A Film a Week - Everyday of the Dead / Mainichi ga Z nichi - evuridei ebu za deddo

 previously published on Asian Movie Pulse

Back in 1968, George A. Romero could not have known what would happen some 55 years later. His The Night of the Living Dead was so influential that it not just invented the zombie lore, but it also serves as an inspiration for every dude who would like to pretend to be a filmmaker. Romero used it to make a social commentary, but rules of the game have changed since. Now a pretend filmmaker has just to envision a generic zombie movie, film it with some minimal budget and proficiency and add “of the dead” to the title. The examples are numerous and of such is Everyday of the Dead written and directed by Yuyama Naoki that enjoys its international premiere at Japan Film Fest Hamburg.

The premise is that a zombie apocalypse ensued after an accident in a nuclear power plant. After an intro consisting of faked TV news and scientific shows, the action continues in four loosely connected chapters, covering one day each and each with “of the dead” phrase in the titles. Each on its own and all of them together remain “faithful” to the film’s title and its premise to depict the “everyday” life during the apocalypse…

Yuyama Naoki comes from the gaming industry background although he graduated at Nikkatsu Film Academy. Currently, he works as a teacher in the industry with a reputation of an “all-rounder of science fiction and horror movies”, while his filmmaking work consists mainly of commercial videos.

Everyday of the Dead is a genuine trash movie, and the “trash” part does not necessarily refers to its overall quality, but it has more to do with the stylistic choices. It was made on a modest budget, which can be observed in almost every artistic, craft and technical aspect of the film. Its plot and sub-plots are quite basic, the directing is functional to propel the story and the editing is focused more on covering the budgetary issues while welding one frame to another in a single scene, than on converging the whole thing into something more substantial than a series of shorts with some interludes in-between them. The acting is appropriately naive, phony and “trashy”, and so are the visual and the special effects. Funny thing is that the very interludes consisting of “fake television” elements are the most polished ones in the film, since they are largely faithful to the “originals”.

Luckily, Everyday of the Dead is quite merciful regarding its runtime, clocking only 68 minutes, so it does not take too much toll on the viewers. However, it is a very specific film suitable for the “trash style” enthusiasts only.