Gakkô-gurashi!

To graduate, just live!

Yuki Takeya and her three friends -- Miki, Yuuri, and Kurumi were at school when the zombie apocalypse struck. They adopted their dog, Taroumaru, later. They never left school. Instead, they founded the School Live (or Living) Club. They're the ones who remained alive, and they intend to stay that way.

As SL opens, it's an idyllic day. The sun is shining brightly on the school yard and Kurumi Ebisuzawa looks darling in her pigtails and gym shorts as she crouches to sprint. And, after a glance over at her crush, she's ~~> off!💨 Whoops, she fell. Not everything is as it seems at first glance. In fact, don't believe your lyin eyes. They reflexively mislead the audience in many ways.

SL is a 2019 release that is rated 81 on Awiki. It is 101 minutes with English subs. I've read that the anime covered 32 of 50 volumes of the manga, but I've also read the anime only covers a "small part" of the manga. There's a sequel to the manga now, so the story goes on.

Midori Nagatsuki is Yuki Takeya. Yuri Wakasa is played by Wakana Majima. Nonoka Ono is Megumi Sakura. The handsome Tsumugi Katsuragi is played by Daichi Kaneko, and for Kurumi Ebisuzawa, actress Nanami Abe is fantastic. The character is fantastic, so perhaps that helped.

Kurumi is strong. Within moments of the chaos hitting homeroom, she was hit with an excruciatingly painful choice. Zombie features invariably will portray a former loved one that becomes afflicted. When that loved-one becomes a threat, protags face that excruciatingly painful choice: They must annihilate their love. It's a classic collision of head vs heart. The loved-one is gone and survival depends on eliminating the threat. When one breaks it down logically, it's an easy choice. But logic almost never wins when it comes up against emotion. We need to be aware of that so that when a crucial moment comes we are resolved and strong enough to do what must be done. Other's lives could depend on us. "If that happens to me, do what needs to be done!" Kurumi is tough. She's absolutely right, too.

Megumi Sakura is their teacher and the creator of / advisor to the School Living Club. She had felt a sense of foreboding for some time. On the ill-fated day her mother kept trying to call her. There were odd news reports. She muses about how her mother declared her not suitable for teaching... She happens to be quite suitable, and her bravery saved lives.

Before long, we are brought into the ongoing discussions: "Let's leave and get help..." "No, it's too dangerous and we don't know what's out there..." "we can't stay here forever... Yuki couldn't handle it..." "I know, we will have to leave her, she will only slow us down..." Miki Naoki has no patience for Yuki. Yuki has chosen to obliterate the ugliness from her mind and only sees school, class, friends, and her life in the School Living Club, which allows her to live at school! It's one long sleepover party for Yuki. Yuki is the fulcrum of the show. Yuki, as an unreliable narrator, is one of the devices used to bring us this school club story. Isn't that more true-to-life? We only talk to narrators that are less than 99% accurate, as none of us are right al of the time. The general population is very much a zombie horde at times (don't get caught up in the frenzy). Our small circle of family - either by way of genetics or the family we choose - is supposed to be our team that equips us to survive the people-eating world. Most of us think big. We want big houses, big jobs, and big-ticket items when the secret to a fulfilling life is to stay small, be content, be grateful, be giving, forgiving, and kind. Miki, the newest member, is pragmatic, so she doesn't get it. Yuki is dead weight, in her estimation. The rest of the girls see Yuki as candy - she sweetens their existence and makes life worth living. She keeps them cheerful. Kurumi explains that without Yuki, they would just be surviving. Yuki dreams, loves, and appreciates beauty. Since Yuki is around, they remember to LIVE.

The story is obviously a metaphor for real-life. We dress up our existence and put blinders on to block out the horrors of the world. To a certain degree, this is necessary in order to live. Apparently, highly intelligent children struggle with depressive disorders because they cannot as easily do that. When we step back and look at how effective the blinders are, things become bizarre. Sports, fashion, entertainment, gossip... we're consumed with frivolous things, and we literally step over homeless people without a glance. We think we are poor or have money troubles, while starvation is rampant around the world. {It is hard to know where to start, but most of us could volunteer once a month (don't expect to be worshipped for it) and most of us could forgo a latte and give $5.00 a week to a charity that is on the ground meeting needs. Don't pick a charity at random - there's no reason to give to an organization unless at least 90% of the funds reach the needy. There are several that are separately funded so that 100% of donations goes straight to the poor. The USA is almost 248 years old now. Human civilization is over 6k years running. One who thinks the government can fix this is more delusional than Yuki.}

Nicholas Sparks made that the theme of his novel, The Locket. Toward the closing pages an embittered character points out that 'everyone dies. The question is: Have you LIVED?' Because of covid, I had months to plan my husband's memorial. For months I contemplated his life and what it meant, and what our 32 year marriage meant. He was a hard worker and a provider, but what lives on is the impact he had by investing care, time, sustenance (he was a culinary wizard) and most of all good humor (he was hilarious) in others. We have one biological child and many other "kids" that are family by choice. A life well-lived never completely leaves us.

BUT, is it right to let Yuki exist in lies? Quandary. "You shouldn't always try to hold back all the sad things. Sometimes the sad things are important too." Compared to the anime, they are true to the story but roll out some of the surprises differently. In all, the story is worthy but this film is not nearly as good as the twice as long anime (is that some kind of unwritten universal law? The live action is NEVER as good, it seems). Watch the anime, and then decide on the film.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣5 📝6.7 🎭7.4 🌞6.5 🎨6 ⚡4.5 🎵/🔊5 😅2.7 😭4.5 😱4.3 😯2.7 😖4 🤔5.5 💤2 🔚7

Age 12+ hell It's no secret that this is a zombie picture, so it's not appropriate for younger kids. The g😖re is on a level of 4

Re-📺?

This one's in the good-to-pass-the-time category, but I may never pass this way again.... I would opt to watch the anime again rather than the movie.

In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

Zombieland-8, Goonies, Glitch-8, The school nurse files-7.6, The Last of Us-8.6, 28 Days Later-8, The Walking Dead-8, Train to Busan-7.8, A Shop for Killers-8.7, The Cursed 8.3, Sweet Home 8.4, Kingdom-8.3, Kingdom: Ashin of the North-7.5, The Wailing-8.8.

Granted, I am not familiar with Anime that this 2019 live action movie adaptation is based on. So how true director Issei Shibata was to the source material with this 2019 movie, I have no idea.

But of course I opted to sit down and watch "Gakkô-Gurashi!" (aka "School Live!"), on account of it being a zombie movie that I hadn't already seen, and a Japanese zombie movie nonetheless, which just helped sweeten the deal. I hadn't heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it here in 2023, so I didn't really know what I was in for, nor did I have much of any expectations.

Writers Sadoru Chiba, Norimitsu Kaiho and Issei Shibata put together a fair enough script. I mean, this was a pretty straightforward, albeit a somewhat generic zombie movie at best. And it was aimed at a much younger audience than me, and possibly even also a female audience as well. So I felt somewhat like a sore thumb sticking out, because the movie was sort of a swing and a miss in terms of properly entertaining me.

And watching three Japanese high school girls and their teacher trying to make a normal every day routine of living, cooking and other activities inside the confines of their school, whilst surrounded by the living dead, hardly made for an overly thrilling movie experience.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but it should be noted that the actresses playing the three highschool girls and their teacher, did good jobs in portraying their characters, no doubt about it. I can appreciate acting performances, despite of the script falling short of entertaining me.

I found it difficult to get into the flow with the characters, as they were Japanese school girls and felt rather childish in the face of a zombie apocalypse. And that definitely abstracted me from enjoying the storyline to the fullest extend possible.

Visually then "Gakkô-Gurashi!" was okay. Sure, it was a zombie movie, and you have a fair amount of zombies shambling about. Now, the zombies shambling about and not running, was definitely a plus for me. The zombie make-up in the movie was adequate. I mean, it was essentially just Japanese young adults painted gray and with milky eye contact lenses. Nothing outstanding or memorable, but it was actually fair enough, as it didn't permeate that usual horrible low budget zombie make-up that many movies opt to go for. Don't expect anything gory or ghastly, because you will be sorely disappointed. However, I found it odd that all zombies, and I mean literally all zombies, had dirty clothes, but not a single one of them had blood on their clothing or on their bodies, nor any visible wounds.

"Gakkô-Gurashi!" is a movie for the girls, especially for a Japanese audience. No doubt about it. Director Issei Shibata failed to deliver a movie that appealed to my preference and liking within the zombie genre.

My rating of "Gakkô-Gurashi!" lands on a generous five out of ten stars.

Big fan of the animated version. I was on the edge the whole time. There were a few jumpscares and theyvwere effective. If you are a horror/zombie genre fan who's looking for hardcore scare this is not for you. But if you are an anime fan who wants to see the animated version come to life, then this a good one.

I don't know the manga so I am reviewing the movie as a stand alone film. The plot is interesting, not the best acting since the actresses are a pop band. Not gory at all and definitely not scary. But the movie has something that hooks you. You don't get bored and you root for the girls. It's an enjoyable movies and suitable for younger audience