characters and the horrifying situations they find themselves in, director and screenwriter Issei Shibata’s tongue can’t seem to find his cheek. The “School-Live!” setup is ripe for something along the same lines, and as the first 20-odd minutes of sickly sweet pre-zombie scenes unspooled, I assumed the trite dialogue and almost laughably-bad performances were, in fact, about to be revealed as a parody of typical high school drama once the zombies attacked. A more recent zombie hit, Japan’s own “One Cut of the Dead,” used the genre to parody - and ultimately pay tribute to - the world of zero-budget filmmaking.
Romero, zombies serve as cheeky stand-ins for societal ills like racism or consumerism.
In the best zombie movies, like those of George A. That’s especially true for Yuki (Midori Nagatsuki), so badly traumatized she’s in a permanent state of denial, hallucinating that everything is as it once was. As time goes on and their supplies run low, the girls must venture deeper into zombie territory - and in doing so, confront the mental scars left by the early days of the outbreak.