Movie night!

We watched Stacy tonight (also known as Stacy: Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies). It was one of the movies we've wanted to see for a long time; we asked for it for Christmas and were lucky to get it as a present but we're only now catching up on our movie-watching.

Stacy is a 2001 Japanese film where girls 15-17 years old die and come back as zombies. Just before dying, they develop Near Death Happiness where they are giggly and totally unconcerned about their impending death. This situation has become the norm all over the world and has halved the world's popylation.A huge industry has developed in re-killing these zombies and one of the storylines concerns a legal and an illegal re-killing team. The other main storline is about a girl who's looking for a re-killer and who meets and befriends a puppet-maker. 

It's sort of a B-movie in a lot of ways: the dialogue is cheesy, the zombie acting is so-so, the lighting and direction are lacking, and it looks like it was filmed with home video cameras. It appears that most of the budget went into gore effects; they're very good and quite realistic. This is a gory movie - schoolgirls munch on legs and intestines and it all looks real.

What really makes this movie worth watching is the subject: clearly there's a parallel between girls coming-of-age and dying, between Near Death Happiness and childlike innocence, between a teenager's need to love someone (and to be loved) and devouring them. The DVD liner notes talk about moe - or fascination for young schoolgirls - and the director's previous relationship with a teenaged pornstar. In many ways, this movie is a reflection of the desire older men have for these young girls and how these girls just want to be loved and to just be girls.

Stacy is a good zombie movie that isn't just about zombies: in many ways, it's a reflection of some aspects of Japanese culture. If you can stand the gore, it's worth watching and we highly recommend it.