OneChanbara: The Movie

OneChanbara: The Movie Review
In the near future, an evil mad scientist begins experimenting with the resurrection of the dead, resulting in zombies taking over the world. If exposed to their bite, one becomes undead like them. Aya and Reiko are two superhuman hunters who destroy these zombies. Ultimately, they both want to destroy the mad scientist who started the experiments, and Aya has her own personal agenda with her sister, who has become the scientist's bodyguard.

OneChanbara is a movie adaptation of a PS2 game entitled Onee Chanbara. The title when translated equates to "Big Sister Swordsman." I don't have a good opinion of this genre at all, and OneChanbara didn't help me to rethink my opinions. The movie almost felt like a bad video game, shitty camera angles, dark lighting, too much hack & slash special effects action with very little actual choreography, and an uninteresting plot. Top it off with a few hot bikini-clad girls, the movie's only redeeming quality.

From the get go I thought the movie would be a typical zombie flick, and I was absolutely correct. OneChanbara is very much like a Japanese adaptation of the Resident Evil movies except with a little bit of added sexiness. Aya's costime is comprised of a cowgirl hat, boots, and a bikini. The main female villain, Aya's sister Saki, sports a provocative Japanese school girl outfit. Combine sexy costumes with zombies and you have an interesting film, but it is impossible to take the film seriously. Parts where the characters are supposed to be sad and emotional felt completely out of place. It's hard to take a character seriously when she wears a bikini and kills zombies for a living. Granted the director didn't really have much choice since Aya is based off a video game character, and gamers love seeing their heroines in as little clothing as possible.

The movie doesn't develop the characters or storyline very well. Since Aya is supposedly a cold, heartless killer, she has very few lines throughout the whole film. Many aspects of her life and the storyline weren't very clear. Why did the zombie experiment even start? How did Aya get all these superhuman powers? There was also this one flashback sex scene that seemed completely out of place (and left me confused); clearly just a scene added to give some fanservice. There's also times when Aya can charge up and do stronger attacks. The movie doesn't give a reason why Aya can just seemingly kill all zombies in the room with one attack sometimes and not other times.

Subpar special effects also ruined the movie for me. Fake blood and ugly zombie costumes made this movie a bore.

Watch the movie if you're looking for a mediocre zombie gore fest. Don't expect to be wowed (except by Aya's outfit), but expect to be entertained by how silly the film is.

Written by Lance


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OneChanbara: The Movie Cast
Eri Otoguro as Aya
Chise Nakamura as Saki