Film Review: ZOM 100: BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD (2023)

 ZOM 100: BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD (2023) Japan 2hrs 8mins

Director: Yusuke Ishida

"If I can't live my life the way I want. I'm better off as zombie food!" - Akira

"Zombies can't have bucket lists." - Shizuka

ZOM 100: BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD (2023) is the live action remake of the anime series of the same name which came out about a month before this did. Not that this really makes a difference to me as I am not much of an anime fan so had the movie not come out, I would probably would never have watched it. The film (and series) is about a young guy called Akira (Eiji Akaso) who gets his first job and is really excited. His enthusiasm soon wears off as he is made to work all hours, do everyone else's  job and gets no appreciation. He loses all connections with his friends and goes from a being a happy, lively person to a tired, depressed "zombie like" shell of his former self. When the zombie apocalypse hits the city where he lives he barely even notices until he is chased by a horde to the top of his building. Unlike most people in this situation Akira is actually happy because it means that he does not have to go into work! With all this free time on his hands Akira decides that he needs to live his life before he becomes zombie food and so sets about writing a list of "100 things I want to do before becoming a zombie". Along the way he teams up with his old friend Kenchi (Suntaro Yanagi) and a mysterious woman, Shizuka (Mai Shiraishi) to tick off as many things as they can whilst avoiding the growing number of zombies as well as run ins with Akira's work mates.

Okay, so initially ZOM 100: BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD (2023) bears a striking resemblance to many other recent Japanese and Korean zombie movies and series; ZOMBIE FOR SALE (2019), #ALIVE (2020) and ALL OF US ARE DEAD (2022) spring to mind, and of course the ones that sparked most of this off I AM A HERO (2015) and TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016), none of which I have covered on here as yet. Anyway, not that I am complaining about any of them... I enjoy all of these movies. I suppose what I am trying to say is I have picked up on two traits that are specific to Asian zombie movies. They are either floaty and romantic like the majority of the movies mentioned above or they are ridiculously dark, gory and graphic like THE SADNESS (2021). Sometimes a combination of both, TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016)  and subsequent sequels or occasionally they'll have a go at mixing action and comedy. KINGDOM (2019) certainly had it's funny moments or ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2017). Either way they always make sure that the zombie action is high in whatever style they have gone for. ZOM 100: BUCKET OF THE DEAD (2023) is one of the more floaty types and as such does have a few cringey moments but they manage to level those moments out well with some great zombie action and one well placed WTF moment.

The characters are pretty standard and stereo typical. Akira (who looks about twelve), is the shy, nervous, unlikely hero type. His friend Kenchi is the cocky guy that gets all the girls and Shizuka is the troubled, bad ass that just wants to be on her own. Other familiar characters are the elderly neighbour, the couple who are expecting a baby, flirty air hostesses and the overbearing boss. I don't begrudge this too much as they are well acted and you get enough of a backstory to take an interest in their welfare. I like the plot and the storyline and am glad that Akira and his friends actually do get to do some cool stuff from their list, however it is supposed to be a list of 100 things to do before getting eaten and he really doesn't get very far down the list at all but I guess that leaves things open for a sequel or two or maybe they are just leaving it up to the anime series to fill in the blanks.

As is always the case with any type of Asian zombie movie you can pretty much guarantee that there will be plenty of zombies and this is no exception. Fast moving, ravenous types with lots of blood and prominent black veins, snapping jaws, impressive herd mentality and very noisy. They certainly are fearsome and look really awesome but they are pretty much the same remit as all the other zombies in modern Asian movies except for maybe VERSUS (2002)  which mixed things up a bit. I guess they go along with the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" which I do understand but I maybe would like them to start experimenting a bit more. ZOM 100: BUCKET OF THE DEAD (2023) is on the light to moderate side of things when it comes to gore and graphic visuals. No eyes are gouged out nor are there close ups of intestines just a lot of blood and hoarding/crowding scenes. They do pull out one of the big guns later on in the movie which is pure genius! This is going to be spoiler if you haven't seen it yet but there is a great part later on in an aquarium when a Great White shark turns into a zombie , sprouts legs and reeks havok on the survivors! Now, I know that this has not gone down well with some people who think it is really dumb and had actually switched it off at that point but this is the kind of shit I live for!! I suppose it helps that another one of my loves are low budget monster movies, especially stuff like the SHARKNADO movies, the great SciFi channel classic SHARK ISLAND (2015) and my all time favourite SHARKTOPUS (2010) and ensuing sequels so this part especially is right up my street and I appreciated every moment! CGI obviously plays a big part in this but considering its a zombie shark on legs it looks pretty good. Humour plays quite a big part and there are small parts throughout that will make you smile, mostly to do with the zombies. There is a cute bit at a hot springs with a zombie couple but the whole zombie shark bit is not to be taken seriously. As I said earlier there isn't a lot of gore and very few kills. The zombies are the kings here as they get plenty of human flesh but the survivors don't really kill that many zombies.

The sweet and romantic moments are quite endearing. Some of the things on the list are quite simple, for example, stay at home camping, dye hair and set off fireworks are quirky but they lead to Akira meeting people. Other activities like riding a motorcycle, paragliding and paddle boarding are fun fill ins and the fact that Akira wants to be a superhero and save the day is basically the films goal so in that respect it flows really well. I watched this on Netflix with English overdub which was pretty bad to be honest but I got used to it. It would probably have been a bit better if I had just watched it with English subtitles which I prefer.  I also didn't actually realise the runtime was just over 2 hours long when I was watching it, I only just noticed it was that long as I was writing this up. I'm not usually a fan of long movies unless they are entertaining and ZOM 100 certainly doesn't feel like its 2 hours long. In summary ZOM 100:BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD (2023) is kind of dumb but it is great fun and well worth a watch even if it is just for the zombie shark! I score ZOM 100: BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD (2023) 3.5 brains out of 5!

ZOM 100: BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD (2023) is currently available on Netflix.