(courtesy First Showing)
SNAPSHOT
Akira Tendo (Eiji Akaso) works at an abusive, soul-crushing company where he suffers endless late hours, power harassment from his boss, and illogical tasks. He spends his days feeling more dead than alive. One morning, the town is overtaken by zombies and the familiar landscape is already devastated. Seeing such destruction, Akira shouts with glee that he doesn’t need to go to the office anymore. Showing his innate positivity, Akira comes up with a list of 100 things he wants to do before he becomes a zombie and “kicks the bucket”, including cleaning his home and camping on his balcony, and sets out to complete his bucket list. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, originally known as ゾン100～ゾンビになるまでにしたい100のこと～ in Japanese, is directed by Japanese filmmaker Yûsuke Ishida, making his first film after directing the TV series Afro Tanaka and Re: Mind and a few others previously. The screenplay is written by Tatsuro Mishima, adapted from the manga by Haro Aso & Kotaro Takata. It’s produced by Akira Morii. (courtesy First Showing)
Zombie apocalypses are presented as a lot of things – terrifying, nightmarish, horrific and the list goes flesh munchingly on …
But have you ever heard of it being optimistic, fun, playful and maybe even a little bit silly?
No? Then there’s a good chance you haven’t come across Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead who wearied corporate worked reacts to an outbreak of the dead in his town, once the initial and quite understandable terror has run its course, with an exultant cry – “I don’t have to go to work anymore? Yatta!!!!”
It’s not the usual way to respond to the end of the world but it works, and works a treat, in both the original Japanese manga and the new movie adaptation which makes a pretty enjoyable case for the fact that the end of the world may not be so bad after all …
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead premieres on Netflix on 3 August.