Jigoku Kôshien

BATTLEFIELD BASEBALL (2004) This low-budget baseball zombie comedy is arguably a mixed bag, but one likely to develop a sizable cult following. While it successfully pokes fun at the cliches inherent in most sports movies, particularly those `moments' where people spontaneously applaud the main characters actions (similarly mocked in NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE), it doesn't deliver on the action and gore quotient promised by the concept. And yet, as a budget-conscious live-action adaptation of a Shonen Jump manga, it plants tongue hard in cheek and certainly feels faithful to the source material, never for a minute taking itself seriously and gleefully indulging in the most eye-rollingly obvious visual gags. Desperate to make it to the big leagues, the Seido High School baseball team must face their much more successful rivals at Gedo High, a team made up entirely of well-armed zombies. Their ace in the hole may well be transfer student `Jubeh The Baseball' (Tak Sakaguchi), who's signature fastball killed his own father, a tragedy which prevents him from helping the team. Directed by the writer of VERSUS (Yudai Yamiguchi), produced by that film's director (Ryuhei Kitamura) and starring that film's lead (Tak Sakaguchi), BATTLEFIELD shares that film's low-budget ingenuity, but wisely knows when to take up stakes and call it a day around the 90 minute mark. The Japanese R2 DVD has English subs and includes a hilariously inventive short film called Ramen Baka Ichidai, about a kid who hunts down the perfect Ramen noodles for his dying grandfather. Primo stuff.

Ever wanted to see an action / comedy / musical about baseball playing zombies? Don't lie, you know you do.

Jubei Yakyû (Tak Sakaguchi) is a poor student, transferred from school to school. He is a great baseball player, but he won't allow himself to play, that is until his new school, Seido High has to face the Gedo High School team, a team of baseball-playing zombies, whose stadium is apparently not to subject to any laws. Awesome.

'Battlefield Baseball' is nothing but 90 minutes of insanity: packed with fights, deadly baseball matches, all sorts of strange characters, musical numbers, crazy dialog, the most convenient and bizarre plot twists, and all-round awesomeness, 'Battlefield Baseball' is one bizarre, but very funny movie.

Don't watch 'Battlefield Baseball' with any expectations, and don't take it seriously at all, and you should enjoy it. Especially if you like awesomeness - 8/10

...it would probably look a lot like this; because like Monty Pythion, this movie deliberately goes out of its way to be as ridicules as possible. The story involves a high school baseball team, who's opponents happen to be a vicious gang of superhuman, green-faced monsters; the monster team enjoys horribly mutilating the players on the opposing team (sorry to disappoint you sports fans, but there is very little baseball is actually played). Anyhow, the high school's last hope is to try and recruit a new student with incredibly powerful baseball skills; unfortunately he has vowed never to play baseball again, after one of his pitches ends up killing his father; are you following this so far? There's a bit more to the story then that, but its not that important, sense the whole movie is really just an excuse to show us some of the most insane gags ever brought to the screen. Recommended for those with a abnormal sense of humor.

I watched this movie not knowing much about it, but after watching it, I can truly say this is one of the most absurd movies I have ever seen. The Japanese love to mix genres, and with this one it is comedy, action, zombie film and musical all rolled into one big laugh fest. The wackiness starts off with a baseball team trying to make it to the finals but facing their first opponents the Gedo team, which consists of zombie/demons kills almost the entire team.

A rogue ex-player joins the high school and is recruited to the failed team in hopes that they can defeat them. The recruitment leads to the films first of 3 (that I can remember) comedic musical numbers giving background information on the characters.

The wide array of characters blends well for the film, and lends to the ridiculous scenes with the team facing off against the Gedo zombie team, who have their own rules for baseball, which doesnt even contain the actual game of baseball, but just attacking the other team attempting to kill them all. A movie that has to be seen to be believed. Theres no way this strange humor would work in America, so if you like off the wall comedies, try to get a copy of this movie and see for yourself.

BATTLEFIELD BASEBALL (3 outta 5 stars) Okay, this is a low budget movie... they didn't have a lot of money to spend on big action scenes (or realistic-looking gore)... but, dang, it was still a lot of fun! How can you not love a movie about a high school baseball team that has to fight an evil team that slaughters everyone they play against... and takes time out for a few musical ballads along the way? I'm not generally a fan of these "funny" Asian action movies... I prefer the more serious ones... but this movie was too outrageous for me not to enjoy. A sullen young teen who has sworn off baseball due to a childhood tragedy is the only one who can help Seido High defeat the ultra-violent psychos... but come game time he is locked away in a prison cell... will he get out in time? Don't worry about the movie making too much sense... it doesn't... but I loved the team of bad guys, particularly the head coach who is one of the coolest looking villains ever. He looks something like Jim Carrey in "The Mask"... but dressed like Marlon Brando in "The Missouri Breaks". The extremely round-eyed Bancho that we meet at the start of the movie is pretty funny, too. The movie plays out like a feature length Monty Python sketch... so if absurdity is not your thing you should probably see something else.