The "Zombies" Have Arrived!

I started researching zombies during my undergraduate years. There was a class on Hong Kong martial arts films in a liberal arts course taught by a Chinese literature professor, and the assignment was to watch and analyze a film. I went to a video rental shop and was looking at the B-movie action shelf when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a zombie's face flickering on the horror shelf next to it (laughs).

Actually, even now, I'm not very good with scary movies.

Is that so? (laughs).

So, at the time, I had never seen a zombie movie, and I wondered why there were so many stories about corpses coming back to life and eating people—screaming and all that. I tried renting one, and well, it was a terrible, low-budget movie (laughs). But conversely, the mystery deepened. I wondered why so many of these were being filmed and who was watching them.

As I started watching various films, I found some quite high-quality zombie movies and encountered ones that seemed to consider social issues, so I began enjoying it like a treasure hunt. I never thought I would end up writing a research book, though (laughs).

I'm a film critic, and I started watching a massive amount of movies around 1979. That was exactly when cheesy horror movies like "Halloween" (1978, US) started coming out, and zombie films were among them. George A. Romero's trilogy ("Night of the Living Dead," "Dawn of the Dead," "Day of the Dead") is famous, but after that, as you mentioned, B-movies followed.

Then, zombies appeared in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (1982) music video and became a hot topic. Later, Sammo Hung released "Mr. Vampire" (1985) in Hong Kong, and in the 2000s, "28 Days Later" (2002, UK) came out, which was quite shocking with its running zombies.

They did run, didn't they?

Things started to change around here. The first "Resident Evil" movie also came out that same year. This was derived from a video game, produced by Hollywood with a massive budget, and it felt like it became mainstream all at once.

There were six "Resident Evil" films (2002–2016). After that came "I Am Legend" (2007, US) starring Will Smith. "Zombieland" (2009, US) was like a horror-comedy, and Brad Pitt starred in "World War Z" (2013, US) as zombie movies were released one after another. Even in Japan, "One Cut of the Dead" (2018) is basically a zombie story.

When talking about zombie movies since the 2000s, "Resident Evil" was definitely a major factor.

That came from a game, and Sony Pictures (Columbia) gave it a huge budget; it was a classic Hollywood production starring Milla Jovovich.

The game was in 1996. The fact that it was a hit is significant. It feels like the zombie boom took a detour through Japan before returning to America.

The game apparently sold well in America too. It seems there was a sense that "it's okay to kill them because they're corpses."

Also, regarding the so-called uncanny valley, as rendering capabilities improved and became more realistic, they couldn't make them look exactly like humans, but they could manage zombies. I think there might have been such technical constraints.

The awkward movements, right? In recent games, there are many open-world style games where a swarm of zombies comes at you. There are also games where four or five players connect online to fight together, allowing you to experience the world of a zombie movie firsthand.

The "Resident Evil" movies feel like they fit zombies into the framework of American cinema. Usually, it's a pharmaceutical company doing bad things, linked to a national conspiracy (laughs).

The Hollywood grammar of how to pace a movie to make it appeal to the general public evolved significantly from the late 90s to the early 2010s, and I think "Resident Evil" reflected that.

Lately, I've been on the production side, supervising dramas and writing scripts, and American screenwriting is quite fixed. You introduce all the characters in the first 15 minutes, an incident occurs in the next 15, it worsens at the 30-minute mark, everyone struggles after that, and in the last 10 minutes, it ends and everyone is happy.

That's the so-called Hollywood grammar.

That's why someone like Tarantino, who deviates from this, is considered unconventional. In the standard Hollywood pattern, the protagonist usually survives while a close friend meets a tragic end.

For some reason, the protagonist is almost unscathed. Even Milla Jovovich in "Resident Evil" is running around almost naked, and you wonder why she doesn't get a scratch. That part is just convenience, and since zombies can also be created for convenience, they fit into that mold easily.

Then there's the evolution of CG technology. I suspect "Resident Evil" came out right at the intersection of the technology to show amazing visuals with CG and the evolution of Hollywood grammar.

Since the 90s, there was a shortage of scripts, leading to nothing but remakes. In the 2000s, they were told to just keep putting in new material, and various types of movies emerged; zombie films were likely one of them.

Speaking of CG, "World War Z" was incredible. The way the zombies attacked in a swarm like a wave.

That gave me goosebumps.

The unnaturalness of the movement precisely because it was CG. It felt like the visual expression and the existence of zombies were a perfect match.

The characteristics of a zombie are that it's a corpse, has no consciousness, attacks people, and if it bites, the person becomes infected and turns into a zombie. They move slowly, and for some reason, they die if you shoot them in the head. In more recent times, stories have become about viral pandemics, they move faster, and even animals become zombies.

There are movies like "Zombeavers" (2014, US), after all.

Fundamentally, the good thing about zombie movies is that they are B-movies that don't overthink things.

Jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampires) were established in China in the 18th century. Jiangshi is written with the characters "殭屍," meaning a stiffened corpse. In other words, because of rigor mortis, hands might suddenly move, and people thought, "Isn't this a monster?" That's how the Jiangshi originated.

Why did the Chinese not notice the phenomenon of rigor mortis until the 18th century? It's because cremation had become widespread early on in China. However, when the Manchu Qing Dynasty took over, they reinstated burial as found in old Confucian classics to avoid resentment as foreign rulers. Because of that, Chinese people noticed rigor mortis for the first time in the 18th century. That's where the Jiangshi emerged.

However, in the literature of that time, it doesn't say a single word about "becoming a Jiangshi if bitten by one." I suspect that Hong Kong and Taiwanese films in the 1980s superimposed the rules of Western zombie movies onto the Jiangshi.

Zombies also didn't originally have the characteristic of "infecting if bitten" back in the days of "Voodoo" (the Haitian religion considered the origin of zombies).

Even in Romero's films, they don't turn immediately after being bitten.

I think the image of vampires has also been mixed in.

That's right. From a religious studies perspective, vampires, Jiangshi, zombies, and werewolves probably share the same origin, with rabies being one of the roots. When one has rabies, they dislike strong smells and wander at night.

Also, with rigor mortis, while the limbs might move, blood also comes out of the eyes and mouth. Seeing that, people thought, "Oh, they've been sucking blood."

I see, so plague and rigor mortis appear in various places in different forms.

I believe that serves as the base for them becoming Jiangshi or zombies.

I think the reason zombies spread this much was largely due to video rental stores.

Instead of going to the cinema, you could rent them and watch. And because titles would run out quickly, even B-movies were rapidly released on home video.

Also, isn't there late-night anime? Several zombie-themed anime are coming out late at night now. I think it's the result of needing many titles, just like the video rental stores of the past.

Recently, there was "Zombie Land Saga" (2018).

That was interesting, wasn't it?

It's a regional promotion anime featuring zombies. I was surprised because I originally researched anime pilgrimage (sacred site tourism).

The two trends merged (laughs).

I felt like this was made just for me (laughs). The "Saga" in "Zombie Land Saga" refers to Saga Prefecture.

Zombie girls are resurrected and active as a group. And in Saga, of all places (laughs).

It's a comedy series; it's not about a pandemic spreading, but about them wearing human-like makeup so people don't realize they're zombies, and trying to revitalize Saga Prefecture through idol activities.

The fact that such loose concepts are possible is what's great about zombie movies.

Yes. There's a high degree of freedom. Even in Western films, there are many bizarre projects. It's either shark movies or zombie movies that are the most challenging.

Like "Sharknado" (2013, US) (laughs).

Americans love sharks, after all.

In Japan, I think the live-action film "I Am a Hero" (2016) was a solid zombie movie made with a considerable budget.

That was overshadowed because "Shin Godzilla" and "Your Name." came out in the same year, but it was a very good movie.

There were many powerful scenes that were shocking. High school students who came to see it were crying.

"I Am a Hero" was probably influenced by "I Am Legend" (2007, US).

Yes, it's a play on that title. The original source for "I Am Legend" is Richard Matheson's novel "I Am Legend" (1954), which was the complete inspiration for Romero, so in a way, it's come full circle. But in the original novel, they are vampires, not zombies, so it clearly slid over from vampires.

The vampires in the original "I Am Legend" aren't at all like the typical Count Dracula; they're more like ordinary people wandering around.

The image of the vampire in Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897) is actually quite fake and strange compared to the reality of vampire folklore, but before we knew it, when we think of vampires, we think of Dracula.

Also, there are differences from the original book. The Dracula in the book is by no means a man with slicked-back hair wearing a cape; he's a balding middle-aged man. It was the 1920s stage version that gave him a cape and slicked-back hair. Since movies have inherited that ever since, we think that's what Dracula looks like.

That's true. Even in film, Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1922) is just a bald old guy (laughs).

That one was scary too.

That one is truly terrifying.

In Eastern Europe, places like Count Dracula's castle have become tourist attractions, but I suppose those are afterthoughts as well.

Yes. It has followed a complex history, but historically, it originates from "Vlad the Impaler" (Vlad III) of the Transylvania region in Romania.

Vampire legends belong to the Eastern Orthodox traditions of Eastern Europe; there are no vampires in England or France. According to Catholic doctrine, there is Purgatory after death, so it's impossible. However, vampires were resurrected in Bible-focused Protestantism.

Zombies really belong to the world of the Apocalypse, don't they? It's the idea that at the end of the world, the dead rise from their graves with Jesus. But since Japanese people don't share that sensibility, I don't think they quite understand why the dead would come out of their graves at the end of the world.

When we watch Michael Jackson's "Thriller," we don't realize it's a parody of the Apocalypse, but that Michael Jackson is both a parody of and an homage to Jesus, and the corpses rising from the grave is based on descriptions in the Book of Revelation.

When Japanese people adopt zombies, they don't understand that most crucial part, so it ends up being transformed in various ways. I wonder if one result of that is the development of expressions like "kimo-kawa" (gross-cute).

Exactly. I think the underlying meaning and context were dropped, and only the outward expression was imported. That's why, although there are a fair number of Japanese zombie movies, they weren't really hits and didn't quite become films that the general public enjoyed watching.

I think the reason good zombie movies have started appearing recently is because of viruses. We can intuitively understand the fear of viral infection as a lived reality.

It's currently spreading in China right now, after all.

Regarding the "kimo-kawa" topic in Japan, I think the influence of Halloween is significant. Specifically, zombie makeup using fake blood.

Why Halloween became so popular in Japan is a mystery in itself, but it's also strange why zombie makeup is so well-received. If I were to say, "I'm Count Dracula" in this outfit right now, people would say, "What are you talking about?" But if I put on some red fake blood and say I'm a zombie, they'd say, "Well, I guess so" (laughs).

It's easy, isn't it? To be Dracula, you have to slick your hair back and do all sorts of things.

The image of a zombie isn't fixed, so it's very easy to do.

And you just have to wander around aimlessly.

So, if you asked a girl walking through Shibuya in zombie makeup, "Do you know George A. Romero?" almost 100% of them wouldn't know.

They definitely wouldn't know.

They might not even know "Resident Evil." But a vague image exists, and they can recognize each other as zombies. I think this "looseness" is the key.

Genres that last a long time usually have a certain kind of looseness. People used to say, "If it runs, it's not a zombie," but then everyone accepted it and it kept expanding. I think this is important for content to continue.

That's true. When I first saw "Thriller," the idea that zombies—who aren't supposed to be able to move properly—could perform coordinated dance moves was so impossible that it was funny as a parody. But that feeling has disappeared now.

That dance in "Thriller" is actually taken from India. In Indian films like "Muthu" (1995), a superstar is in the center and everyone around them dances in sync. "Thriller" is based on a typical Indian dance style.

There's even an Indian zombie movie called "Go Goa Gone" (2013).

That one is wonderful.

It has an homage to "Thriller" at the beginning.

What's interesting about Indian cinema is that there must always be dancing. Currently, India produces the most films and Bollywood is famous, but there are actually about four different film-producing regions. Bollywood is bright, but in the southern regions where electricity hasn't reached everywhere, there's still room for ghostly things to appear, so there are many dark works.

The fear of zombies is complex. Primarily, there's the fear of being attacked. Then there's the fear that you might become a zombie—a perpetrator—and the fear of what would happen if someone you care about becomes a zombie. It's a very multi-layered fear.

Something interesting in recent works is that the number of conscious zombies is increasing.

That's certainly true.

Furthermore, characters are appearing who fall into the "gap" between zombies and humans. There's a manga (and anime) called "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba" that is a huge hit right now; in that, the protagonist's younger sister becomes a "demon," but she becomes a very delicate existence who doesn't attack humans. Humans try to kill the demon, but the protagonist protects her, saying, "No, this girl doesn't eat humans."

In America, there's a movie called "Warm Bodies" (2013) about a romance between a handsome zombie and a human woman. The story is actually based on "Romeo and Juliet," but they're doing it as "Zombie & Juliet." In this movie, when you become a zombie, you can't speak much, but the voice inside your head is eloquent and you have consciousness. However, as time passes, you become a different entity called a "Boney" that has no consciousness and attacks people. The zombies are depicted as beings in the "gap" between human and non-human.

Zombies are no longer beings with whom communication is completely impossible; it's more like communication seems possible but isn't. I think representing the "Other" in that way is an interesting recent characteristic.

Talking to a zombie used to be a no-go, didn't it?

Yes. Although "The Return of the Living Dead" (1985, US) depicted it as a gag.

It used to be vampires, but many current American dramas are about zombies.

Yes. There's even a ridiculous Russian one where only beautiful women become zombies. How do you even judge who's beautiful? (laughs). In that one, they can live and talk normally and are in a state where communication is possible.

Many zombie movies depict human relationships—whether to exclude the other, whether you can get along, or if there's a third way. On one hand, they develop as attraction movies with powerful visuals that fuel the fear of panic, while on the other hand, there are those that carefully describe individual relationships, so it never gets boring.

For attraction-style American movies, the rival is Disneyland. It's a matter of "Are you going to the movies, or are you going to Disneyland?"

There are things called "Real Escape Games," and zombies can be seen everywhere in the popularity of those puzzle-solving games.

In the first place, even in Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" (1978), the point is escaping from a shopping center. It's the same with "I Am Legend," but the idea of escape feels Christian, doesn't it? Escaping at the end to go to a sacred land that has been left behind.

I see. Like Moses, then.

Watching "Dawn of the Dead" as a kid was quite a shock. A shopping center filled with zombies, then a biker gang shows up and starts trashing the place—you wonder what on earth is going on (laughs).

It was really scary back then, but when I rewatched it a few years ago, it wasn't so bad (laughs).

The ones who survive at the end are a Black man and a pregnant woman. Those were people who hadn't been protagonists in American films until then.

Romero seems to have been quite conscious of racial issues; "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), where a Black man is attacked by white people, was also called the "flip side of the Black movement." I feel like he probably did it consciously from then on.

He didn't seem very conscious of it in "Night of the Living Dead," but he probably thought about it after that. So, I feel like he calculated that the final scene of "Dawn of the Dead" would likely be read with that kind of message.

But the fact that he's not doing it just because he wants to is what's so wicked about Romero (laughs).

True. With Romero, the work "Land of the Dead" (2005) has quite a congestion of values, and while it's not highly rated among Romero's works, I quite like it. Though I like "Day of the Dead" (1985) too.

The pioneer Romero has passed away, after all.

Has it been three years already? There's talk that he was apparently filming a work called "Road of the Dead" at the end.

Now that "Resident Evil" has concluded and covered all the mainstream bases, and the TV drama "The Walking Dead" (2010–, US) feels like it's packed in all the elements so far, does it feel like the mainstream path is becoming difficult for films?

Yes. Recently, many works have a twist or two. There's a musical zombie movie called "Anna and the Apocalypse" (2017, UK). It's about a high school girl who feels frustrated in a small town and wants to get out; zombies appear, and in the end, she survives and leaves. It's a full musical and very interesting. In Japan, there's "Murder at Shijinso" (2019). A murder occurs in a Western-style mansion where people are barricaded after a zombie outbreak. You'd think they wouldn't need to do that in such an emergency (laughs), but tricks are used that are only possible because they are surrounded by zombies.

There's also a story set in a world after a zombie virus has spread called "Mayhem" (2017, US). After the panic has subsided, someone contaminates the water in a corner of a corporate building with the virus, and only that company is infected. That zombie virus is one that releases rage; while they remain conscious, they lose their reason, and the story is about subordinates going to kill their bosses (laughs).

Certainly, nowadays, if it's too much of a template, it might be boring.

It does feel like zombie movies have exhausted all the possibilities. There was one where they eventually turn into trees.

That's "The Girl with All the Gifts" (2016, UK). That's a novel zombie too.

In this movie, the setting is fungi rather than a virus. It's based on Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, a real type of mushroom that parasitizes and controls ants. This really exists in the world; it enters the ant's body and increases by controlling its behavior. The setting is that it started parasitizing humans. That's why they eventually become trees. It considers things like ecosystems, which is very interesting.

Recently, the mutation into a zombie is incredibly fast. You turn in about ten-odd seconds after being bitten.

In the old days, it was "shoot them when they get up" after they were bitten and died.

That's quite idyllic, thinking about it now.

In "Resident Evil," zombies appeared with the setting of "biological weapons that weren't adjusted very well," so as the series progressed, they were adjusted and gradually became less zombie-like.

Flying through the sky, or looking like some kind of ordinary monster (laughs). I suppose they created various versions for the sake of the game. By porting those to film, all sorts of zombie variations probably emerged.

Aren't they conscious of stages specific to games? Like, if you break through here, you can move on to the next stage.

That's true. Zombies are probably easy to combine with various things. There is a certain flexibility where you can just stick anything onto them for the time being.

When a single genre spreads, it stops being a genre and becomes an element—this is a phenomenon that happens in many places. Sci-fi movies used to have a core form of "this is what a sci-fi movie is," but as they became generally accepted, sci-fi became just an element, and various variations appeared. It's likely the same phenomenon. That's why you can do anything, like zombie romance or zombie historical pieces.

That's certainly true. First, individual works exist, and then once a collective image matures in everyone's minds, a stage arrives where people feel, "Okay, it's safe to treat this as just an element now."

In the past, stories would progress while explaining that "a zombie is this kind of thing," but now everyone already knows. Content created with this premise is increasing significantly.

I think "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba" is truly at the forefront of modern zombie cinema, and the nature of the "intervals" (ma) is also diversifying. Also, what's interesting about this work is that when a demon is about to die, the protagonist treats them with kindness, which makes them remember things like their memories from when they were alive, allowing them to be sublimated and pass on to the afterlife. It's a very gentle story.

So, while it has zombie-like qualities, I think it's a story where ghost-story elements have found their way in.

Indeed. Also, while they are called "demons" (oni) in this work, for example, in the anime "Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress" (2016), they don't say "zombie," they call them "Kabane."

They are Japanese-style zombies, aren't they?

Yes, Japanese-style. If you just call them "zombies" at that point, it becomes boring. For instance, even in "The Walking Dead," they are "Walkers." They probably use different terms because calling them zombies directly would be uninteresting.

However, by using a different term, the image of the word adopted there flows back into the concept.

I see. Speaking of things unique to Japan, I find the capsule toy (gacha-gacha) culture interesting. There's a series called "Fruit Zombie" featuring characters like "a pineapple that became a zombie" (laughs).

They become "cute" so quickly, don't they? Even Jiangshi (hopping vampires) became cute in no time.

Shukuwa: At first, they were black-and-white and scary, weren't they?

The Hong Kong film "Mr. Vampire" was scary, but the protagonist of the Taiwanese film "Hello Dracula" (1986)—which was essentially a knock-off—was a cute girl named Ten-Ten. She became popular with children and was even featured in "CoroCoro Comic."

I feel that when scary things are accepted, "scary" and "cute" are probably not that far apart.

That's true. In Professor Inuhiko Yomota's "The Theory of 'Kawaii'," he wrote about how cute things and grotesque things actually coexist. So, you could say that terms like "kimo-kawa" (gross-cute), "guro-kawa" (grotesque-cute), or recently "kowa-kawa" (scary-cute) actually share the same elements.

Zombies lack consciousness or hope, don't they? They just wander around and bite people when they see them. I have some concerns because I feel that somehow reflects current social trends.

People don't have a desire to become something; they just want things to stay as they are. They say things like, "I don't need to get a job at a good company, and I don't need to get married. My hope is just to keep spending time with my friends like this." As a professor, I want to tell them, "Work hard in the world and become someone of note" (laughs).

It does feel like Japan is becoming a bit "zombified" right now. China, despite its various problems, feels very lively.

They are very aggressive, aren't they?

In Romero's "Dawn of the Dead," zombies wander around a shopping mall. American critics often said that Romero was depicting a situation where everyone was wandering in what was then America's mass-consumption society.

It's debatable how much Romero himself was conscious of that, but you can certainly look at it that way. The current situation in Japan that Mr. Shukuwa mentioned might be similar to that.

I created a field of study called "Cinema Economics" and registered it as a trademark, and Japan actually has quite a few "zombie companies" as well.

By the way, in Chinese, they are called "Jiangshi companies."

Is that so? I thought so. Recently, there's also the term "smartphone zombies." People walking while staring at their phones, bumping into others without looking around. That is certainly zombie-like.

I understand what Mr. Shukuwa is feeling, but on the other hand, when I talk to students, I also feel that they are living in a very cutthroat, "Battle Royale"-esque world. While some parts look like a desire to maintain the status quo, I feel they are constantly sensing a fear of falling behind. It looks like they are playing defense, wondering how to live safely in a world where they don't know what others are thinking. I feel that might be the flip side of a perceived lack of ambition.

I think that situation is one reason for the popularity of works like "Demon Slayer," which delve into subtle human relationships within a cruel world. With zombie stories, you can make the plot about conflicts between humans or humans versus zombies. If you give zombies personalities, you can even depict relationships between zombies. I think it's a very effective tool for allegorically depicting the complex state of the world today.

That's certainly true.

Also, this relates to my other specialty, tourism, but Japan is currently saying, "Foreigners, please come visit." In that context, when the negative effects of things like overtourism start being discussed, it could lead to a psychological tendency toward exclusion.

Similar to closing the door and saying, "Zombies, please don't come in."

Yes. I think Japanese people today, including their view of foreigners, have become sensitive about how to interact with the "others" close to them. In such a situation, I think zombie works function very effectively as a kind of educational material.

It seems we can say that zombie content reflects various aspects of our society.