Importing Genre, Exporting Cult: The Japanese Zom-Com

This article argues that the Japanese zom-com, with Wild Zero (2001, dir. Takeuchi Tetsuro) and Tokyo Zombie (Tokyo Zonbi 2005, dir. Sato Sakichi) as examples, is the result of cultural borrowing from American popular culture and an eclectic mix of generic influences. The zom-com films from Japan rarely reference traditional folklore that has been a central source in the history of Japanese horror cinema. Instead, the current discussion considers the two films alongside the zombie canon, and explores how they exist as transnational cult that can be understood through the academic discourse on taste and distinction. In the age of global production and consumption, differences are minimized in these films’ “imageries of Japan” and the producers’ marketing, rendering them familiar trash and engendering their cult status. The article concludes that it is the trans-cultural quality of these Japanese films rather than “the dead that walk” which underpins them as cult movies.