Reipu zonbi: Lust of the dead

Following a nuclear attack in Tokyo, a nurse and several other women find themselves as well as any woman in the city under attack by zombified men looking to rape any woman around them and must find a way of stopping their violent outbursts to get away alive.

This one wasn't that bad but did have its flaws. When it tried to, there was some rather fine work here where it manages to showcase the rather intense and explicit work involved in a rather ordinary manner. The cause of the outbreak and how it affects the population makes for a rather creepy premise and there's some rather chilling work here showcasing the rather ugly truth for all involved here, from the opening beatdown and her eventual revenge to the different flashbacks showing each of the girls getting their own run-ins with the crazed hordes from the hospital room massacre to the aborted job interview where her attacker turns on her and the situation with the housewife being used by her husband and her friends which are all rather dark action scenes against the theme of seeing the women being raped and having the others around them either save them or let it happen. That these generate into battles with zombies gives this the kind of graphic bloodletting usually required here with the method utilized for getting rid of the men, and the regular means of dispatch give this even more rather brutal scenes with the evisceration and bloodshed coming from some rather fun encounters here. Once it comes to showing the women fighting back and taking up arms supported by the military forces left, there's a nice amount of action to be had here as this one goes for the fun of the gunfighting and hand-to-hand tactics to stave off the swarms around them, letting the furious action take over again and brings about some great times here. Given that these result in some really brutal and bloody sequences with all the usual craziness expected here, this goes a long way to redeeming this one. While these did work, it does have some issues. The film's biggest problem is the fact that there's such a hard subject matter to take into account here as the film attempts to support the theory that women are there simply to have men have sex with them as the chemical only affects men. Turning them into sex-crazed maniacs rather than flesh-eating hordes who will attack any and all women as often as they want wherever they want sends quite a strong message and the continuous sequences showing multiple men abusing and raping women in incredibly explicit and sexual means doesn't come off in the best light. That often blurs the line between exploitation and outright misogyny at times, especially within the rape at the TV station which is left on showing the girls getting raped in full-on close-up simply for the sake of the nudity and it leaves a much more brutal and ugly tone in this one than there really should be. As well, once it leaves the exploitative subject matter there's a big flaw in how long that goes in between attacks as the mid-section of the film doesn't feature anything as the girls are stuck in their hideout watching the events of the world play out around them doesn't generate any kind of really interesting action to play out. It's somewhat dull in these sections, and that results in some serious pacing issues. With some really dodgy and lame CGI in places, these here really take this one down.

Rated Unrated/NC-17: Continuous Explicit Rape, Extreme Graphic Violence, Continuous Full Nudity and Graphic Language.

Rape Zombie: Lust Of The Dead 1-5.

When women are getting mass raped by a horde of Zombies, the movies have gotta be on some kinda list. Right? Unfortunately, trying to read the frenetically paced subtitles in the opening exposition of the first movie is nearly impossible and overwhelming. Then the movie takes a while before it lives up to it's name; but in the end, it does. It did manage to keep my attention, though. And you've really got to admit, getting raped by Zombies wouldn't be nearly as bad as being eaten alive by Zombies, so really, this is more of a win/win compromise in the whole world of Zombies thing; let's just be honest about that.

Now there has to be a reason they managed to get 5 movies financed, right? From the second movie and on, the producers seem to understand that if you're gonna make promises, don't dally around, just get to it. Seriously, nobody watched this movie hoping for shower scenes. (Or at least I didn't.)

You can dig around in my huge collection of movie lists by clicking my name.

Exposure to radiation causes men to turn into zombie rapists, whose victims die from their toxic ejaculate. Four women women try to survive the outbreak, seeking shelter in a Shinto temple.

With such an outrageous title and concept, one might assume that, with Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead, director Naoyuki Tomomatsu is taking an OTT satirical swipe at Japan's obsession with sexual violence. Several scenes inspired by Dawn of the Dead, in which intellectuals and feminists debate the nature of the epidemic, go some way to support the idea. I'm not convinced, though: I'm guessing that the real purpose of the film is to get lots of Japanese girls naked and to throw in some cheap gore effects.

And, boy, are they ever cheap: rubbishy After Effects CGI blood splats (the only way to kill a zombie is to shoot it in the penis!) and rubbery prosthetics abound, with some even worse effects saved for the apocalyptic nuclear aftermath ending, in which North Korea bombs Japan (and a lesbian couple have a baby-no man involved?!?!)

As a zombie film this is a total failure, the shuffling undead (moving slowly because their trousers are round their ankles?) look really cheap; as soft-core titillation, it's a little more successful, with plenty of female nudity (as the zombies get their rape on) and some girl on girl sex to set the pulse racing.

If you enjoy trashy Asian exploitation, Lust of the Dead is just about worth a watch, but it's far from essential. 4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

*My mistake: there seems to be five of these films so far!

Truth be told, I have gotten really tired of zombie movies. The exceptions though are the serious and arty ones like the French "Les Revenants" OR, conversely, the ones like this that are completely exploitative and cheerfully offensive, but also make "Shaun of the Dead" look like a serious drama in comparison. This is not an actual "zombie porn" film, thank god. It doesn't have interminable scenes of the old "in-out" to turn on weirdos with bizarre zombie fetishes while boring the hell out of anybody else. This is a lot more fun, and really the kind of film that could ONLY be made in Japan.

Due to some weird phenomenon, males everywhere are turning "toxic". They start bleeding from their eyes and start raping every female they see. The females have to band together to fight off ravenous hordes of "rape zombies", who have highly poisonous semen to boot, and can only be killed by castration or a gun blast to the genitals. The funniest scenes involve female soldiers forming firing squads to execute "toxic males", who are bound and dressed in bulls-eye underwear so they know exactly where to shoot. The castration and genital blasting jokes wouldn't offend anyone in America, but many people would take the rape scenes way too seriously. Hordes of male "rape zombies" penetrate females who all conveniently have their silicone-enhanced breasts exposed and bouncing around, and of course they eventually end up enjoying the experience, at least before the poison semen does them in. But if you don't let your PC panties get in a bunch, you'll realize these "rape scenes" are every bit as ridiculous and funny as the firing-squad scenes.

The main characters meanwhile are four female "survivors" who are holed up in a shrine. The main character, the badass, is played by Asami, who is often called a "porn star", but seems to mostly appear in low-budget sexploitation fare like this as opposed to out-and-out "AV" (adult videos). There are also a pair of lesbians, who have a long scene together--it's NOT true all the nudity in this involves rape. Then there's a very sexy and mature-looking "schoolgirl" (who's even less believable as a genuine schoolgirl then is anything else in this movie). She's so horny for a (non-toxic) man she decides to seduce the young priest of the Shinto shrine, who is seemingly immune to the virus since he has taken a vow chastity. The result of this schoolgirl seduction is pretty predictable, but also very sexy.

Generally though, this movie goes for entertainment value first with the masturbation appeal only secondary. I wouldn't call it a "pink" film exactly , but it's much closer to that than it is to actual porn (It's what in other countries used to be known as "sexploitation"--films that definitely USE sex, but aren't NOTHING BUT sex). I don't know if I'll watch the rest of the "trilogy", but this one was pretty fun.

Within the last couple of years there has been a massive flood of these blood-drenched and gory movies to make it out of Japan. They are known (and loved) for their extreme violence, amounts of blood, absurdity and for just being downright campy. I will say that "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead" ("Reipu Zonbi: Lust of the Dead") was a rather stale and boring addition to this rather unique genre of Japanese movies.

Whereas most others are just blunt trauma to your face with the levels of violence, bloodshed and oddities, then "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead" was just one step away from being soft core porn. And yeah, of course, there is an audience for that as well. But enough is enough.

The story in "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead" is about a strange phenomena that turns men into rapists and after awhile they turn into zombie rapists. And women all over the world are in dire peril.

That was basically it, the entire movie wrapped up in a short summary. The storyline is entertaining enough in its oddity and absurdity. But it can only carry the movie so far, because there is little else to keep the movie afloat. That is, unless you are into soft core Japanese pornography and really awful zombie make-up.

The acting in the movie was as you'd expect from a movie with the title "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead". So don't get your hopes up here.

Personally I think that director Naoyuki Tomomatsu was spending a little too much time filming staged rape scenes with poor-looking zombies, instead of focusing on establishing a proper movie.

There are two sequels to "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead" that I am familiar with, as I found them on Amazon. But at the outrageous price they are set and after having seen the train wreck that is "Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead", then I will call it quits here and not invest in further installments to this low budget sleaze-fest.