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The Film (2.5/5)
Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay is my definition of a beer movie. It's not a bad film, but it's not a very good one either, and is vastly improved by a few beers and a couple of friends. I had heard this film was sort of “meh,” before going into it, but was still excited even with lowered expectations. I mean it's a zombie flick with a bad ass Japanese female wrestler as the heroine, it seems like a good flick to me. Unfortunately, somewhere between concept and execution we got what amounts to a very typical zombie film.
Battle Girl is a fairly short film at only 74 minutes. This short running time actually works in the films favor. The film is pretty standard zombie fare for the most part, but the film hits the ground running pretty much immediately doing away with needless exposition, and getting straight to the action.
The film is directed by Kazuo Komizu, who is known in cult film circles as the director of the somewhat notorious Entrails of a Virgin, and Entrails of a Beautiful Woman. With a pedigree like that you would think that Battle Girl would be a pretty messy splatterfest. It isn't, the film isn't without gore, but it's pretty minimal for the most part.
The story as I said is fairly basic zombie stuff. It all begins when meteorite crashes into Tokyo Bay, and the dead start rising from there graves. The military is trying to stop them with the help of K-Ko(Cutie Suzuki) who is left with a Battle Suit by her Father to help combat the zombie menace. During her zombie killing rampage she discovers a military plot by a psychotic general to control the living dead, and use them in his plans for world conquest.
Audio/Video (3/5)
Synapse Films have presented Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay with a 1:33:1 full frame transfer preserving the original aspect ratio. The transfer itself is quite nice with only a few instances of grain throughout the film.
Battle Girl has been fitted with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack in it's native Japanese with optional English subtitles. As with the transfer the audio has been remastered well with no audible background noise or distortion on the track. The dialogue is clear and audible throughout the picture.
Extras (4/5)
The only extra on this DVD is an hour long interview with Battle Girl director Kazuo “Gaira” Komizu. The interview is pretty substantial, and goes into depth about his work prior to Battle Girl, and his work on the film.
Overall
Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay is a pretty basic zombie film. Even through the cliché elements you have at the very least a fun film, especially with some added beer and a few friends. The film looks and sounds great, and the DVD contains an excellent interview with the director.
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