Yoshihiro Nishimura is a madman! He got his start doing make-up and special effects, but he has recently become more known as a director. His over-the-top gory Japanese works include TOKYO GORE POLICE, VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL and MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD.
His latest effort, HELLDRIVER, will continue the blood-soaked trend. Two words: chainsaw sword. Just check out the new English-subtitled trailer for the zombie flick below for any proof you could ever need. Here is a meaty synopsis:
An alien-spawned, mysterious mist blankets the northern half of Japan, transforming those who inhale it into ravenous, flesh-eating zombies hell-bent on devouring the surviving human population. Plunged into chaos, Japan is torn in two–the southern half of the country, where the populace remains untouched by the deadly gas, lives behind a heavily-fortified wall, while the northern half is a lawless, zombie-infected wasteland. Political forces are locked in a stalemate over whether the living dead should remain protected as family members or exterminated like a plague. The economy withers away, and all hope seems lost for the people and the nation of Japan.
Hope arrives in the form of Kika, a beautiful high school girl armed with a chainsaw sword powered by an artificial heart. Recruited by the government, Kika leads a ragtag group of desperados on a secret mission into the zombie-infected wilds to exterminate zombie queen Rikka and put an end to the plague of the living dead. But the road is fraught with a thriving zombie culture that, with its own designs on the living half of Japan, refuses to lay down and die.
The film is co-written by Nishimura and first-timer Daichi Nagisa. It stars Yumiko Hara, Eihi Shiina (AUDITION) and Yûrei Yanagi (RINGU). The picture premiered at Fantastic Fest last September. It’s currently begin represented at the Asian film market HK Filmart to find distribution in its native Japan, then hopefully we will see it here in the U.S. later this year.
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