Zombie Kill of the Week: Tokyo Zombie

This week’s zombie kill is from the Japanese film Tokyo Zombie and bends all the rules of this competition. Though fans call this movie “the Japanese Shaun of the Dead,” that might be a bit of an overstatement. Fujio and Misou are slackers who would rather be practicing their jujitsu than working at a fire extinguisher plant in Edogawa, Tokyo.

The plant is located near the infamous Black Mount Fuji, a repository of toxic waste and other refuse that has also become a burial ground. Brought to life by the toxic waste and negative energy of the lost souls buried there, a horde of zombies rises to invade Tokyo.


Fujio and Misou narrowly escape the zombie apocalypse, but when they stop at a grocery store to stock up on supplies Misou is bitten by one of the undead. Unwilling to become a zombie, he throws himself off a bridge and bequeaths his martial arts gear to Fujio. Fujio continues his friend’s legacy of jujitsu in the sport of zombie wrestling, that pits real zombies against human fighters in the ring (my favorite match is Gaiga versus “Vampire Zombie”).

Near the end of the movie Fujio is forced to fight his former mentor in the coliseum. He doesn’t want to finish Misou off, but Misou cleverly uses Fujio’s past trauma at the hands of a perverted school teacher to unleash his rage. Fujio pummels Misou with his fists of fury, leaving him apparently dead and covered in gyrating bruises (a horrifying sight, thanks to some cheap digital manipulation).

It is only after Misou has been “killed” that it is revealed he was never one of the undead to begin with because the zombie who bit him was wearing dentures. Nonetheless, Misou still stubbornly thinks he’s zombie and the movie ends with a shot of him chasing after Fujio in the hopes that his friend will finally kill him.

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