Oh! My Zombie Mermaid
Oh! My Zombie Mermaid (あゝ!一軒家プロレス, Ā! Ikkenya puroresu) is a 2004 Japanese action comedy film directed by Naoki Kudo, written by Naoki Kudo and Izō Hashimoto, and starring Shinya Hashimoto, Sonim, Shirō Sano, and Nicholas Pettas. Hashimoto plays a professional wrestler whose wife involuntarily turns into a mermaid.
Oh! My Zombie Mermaid | |
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Ā! Ikkenya puroresu | |
Directed by | Naoki Kudo |
Written by |
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Starring | |
Production company | Soft on Demand |
Distributed by | Soft on Demand |
Release date |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Plot
Shishioh, a popular and successful professional wrestler, builds a large mansion for his wife Asami and their kids. During the housewarming party, Ichijo, an angry competitor, causes a riot that destroys the house. Asami is hospitalized, where she contracts a rare virus that slowly transforms her into a mermaid. Desperate for money to finance his new house and find a cure for Asami, Shishioh agrees to a reality TV show in which he wrestles several competitors in a haunted house. His opponents turn out to be homicidal killers and include a zombie among them. Eventually, Shishioh learns that the television producer infected Asami with an experimental virus in order to get him to compete.
Cast
- Shinya Hashimoto as Kouta Shishioh
- Sonim as Nami
- Shirô Sano as Yamaji
- Nicholas Pettas as Ichijoh
- Urara Awata as Asami
Release
Oh! My Zombie Mermaid premiered at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival on February 21, 2004.
Discotek Media purchased the North American distribution rights[1] and released it in North America on July 28, 2009.[2]
Reception
Todd Brown of Twitch Film wrote that the first half takes itself too seriously, but the second half is "pure, ridiculous, campy joy to watch."[3] Bill Gibron of DVD Talk rated it 4.5/5 stars and called it "a true work of baffling genius."[2] In The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, academic Peter Dendle wrote, "The film is fairly entertaining, and keeps providing narrative and conceptual twists every step along the way."[4]
References
- Brown, Todd (2009-05-27). "Absolutely Daft Japanese Cult Hit OH! MY ZOMBIE MERMAID! Coming To DVD!". Twitch Film. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
- Gibron, Bill (2009-08-21). "Oh! My Zombie Mermaid". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
- Brown, Todd (2006-06-24). "NYAFF Report: Oh! My Zombie Mermaid Review". Twitch Film. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
- Dendle, Peter (2012). The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia: 2000-2010. McFarland Publishing. p. 144. ISBN 9780786492886.