DVD Review: Ken'ichi Fujiwara's ZOMBIE HUNTER RIKA

There is definitely a range of quality in the area of low-budget Japanese live-action horror. At the right side of the bell curve are films like Tokyo Gore Police and Machine Girl, which get high marks for creativity and energy. As one moves to the left of the curve, the film making gets increasingly cheap, crude, and trashy. A good example of a Japanese horror film landing squarely on the left side of the curve is Ken'ichi Fujiwara's Zombie Hunter Rika (Saikyô heiki joshikôsei: Rika - zonbi hantâ vs saikyô zonbi Gurorian), which was originally released by G.P. Museum Soft but is now being issued on English subtitled DVD courtesy of Switchblade Films. Zombie Hunter Rika is an extremely uneven slice of comedic gore with a few decent tricks to hold it together.

Zombie Hunter Rika is the third movie in the Nihombie series: Zombie Self-Defence Force is the first in the series and Girls' Swim Team Versus the Undead (aka Girl's Rebel Force of Competitive Swimmers) is the second. In the film, Rika, the titular high school girl, skips school with two girlfriends to visit her grandfather Ryuhei, who just happens to live in a zombie infested village. Rika eventually gets mangled by zombies but her grandfather, who is a brilliant surgeon, puts her back together with an improved man-zombie arm, which she uses to fillet the undead. Three male goofballs weave their way into the situation as does Ryuhei's scheming, nymphomaniac trophy wife.

There is not much style to the Ken'ichi Fujiwara's direction, and the film tends to lack a certain snap, but Tak Sakaguchi's action choreography adds an occasional burst of liveliness (e.g., a zombie fight featuring a guy flopping around, kicking zombies, and bouncing off cars is fun). The HD cinematography definitely looks like video with an image that skews green. As expected, there is plenty of viscera (practical and CG) and nakedness.

The only extras on this bare-bones DVD are trailers of other Switchblade titles like Attack Girls' Swim Team Versus the Undead, Cruel Restaurant and Killer Bees.  Although Switchblade's distributor (ADV Films) was recently liquidated, the company that purchased some of the distributor's assets is still on course for a mid-September release.