Independent Films, Film Profiles

Wild Zero

Wild Zero is a 2000 Japanese "Jet rock 'n' roll" zombie horror comedy cult classic directed by Tetsuro Takeuchi, and starring the Japanese garage punk band Guitar Wolf. It borrows many elements from other popular B-movies such as Psychomania and Evil Dead II.Ace, a wannabe rock star, is on his way to a concert of the band Guitar Wolf when space aliens invade the Earth. As a result the dead rise to their feet in the countryside setting of Asahi, Japan, with an appetite for flesh. Enlisting the help of Guitar Wolf, Ace and the members of the band get entangled in many misadventures with crazy rock managers in very tight shorts, transsexuals, naked women shooting guns in the shower, and bloodthirsty zombies ready to tear them apart. Leather jackets, loud over-modulated music, laser guitar picks, motorcycles, guns, muscle cars, and fire abound. Guitar Wolf, a Japanese trio signed to Matador Records in the US—and self-proclaimed coolest rock band in the world—star as the well-coiffed heroes. It is also a love story, between Ace and the transexual Tobio.The music, in a garage punk vein, plays an important role in the film. This film is similar to another movie by a Spanish punk group, La matanza caníbal de los garrulos lisérgicos produced by Siniestro Total (a punk band from Vigo, Spain).