Undertaker is directed by Naoyoshi Kawamatsu and was released in 2012 to much acclaim. It follows a young boy, Ryouichi Saeki (Shinta Souma) who survives the sudden zombie outbreak and meets a man who takes jobs as a zombie killer for hire. Years later the young boy is all grown up (now played by Yoshito Kobashigawa) and takes on a job involving tracking down a mother-now-zombie. He heads to her last location and proceeds to meet some pretty nasty looking zombies and finally the zombie mom. However, Ryouichi’s view on the zombies is altered forever and the film ends on a sad note.
Undertaker is your typical arthouse effort of making a zombie movie seem more than just a gore-filled fun time. Sadly, the film feels long, and the story doesn’t go far beyond the setup I mentioned above. We don’t know much about this world and we honestly don’t get to experience anything cool beyond the aforementioned neat looking zombies (kudos to the special effects department). It’s a neat idea wrapped up in a bland plot.
If you think my “review” is too short, know the film is only 64-minutes long. So sue me.
Blu-ray
Synapse Films isn’t one to skimp on releasing a solid Blu-ray and Undertaker is no different. The video transfer is a bit hard to judge, as the film is borderline black and white, but the blacks never crush. Special features include a hefty (56-minute) Making of, an original short film, deleted scenes, still gallery, and a trailer. This ain’t no barebones effort. Audio is presented in Japanese 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD MA with English subtitles.
Extra Features
- Farewell to the Precious: The Making of UNDERTAKER (HD, 56:04)
- Short Film: On Your Back (SD, 20:20)
- Deleted Scenes (HD, 1:24)
- Trailer (HD, 4:19)
- Behind-The-Scenes Gallery (HD, 0:57)
Undertaker failed to impress me, but there are a lot of things out there that fail to impress me and turn out to impress a ton of people. Sometimes I wonder if maybe it’s me that is the problem (please don’t answer that). No matter my shitty review skills, know you are getting a solid Blu-ray from Synapse Films, so if you like the film, you’ll be happy to fork over your money.
