DEADBALL (2011) Review

Directed by: Yudai Yamaguchi
Written by: Keita Tokaji, Yudai Yamaguchi
Starring: Tak Sakaguchi, Mari Hoshino, Miho Ninagawa, Takamasa Suga, Mickey Curtis

"GRAB YOUR BAT, IT'S TIME TO PLAY BALL!"

I'm just gonna come out and say it; DEADBALL fucking rocks. I have a feeling I already reviewed it on one of my other blogs but fuck it, I'm going to do it again because I just watched the movie for the third or fourth time and it's still as brilliant as it was the first time around.
Back in 2003 director Yudai Yamaguchi unleashed his crazy comedy / action / zombie / musical / baseball film BATTLEFIELD BASEBALL which starred Tak Sakaguchi as a highschool student recruited by the baseball team because of his incredible pitching talent. It was a completely absurd film that peppered musical numbers throughout a violent no-rules baseball game played between two rival teams. It was crazy and entertaining as fuck.

DEADBALL is somewhat of a reimagining of the previous film, an entirely fresh take on the same premise which once again stars Tak Sakaguchi and ditches the highschool location with a more appropriate prison setting. It also cranks everything up to 11. This movie is completely batshit insane, in a way that only the Japanese could create. Tak Sakaguchi plays Jubei, a 17-year old (never mind the fact that Sakaguchi himself was 36 at the time of filming) baseball prodigy whose incredible pitching arm ends up accidentally killing his own father. After swearing off baseball Jubei becomes a vigilante and is eventually captured and imprisoned in the Pterodactyl Juvenile Reformatory. The prison is run by iron-fisted Nazi bitch Ishihara (Ninagawa) and before long Jubei discovers that his brother was previously imprisoned in the same reformatory but died mysteriously. Ishihara recruits Jubei to play for the prison baseball team and he and his teammates find themselves in a deadly no-rules match run by Ishihara to entertain and impress her Nazi friends.

DEADBALL manages to cram in so much ridiculousness that it will have you rolling around with laughter and shaking your head in disbelief in equal measures. Want to see elbow-deep rectal cavity searches? You got it. Vomit eating? That too. Sakaguchi defeating a German-trained martial arts expert with nothing but a salt-shaker? Yep that's in here too, along with a smorgasbord of Looney Tunes-style violence, a sexy but deadly all-female baseball team, testicle removal and a Nazi baseball cyborg cum killing machine. And if that's not enough don't worry because there's plenty more over-the-top craziness, in fact if I wanted to list all of it this review would take half the day to finish.

Tak Sakaguchi is one cool motherfucker, like totally ice cool. He has this Clint Eastwood vibe going on with his poncho and spurs, and he has the badass ability to pull a lit cigarette from off-camera at any time he wants. The climax of the film is the showdown between the Pterodactyl Gauntlets and the St Black Dahlia baseball teams. it's a game with an unconventional scoring system which rewards spectacular kills rather than runs. The array of baseball-related weaponry ranges from spiked bats to grenade balls and fibre-wire balls, all of which batter, slice and blow apart the players left right and centre. The biggest criticism I have about DEADBALL is the overuse of CGI especially when it comes to blood and explosions, although in a way it kind of works within the confines of the comic book (or manga I guess) type violence. If you've seen and enjoyed anything from Sushi Typhoon then you need to check this out right now because it's easily their best offering so far.