Movie Review: Deadball (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival)

 Deadball 
Director: Yudai Yamaguchi 
Writer: Yudai Yamaguchi, Keita Tokaji 
Producer: Yoshinori Chiba, Junji Hashimoto, Akifumi Sugihara, Shin Torisawa 
Cinematographer: Masakazu Oka 
Release Date: July 23, 2011 
Runtime: 99 min. 
Language: Japanese 

Baseball prodigy Jubeh Yakyu (Tak Sakaguchi) is the most feared and dangerous juvenile delinquent in all of Japan. After accidentally causing the death of his father with a super-powered, deadly fireball pitch, Jubeh swore off baseball and became a criminal and now, at 17, has been sent to the Pterodactyl Juvenile Reformatory for hardened criminals. Headmistress Ishihara, the granddaughter of a World War II Nazi collaborator, runs the institution with an iron fist and the enthusiastic help of her sadistic assistant, Ilsa. After arriving at the hellhole, Jubeh soon learns from governor Mifune that his long-lost, younger brother Musashi had also done time there after a murder spree, but had since died mysteriously.

Despite having sworn never to play baseball again, Jubeh is presented with an ultimatum by governor Mifune: join the reformatory team, The Gauntlets, in the national tournament for juvenile inmates, or witness the death of his innocent cellmate Four Eyes (Mari Hoshino). With the knowledge that the death of his brother is somehow connected to the team, Jubeh agrees, and Gauntlet training begins. Their first opponents: the sexy but deadly “psycho butcher girls” of the St. Black Dahlia High School, a team of literal man-killers. And so the splatterific baseball tournament begins, but Jubeh soon learns that he is not only fighting to win the game, but also to save his own life!

the psycho-butcher baseball team

The only word I can come up with to describe this movie is bizarre; the Japanese call it splatter comedy, which is a mix of extreme camp and horror. Believe it or not, this is a follow-up movie to director Yudai Yamaguchi’s zombie baseball classic, Battlefield Baseball. Sushi-typhoon is a Japanese movie company that specializes in the splatter genre. There is a plot to the movie, and while you can read the blurb for that, you really have to watch the trailer to truly get an idea of what I am talking about. So go ahead and watch it… seriously… I’ll wait 

There is definitely a certain audience this movie caters to, and if you are it, then this movie should absolutely be on your to watch list. I had a blast watching it; the special effects are low-budget and the gore gags are over the top. They didn’t just create 90 minutes of WTF-ery, they rolled all in it, humped it, and had its robot baby! Yes, there is a robot… it is a Japanese splatter movie, duh! There are Nazis, a protagonist that dresses like Clint Eastwood and can magically pull lit cigarettes out of nowhere, a sexy school girl musical number, a robot, baseball, and blood spurting from every orifice and I swear they pull a rubber squeaky toy out of someone’s butt, but don’t quote me on that. The only problem was poor lighting in many of the action scenes, but this might be intentional. 

this baseball stayed in his eye for the whole movie... it was stuck

I really don’t know how to rate this movie. If you are squeamish, stay away. If you enjoy shock and awe entertainment, or just love to have fun this is a must see. I’m gonna give it 5 Sheep because it left me speechless.

Nazi juvenile prison warden

5 “WTF” Sheep 


Sharon Stogner (edit Kalpar)

Born in 2010, The Sushi Typhoon is the upstart, wild offspring of a respectable parent: Nikkatsu Corporation, the oldest film studio in Japan and once home to legendary 1960′s action stars like Joe Shishido, Akira Kobayashi, Tetsuya Watari, Meiko Kaji and Yujiro Ishihara. With a long history of genre films and violent gangster epics, the company was also the leader of Japan’s erotic renaissance of the 1970′s with their Roman Porno line; and now, Nikkatsu’s latest offering, The Sushi Typhoon, takes their century-old extremes to the next level. 

The brainchild of veteran producer Yoshinori Chiba, responsible for introducing directors Takashi Miike, Noboru Iguchi and Yoshihiro Nishimura to Western audiences, The Sushi Typhoon seeks to satisfy audiences who crave the good taste of bad taste, and for whom too much is never enough. 

Connoisseurs of dangerous and wild Japanese cinema need look no further to satisfy their hunger for comedy, action, horror, splatter and raucous cult entertainment!