First-time director Sakichi Sato brings this quirky comedy to us from the land of Pocky and tentacle porn. Tokyo Zombie, premeiring internationally at the Philadelphia Film Festival, tells the tale of a pair of laborers and their fascination with martial arts. Their dreams of glory are put on hold when a zombie epidemic breaks out around them — can their tenacity and dedication see them through?

Fujio (Tadanobu Asano) and Mitsuo (Sho Aikawa) — instead of toiling away at their jobs in a fire extinguisher factory — practice the mystical art of jujitsu on company time. After a disagreement with their boss leaves him dead, the pair decide to bury the corpse in an enormous (and I do mean enormous) landfill called "Black Fuji". No sooner do they depart from the massive dump then the undead saunter back to life and begin the requiste brain-munching binge. So typical.

Escaping a zombie melee thanks to the awesome power of jujitsu — which Fujio continues to struggle with — the two embark on a journey north... er, south, in hopes of escaping the growing outbreak. But fate separates the two when Mitsuo is bitten by a zombie during a rescue mission in which a young woman — and a storeload of Heart Chipples — is saved.

Fujio and his female companion find asylum in a walled community that bears more than a passing resemblance to Fiddler's Green from George A. Romero's Land of the Dead. The parody continues as the afro-clad Fujio is forced to fight zombies in true neo-Roman fashion until he is reunited with a zombified Mitsuo. Or is he? Hmmmm!

Deuces Wild

Mitsuo and Fujio take a break from rubbing their groins together. Jujitsu is great! (Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Film Society)

Plenty of laughs abound in Tokyo Zombie thanks to its strong casting. Tadanobu Asano and Sho Aikawa are dynamite together and a joy to watch. Their haircuts alone are worth their weight in yucks. This is no cookie-cutter buddy film, as the film paints the older Mitsuo as mentor to his younger steed, teaching him the ways of jujitsu in the hopes that he can become a champion. Heartwarming stuff.

But the film quickly grinds to a halt once Aikawa exits the proceedings. His chemistry with Asano drives the film through its first half and is sorely missed in the second. There is a lot to like in Sato's freshman effort, from its unexpected narrative direction to its many genre parodies to its giggle-inducing foley work (pop!), but Tokyo Zombie is so uneven and disjointed that it becomes difficult to maintain any enthusiasm about the characters towards the end of the film.

While a martial arts zombie comedy sounds like pure gold on paper, it must be said that jujitsu is not the most enjoyable combat discipline to watch. Its execution involves intimate man-on-man groping and fondling that quickly turns Tokyo Zombie into the Brokeback Mountain of martial-arts-zombie-outbreak-buddy-comedy movies.

Tokyo Zombie is a sometimes charming horror comedy, but it is ultimately missing that certain something. Let's call it "heart". (No hustle either, skip.) See this one at your leisure, but rest assured that it's not the instant classic it could have been.

Thumbs Sideways. Tokyo Zombie twists its own head off with a resounding pop.