Monday, April 28, 2014

Helldriver, What's Eating Dad?

....actualy, mom is!  More on that in a moment. The two goriest movies I have ever seen are "Dead Alive" (directed by Peter Jackson) and 2010's "Helldriver." This Japanese zombie-apocalypse flick stars Yumiko Hara as Kika, a teen-aged ninja who is tasked with saving her country.  Also prevalent in this film is biting social commentary regarding the deadly consequences of the politics of (so-called) good intentions.  As our governments are increasingly working against us, and everything we value, "Helldriver" explores how far they would go to imprison us in miserable circumstances.
The plot: Returning from school, Kika walks in on her mom and uncle eating her dad.  Never realizing her mother was a psychopathic cannibal, Kika is distraught, and her mom is still hungry.  As her mom attempts to eat her, a meteorite propels through mom's torso.  Now missing her heart, she rips out Kika's and places it in the hole in her torso.  The ash from the meteorite causes millions in Japan to become cannibalistic zombies, which have antler shaped appendages growing out of their heads.  As carnage spreads, southern Japan walls off the north to prevent the spread.  Kika wakes up a year later in a government hospital with an artificial heart and the ability to kill these fiends.  The voters of Japan are their own worst enemies as the families of the infected lobby for basic human rights for their unfortunate loved ones.  A bill to consider the infected dead does not pass parliament.  The citizenry chant "protect the infected, support human rights." The nationalistic south unleashes Kika into the north to kill the infected.
Kika, now armed with a cool weapon (half chainsaw, half Samurai sword) picks up some partners and they saw through the infected.  Kika's mom is the "head" of the infected and a final showdown between the two is inevitable.  As Kika attempts to save her country, the politicians and clergy in the north insist the infected are humans and must be valued.  Uninfected citizens are forced to live three families to a dwelling as society falls apart, all in the name of a humane and happy Japan.
    As Kika and her friends cut through the infected hordes, her mother gains strength and awaits her daughter's return.  The two will have an incredible showdown complete with chainsaws, zombies, nukes, flying heads, and attitude.  Ask yourself this, does your government value intelligence, lawfulness, family, and individualism...or do they value social deviance, collectivism, criminals, and voting blocs?  The real monsters in this film may not be the zombies, but the elected bureaucrats.  The carnage is intense, so consider yourself warned.  This film is available on DVD and Netflix.  Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. Well I don't even know where to start with this one. Japan is clearly a strange place with an entertainment industry that values all sorts of weird appendages doing weird things (see: hentai)

    I do like this post. However, it is flawed in the assumption that politicians have good intentions. I expected more brutal honesty about our political 'leaders' from our esteemed blogger. He, more than most, should know how broken our system truly is. At least in this flick, the zombies can be easily identified, even if the do not have the (D) visible behind their names.

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  2. Helldriver must be pretty close to the pinnacle of insanity. No matter how many times you say to yourself while watching it "ok, they can't top THAT!" they do in just another few minutes, especially in that last third or so of the flick.

    Could see people marching for infected rights if it did happen in real life.

    Whole thing is just beautifully done.

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