Granted, I am not familiar with Anime that this 2019 live action movie adaptation is based on. So how true director Issei Shibata was to the source material with this 2019 movie, I have no idea.
But of course I opted to sit down and watch "Gakkô-Gurashi!" (aka "School Live!"), on account of it being a zombie movie that I hadn't already seen, and a Japanese zombie movie nonetheless, which just helped sweeten the deal. I hadn't heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it here in 2023, so I didn't really know what I was in for, nor did I have much of any expectations.
Writers Sadoru Chiba, Norimitsu Kaiho and Issei Shibata put together a fair enough script. I mean, this was a pretty straightforward, albeit a somewhat generic zombie movie at best. And it was aimed at a much younger audience than me, and possibly even also a female audience as well. So I felt somewhat like a sore thumb sticking out, because the movie was sort of a swing and a miss in terms of properly entertaining me.
And watching three Japanese high school girls and their teacher trying to make a normal every day routine of living, cooking and other activities inside the confines of their school, whilst surrounded by the living dead, hardly made for an overly thrilling movie experience.
I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but it should be noted that the actresses playing the three highschool girls and their teacher, did good jobs in portraying their characters, no doubt about it. I can appreciate acting performances, despite of the script falling short of entertaining me.
I found it difficult to get into the flow with the characters, as they were Japanese school girls and felt rather childish in the face of a zombie apocalypse. And that definitely abstracted me from enjoying the storyline to the fullest extend possible.
Visually then "Gakkô-Gurashi!" was okay. Sure, it was a zombie movie, and you have a fair amount of zombies shambling about. Now, the zombies shambling about and not running, was definitely a plus for me. The zombie make-up in the movie was adequate. I mean, it was essentially just Japanese young adults painted gray and with milky eye contact lenses. Nothing outstanding or memorable, but it was actually fair enough, as it didn't permeate that usual horrible low budget zombie make-up that many movies opt to go for. Don't expect anything gory or ghastly, because you will be sorely disappointed. However, I found it odd that all zombies, and I mean literally all zombies, had dirty clothes, but not a single one of them had blood on their clothing or on their bodies, nor any visible wounds.
"Gakkô-Gurashi!" is a movie for the girls, especially for a Japanese audience. No doubt about it. Director
Issei Shibata failed to deliver a movie that appealed to my preference and liking within the zombie genre.
My rating of "Gakkô-Gurashi!" lands on a generous five out of ten stars.
