How much did you have to pay to see it, Lyte? I remember movie tickets being pretty pricey in Japan.
We saw the 8 pm show, so the price went down. 1200 yen for a ticket. We grabbed like every mini-poster they had for the movie, too!
Here is an example of dialogue in this wonderful piece of cinematic art. One that has changed the way I look at the world, without question:
Aya: ...........................................
Saki: ...........................................
Aya: ...........................................
Saki: .............................Oneechan.
Aya: .................................Saki.....
Aya: ............................................
Saki .........................Oneechan. Shine.
Aya: .............................................
Both: .............................................
The CG used was so awful. It looked like it was from the PS2 version of the game. Most of the "fights" against zombies involved the girl playing Aya sort of flailing her arms and waving her sword, while horrible CG white "slashes" appeared on the screen. The girl playing Reiko used a shotgun and I don't think she reloaded once. You didn't really see the gun fire so much as you saw white flashes appear near whoever she shot. And the zombies? There were two types: The normal zombies looked more like angry KISS fans doing a terrible impression of the Thriller dance when they moved. Then there were stronger zombies who could use weapons and do martial arts for some reason. These were all males and they all were hoodies and baggy pants. In fact just about everyone seemed to have a hoody at some point. There was also a zombie female who looked like a dead version of GoGo Yubari from Kill Bill. She even used the same weapon. Blood hits the camera just like in the game. No, scratch that, it's the SAME blood splotch effect RIGHT FROM THE GAME.
There is never any explanation given as to why Aya is walking around looking like a stripper in a feathery bikini, although most of the time she's covered up by a cloak. They just use some fan servicey-shots and show off her body (she could have used some more time in the gym!) every now and then. Most of the time you just see her face; the actress barely speaks so it's just shots of her looking left or right. She seems to have trouble expressing any kind of emotion. Same with the chick playing her sister. If this is supposed to be on purpose, they did and awful, awful job. I don't think I can think of a bigger train wreck of a video game movie. Even other terrible shit like Street Fighter at least has dialogue, plot, and character development. This movie is just sort of like the characters wandering around from location to location with no explanation given, sitting or standing around, zombies come, kill kill kill kill, repeat. Just like the game, I guess.
The end of the movie uses more horrible CG, as Aya and Saki face-off, powering up Dragonball Z-style. When they both jump in the air with flames around them, I burst out laughing so hard.
