While watering her plant, Yuri (Ayaka Maeda) suddenly breaks down - and
the doctor examining her can't do anything but state her death. Thing is,
Yuri wakes up and wants to go on, just as usual (even if she is starting
to rot away), only her family doesn't in the least appreciate it and
actually wants her to stay dead - which results in her parents attacking
hher, but they go so clumsily about it that they instead kill her younger
sister (Moe Karasawa) and injure each other severely. Understandably, Yuri
leaves home after this.
In a nearby park, Yuri meets some of her classmates, who bring flowers
for her memorial service, but when they see Yuri still walking about and
losing an arm in front of them, they chase her away.
Eventually, Yuri finds a man who seems sympathetic - but actually he
just makes her the attraction in his freakshow, and once she has served
her purpose, he abandons her at the side of the road.
Ultimately, Yuri's parents, their hearts set on revenge, catch up with
the girl, equipped with a petrol canister and a lighter to blow her up,
but while running from them, Yuri loses a foot (quite literally), tosses
it at her parents so they drop the lighter into the canister right where
they are standing and - BOOM !!! - everybody is blown to smithereens ...
but even that wasn't enough for Yuri to stay dead ...
A very weird little zombie-featurette, one that deliberately disregards
all genre conventions and instead tells a story with heart, a story that
is almost cheesy - except of course it's about a girl that is decomposing
before one's very eyes. And director Koji Shiraishi finds just the right
style to tell his story: His direction is unexcited, the film's pace is
deliberately slow, and much of the movie is kept in a downbeat, decidedly
unglossy black-and-white. Quite possibly, the film would have lost much of
its effect would it have run any longer than its 45 minutes, but then of
course it doesn't, and as it is, it's close to perfection.
Recommended.
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