OneeChanbara

OneeChanbara

Well it seems as if all the movies I was waiting for keep getting delayed and instead I keep finding these obscure video game adaptation movies that no one has heard of or cares about and today is no exception as I review the OneeChanbara movie and its sequel. Although it’s more of standalone movie then a sequel but well get into that later. You probably have never heard of the game or the movie with the same title but without further ado let’s take a look at OneeChanbara the movie and OneeChanbara the movie vortex.

In both movies the world is infested by zombies that are the result of none other than an evil corporation experimenting with prolonging life. In the first movie the story follows Aya a zombie hunter that’s looking for her sister who killed her parents. The second movie follows Aya and her younger sister Saki as they hunt down zombies trying to find a way to get the world back to normal.

Now before we get to the meat of this review I need to give you a bit of background on the games. The OneeChanbara games are cult games in Japan two of which have made it over to our side of the world, one on Xbox 360 and one on Wii. In the games you play as one of two sisters fighting through hordes of zombies what’s the big deal you ask well as most things Japanese the games characters are scantily clad. The storyline explanation for this is that when the sisters are covered in blood they become extra powerful. So they have to where very little clothes to get as much of their skin covered in blood as possible.

Wow that sounds hot your saying. Well hold on to your pants there mister its true it does have a campy attraction to it much like dead or alive extreme beach volleyball had bouncing ladies and physic defining breasts. However where as D.O.A. EBV was a solid volley ball title with smooth controls and addicting game play the OneeChanbara game I played was glitchy and frustrating at best and no amount of bikini wearing zombie killing hotties could help it.

So how do the movies stack up? Well about as well as the game. The movies do an ok job of capturing the crazy zombie killing hack and slash action that makes up the meat of the games but they fall short in just about every other department. The first movies action is a bit better choreographed then the second and the acting is much better too but they both have their ups and downs.

The second movie is closer to the games story line as far as I could tell as the one game I played is actually like the 5th in the series so we poor Americans get very little of the back story. But from the little bit of info I could dig up originally Aya’s sister Saki is being controlled by the evil D3 corporation witch is actually the name of the game developer. And eventually Aya gets her back to normal but in the movie Saki is just a bitch and doing everything of her own free will and eventually Aya ends up fighting and killing her. Then in the second movie she’s alive again without any explanation and they are working together and instead of Saki having killed their parents it’s now the evil corporations doing.

Now in the game there’s two important meters aside from the health meter. There is the blood fury meter which determines how much blood the player is covered in when it fills they enter blood fury mode where they become stronger but also take more damage and the gore meter which shows how much blood the players weapon is covered in if they don’t clean the weapon then it losses strength and begins to get stuck in enemies.

Each movie has scenes that represent one of these meters but never both. The first movie has a scene where Aya is fighting a huge group of zombies and after about half of them her sword gets stuck and then throughout the movie she is cleaning the blood off by flicking the sword samurai style. And in the second movie a good part of it is focused on the blood fury mode.

As far as characters and content from the game both movies have some about as much as you would expect from a video game adaptation. The main sisters are both in the movie although there relationship with each other is only correct in the second one. Reiko is another character form the games but in the first movie she is a good guy where as in the game she is a villain and for some reason she is the only character that really carries over from the first movie to the second yeah the sisters do but there whole back story is changed.

The main villain from the second game is also in the second movie. Himiko however at first she uses the name Misery which is actually the name of her clone but her character actually translates pretty well onto the big screen and she has a pretty decent evil psychopathic laugh I enjoyed.

So what’s a movie based on a hack and slash video game without hack and slashing? No it’s not in the name of the king where done with Uwe Boll. Anyway the action for the first one is a lot better then what you get in the second movie. In the first one the actors move quickly there’s decent wire work and there’s even a few special moves from the game like in the opening scene where Aya charges her attack and then spins around to take out surrounding zombies.

The final battle of the last movie is also a lot more epic and awesome then the second. it involves Aya and Saki both unlocking some kind of hidden potential that allows them to fight like anime characters by flying around causing explosions moving so fast it seems like teleportation in comparison the final battle of the second movie between Himiko and Aya is very very slow with bad editing and crappy wire work.

In the second movies final battle there’s a scene where both Himiko and Aya use their weapons to lightly touch the ground then spring back up but you can easily tell it’s someone simply touching the swords to the ground then cutting back to the fighting.

Both movies have things that make them seem very silly and campy and sometimes are annoying. One constant is Aya’s rose tattoo is clearly a rub on and is often peeling throughout the movie. In the first movie Reiko never reloads once and it seems as if she has infinite ammo. This is very weird considering the fact her gun is a double barrel sawed off shotgun.

The second movie uses a very annoying blood splatter effect that covers the camera in every single last action scene now while this is a feature present in the game it’s still annoying maybe the first time as fan service sure but it’s annoying here it’s annoying in the game its annoying in call of duty modern warfare 2 and should just be gotten rid of all together.

The acting all around is pretty bad and again very cheesy but not in a good way. The plots follow the games plots as well as a crazy Japanese cult game can be followed I mentioned before that they screwed up Saki in the first movie but besides that it’s as good as can be expected.

How would I do it? Well I wouldn’t have I know it’s a copout but it’s true the games where not good enough to warrant a movie hell the games aren’t even good enough to warrant games

Overall the first one is worth a watch if you absolutely have to the second is not good for anything at all. I found these on the internet not sure if they have an American release yet but I’m sure if you really wanted to you could find them at an import store. Now on to the scores

Overall the movies get 3 out of 10 bikini wearing zombie hunters. The first one has some ok action second one is not worth a glance

The acting gets 3 out of 10. Even though it’s subtitled you can still tell the actors are not very good at all

The content gets 5 out of 10. Spread between the two movies we get recognizable characters villains and special moves but n to much else.

The plot gets 4 out of 10. The second movie is closer to the game then the first but the first is more enjoyable by far.

Well here we are again at the end of another movie I didn’t know I would be reviewing. Tekken obviously did not come out on time but I have seen a trailer and it looks great the art of fighting however looks absolutely ridicules but I guess we will see. Prince of Persia does look fantastic though and I’m hoping all 3 of those will be out before the end of the year so I can include them in vol.2 as of right now this is only the second review in vol.2 .