Undertaker (Synapse Films Blu-ray Review)

Is Undertaker Trash or Treasure?

Blu-ray Distributed By: Synapse Films / October 29, 2019

A deadly virus outbreak is turning the people of Japan into flesh-eating zombies. The government intervenes, trying to separate the survivors from the infected. Ryouichi, a young boy who has his family and friends destroyed by the undead infestation, becomes an assistant to an Undertaker… a person hired by families to kill loved ones who’ve been turned. Armed with a modified shovel and a bag, Ryouichi roams the ruins of Japan killing zombies and collecting body parts to prove to grieving families that their infected loved ones are now at peace. Director Naoyoshi Kawamatsu presents a moving story set in a horrific dystopian future with his independent masterpiece, UNDERTAKER.

Jimbo’s Take (1.5 / 5)

The filmmaker’s intent is an honorable one with Undertaker. Despite a low budget, they’ve conceived of some interesting concepts to try and re-tell the same, tired, zombie subgenre. But…

They’re just not up to the task. On the plus side, the film is mercifully short (about 1 hour).

The film centers around Ryouichi, an orphan, who grows up as an apprentice of sorts to an Undertaker – a person hired to track and kill (or as I perceive it ‘release’) undead loved ones for grieving families. Ryouichi is hired by a grieving mother and father to find their deceased daughter, ‘kill’ her, and bring her remains home (at least part of her since transporting an entire corpse is hard for one man). Obviously Ryouichi takes the job and sets out for the desolate city.

Now one of the things I really like about Undertaker is that they’ve framed the zombies to be sad, lost souls. Yes, they may still bite you but they’re not the overwhelming wave depicted in Romero’s “Living Dead” films. They’re not the ravenous brain munchers from Return of the Living Dead. Nor are they the super-human speed zombies from the films of the early 2000s. These zombies mostly wander around like they’re looking for purpose or a final place of rest. More care is given to the spiritual relationship between the undead and the living.

The performances are also largely very good. Ryouichi is developed well enough that actor, Yoshito Kobashigawa, successfully portrays Ryouichi’s despair with few or no words. Ryouichi seems to be a character who himself is mostly dead inside, wandering the wastelands also looking for purpose and haunted by his past.

However, the low-budget is where the film begins to betray it’s greater qualities. The movie’s visual effects scores some of the movie’s high and low points. On the plus side, the filmmakers do have a handful of ‘money shots’ that successfully pull off burned out buildings or wasted cities. Most of these shots are identifiable as effects shots, and they’re no better or worse than what’s considered passable on a SyFy network movie.

The zombie make-up effects are mostly good. Like in most of these kinds of films you have your A-grade zombies and background zombies. If a background zombie gets a little too close to camera, I’m not going to strike it for that.

But there are other areas of the film, namely sound design, where they didn’t have the cash to do a proper effect. Instead they lean on stock sounds. For example, early in the film there is a car accident that a young Ryouichi survives. The car accident is achieved by a cutting to black and a stock car crash sound effect overlaid on a blank screen. This kind of effect can work, but not when you’re using a ‘screeeech/crash’ sound we’ve heard on corny YouTube videos.

Anyway, circling back to the story, Ryouichi sets off to find his target. Ryouichi only has a photograph to find the girl in an entire city overrun by the dead. I kept thinking, there’s no plausible way he’s finding her. He’s armed with a shovel/axe weapon that he’s created, and some cyber-punk looking binoculars that have 1990 graphics technology. But I didn’t understand how he was tracking his prey. Did I miss something? Did my brain shut off from boredom during an important exchange between Ryouichi and the parents? Did his cyber-punk binoculars see something and I don’t remember? Did the butterfly lead the way?

Yes, the butterfly. I should probably talk about that…

I do love that Japanese films tend to have more spiritual visual cues that are mostly absent from Western films. I’ll admit that sometimes I feel like Homer Simpson watching Twin Peaks when the Japanese do something…well, very Japanese. Westerners may find these things odd. But that’s because in American cinema we’re not used to seeing little animated critters floating around our heroes. But that’s basically what we’ve got here. In true Japanese form, there’s an animated butterfly (or moth) that keeps appearing around Ryouichi.

What is it? The butterfly is probably the most interesting thing about the movie. And that’s all I’m going to say, otherwise you’ll have no reason to watch this movie.

My biggest issue with Undertaker? Ryouichi doesn’t change through his journey. He’s the exact same person when he takes on his mission to the point the movie ends, thereby making his journey mostly meaningless. The filmmakers are trying to create an anti-zombie movie of sorts and their efforts are commendable. However, the more interesting story is the one that isn’t told – young Ryouichi being adopted and trained by the elder Undertaker. If there’s ever a sequel, that’s the story to tell. But as it stands, Undertaker is a meandering exercise from point A, to point B, back to A, ending exactly where you might expect.

The Tech Stuff (3 / 5)

Undertaker is low-budget so it’s shot with 2010 era digital equipment. And the movie looks as such. That’s neither a dig nor praise. It’s simply a matter of fact. If you’re expecting this to look as slick as a big studio blu-ray, you need to readjust those expectations right now.

Synapse Films could have easily (and cheaply) just dumped a movie like this onto DVD and called it a day. Instead they put together a nice little blu-ray so you can watch Undertaker in 1080p, warts and all.

Audio is very good too. Again, any problems are attributed to the sound design itself. Synapse is simply replicating the finished audial experience which includes a mostly a clean Japanese language stereo track.

Extras (3.5 / 5)

Farewell to the Precious: The Making of UNDERTAKER
On Your Back – Original Short Film
Deleted Scenes
Behind-the-Scenes Still Gallery
Trailer

If you’re going to buy this disc, it’s probably gonna be for the extras. If this were a bare bones DVD, I’d say give it a pass. But with the extras, the disc gets an immediate upgrade and second look from me.

Farewell to the Precious is an hour-long (almost longer than the feature), informative documentary about the making of Undertaker. It does a very good job of covering all aspects of the production and gathering insights from cast and crew alike. Somewhat comical, however, are the doc’s subtitles which are all written in broken English.

The Deleted Scenes are terrible and pointless. It is literally three shots of walking. No dialogue. No story or character development. Literally Ryouichi walking through woodlands.

A 20-minute short film, On Your Back, from the Director is also included. I didn’t watch it. Yes, I’m shirking my responsibilities, but I like that it’s here when I do decide to eventually check it out.

Trash or Treasure? Overall Recommendation

I didn’t want to write this review. I knew when I started, I’d have to eventually speak ill of the movie. Undertaker is not the worst thing I’ve ever seen. And as far as zombie movies go, you can certainly do much, MUCH worse. If you love zombie movies to the point where you feel compelled to consume them all, I think you’ll be mostly satisfied with this iteration of the sub-genre.

For your typical movie-goer though, it’s average at best. You won’t feel like you’ve wasted an hour of your life, but you won’t be eager to spend any more time consuming it, whether that’s in repeat viewings or delving into the disc’s extras. And that’s too bad because there are some very good qualities here.

More patience and introspection is probably required to fully consume and appreciate this movie. Unfortunately, most people don’t have that kind of time or patience. Personally, I’ve already spent more time thinking about this movie than I probably would just for this review. And even I have found the process to be cumbersome.

However, Synapse Films has certainly sweetened the pie by including a movie, documentary, and short film all on one disc. The totality of the collection makes it worth the asking price, but it’s not your casual buyer who will be picking this up. Rather your fervent collector may want to consider a look.