Higanjima: Escape from Vampire Island

So it tries to be funny and dramatic at once. I think it does not achieve it's goal, but of course you might feel different. It's a shame, because there are quite a few good scenes in here. But it drifts into melodrama at times, when it is completely unnecessary. Not to mention that the acting (even for that sort of a movie) is bland, if you are being nice to the movie.

Then again, since this is based on a Manga, it is always difficult to put the complexity of those onto one film. Unfortunately I have not read any of those "comic books" (hope you are not offended by me calling them that, but not everyone might know what a Manga is). Still I'm sure they are far better than this one, that can be enjoyed at times ... especially with low expectations

Wow, Higanjima if considered a horror movie is a total fail (except for he fun head smashing opening scene). If taken as a comedy this movie is pure genius... you get some of the funniest over-acting, staged shots of the coolest nerd-losers in movie history, some of the gayest smart-ass vampires, some of the most annoying screechy ghost grannies, the Korean version of Harry Potter as a sidekick funnier than even the cliché fat dumb funny guy.... and don't even start with the "cool" main characters. Akira is the handsome nice guy who tends to sit down for misplaced scenes of unfitting sadness and staring at the horizon, his brother is some kind of a nerd who watched too many Rambo movies and decided killing vampires is fun and makes you look cool and then there is a cool rocker dude (love the staged scenes with the baseball bat) who seems to have been snatched from a bad 70ies rock gang movie. He tends to appear more retarded than the obviously retarded Pong character.

Anyway... that gang of idiots for unexplainable stupid reasons heads of to retardation island Higanjima where they fight a bunch of vampires, exploding winged vampire sluts, cheap CGI dragon-meets-Giger-style-Alien monsters and zombie degenerates like the kick ass brain dead "Reaggae" zombie who is by far the funniest. The whole movie doesn't make an inch of sense and the random editing adds to the ridiculous funny bone of Higanjima, mixing shaky cam fight sequences that are barely watchable without throwing up with endless shots of Akira sitting on a wall and being sad for 20 minutes or having some romantic puppy-flashbacks before turning into a bloodthirsty fighting machine that splits flying leaves in slow motion.

The fight sequences are always accompanied by misplaced epic heavy rock music and tend to recycle the basic ideas of smashing heads, chopping off arms or driving swords through hollow vampire-zombie heads in a repetitive fashion. They really just had these 3 ideas, so even a massive monster dragon has to have his head smashed first and then stabbed just to make sure its really dead. Of course this movie is 2 hours long to elaborate on the exquisite plot and thrilling fight sequences. On higanjima heroes die slowly so they can scream the names of their loved ones for minutes even after having a samurai sword driven through their nerd-brains.

The director is either a total comedy genius or a lobotomy patient... anyway, put on your diapers when watching this.

Higanjima otherwise known as Vampire Island was a recommendation and not something I'd ever heard of. It was an absolute beast to find an English subtitled copy of but I'm very happy I managed it.

It tells the story of a young man who learns that his missing brother is on a mysterious island that has been taken over by vampires. With friends in tow he sets off to find his brother and combat the undead force.

Japanese made with a little help from South Korean production Higanjima has plenty of the usual over the top Japanese tropes and is all the better for it. Very gory, action packed and perfectly paced it exceeded all expectations that I had.

On the flipside the lack of budget shows in places, when CGI is required it really looks quite bad. The movie is also oddly a bit camp, I'm not sure why that approach was used and our vampires look like extras from Big Trouble In Little China (1986).

Despite its flaws Higanjima is a lot of fun and though I'd argue against it entirely being classed as a horror its certainly something I'd have liked to see more of. It could have easily been turned into a television series and one that I really would have watched.

Silly violent fun.

The Good:

Some great moments

Looks the part

Very well constructed

The Bad:

Some ropey cgi

Some unanswered questions

The vampires could have looked a tad better

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Banishing vampires is as easy as locking them in a cupboard

Pong was right, they were terrible friends

A clutch of aimless teens from the city are unconvincingly convinced to join a suspicious seeming woman on her journey to Higanjima island, where the brother of main teen Akira apparently resides in secret after having gone missing for many years. Upon arrival at the spooky island, the teens are quickly overrun by a large contingent of pasty faced vampires. They are rescued by the brother who is now a seemingly indestructible vampire hunter. Despite some unintentionally funny dialog and situations, this is a decent chase movie where Akira must eventually join his brother in battle against the vampire leader and his minions, including an impressive flying vampire dragon that snatches people off the ground from time to time. The vampires are creepy, especially the white-haired leader (well played by Kôji Yamamoto), and Miori Takimoto registers well as Akira's potential romantic interest. The rest of the acting could charitably be called highly variable. Some of the CGI horrors are likewise among the less successful aspects of this well produced Japanese scare flick.

If that particular thing is your thing, you will rate it higher.

If it is not, you will be underwhelmed as it caters to the tropes and conventions of Japanese comic books.

I found the villain outright ridiculous in a laughably bad way. Too many of the other characters are irritating too - just slightly less so. Like the whiny kid in the letterman jacket and the other two who seemed to find plenty of hair product while playing Japanese Undead Survivor.

Oh, and I wasn't impressed by the CGI either.

Even the action seemed mostly dull.

Also things are left unexplained. Like why the big guy was sometimes chained up in the village of the resistance.

I did like the heavy metal score though. And forklift lady.

It took me several years to finally clear this off my playlist. It was that little of a priority to watch. Finishing it just proved so.