Battlefield Baseball (2000) Jigoku Kôshien

Movie Rating NR Contains: Strong Language Violence Graphic Violence Gore

Director: Yudai Yamaguchi Movie Genre: Action, Comedy Country: Japan Battlefield Baseball Score Card The following scores are based on a 0.0 to 10.0 rating scale Hover your mouse pointer over the name of each scoring category below for a description Direction: 5.0 Writing: 6.8 Acting: 6.0 Cinematography: 3.0 Sound and Score: 6.5 Functionality: 7.0 Presentation: 6.8 Genre Comparison: 7.0 General Comparison: 5.4 Overall: 6.6 Reviewed 2006-01-18 21:48:28

As the dedication at the opening of the movie says, this movie is for everyone who loves baseball. Battlefield Baseball is about Seido High School and their baseball team's desire to play in the championship game at Koshien Stadium. Their team seems destined to win until Gedo High also enters the running for the title. Gedo High's baseball team is undefeated. This is mainly because they kill all of their opponents. This team uses baseball as an excuse to legally murder people. Seido's team seems doomed until the new transfer student with amazing baseball skills, Jubei Baseball, arrives. Unfortunately for them, after a tragic pitching accident, Jubei vowed to never play baseball again. After finding this out, the Seibei? High baseball team realizes that they must convince Jubei to play again because without his help, they will all die.

This movie was produced by Ryuhei Kitamura, directed by Yudai Yamaguchi,who was the assistant director and writer of Kitamura's Versus, and stars Tak Sakaguchi, also from Versus as Jubei. Much like Kitamura's earlier works, the low budget makes for a campy and hilarious experience.

The gore effects are cheaply done and the severed limbs are obviously made of latex. There is also no way to tell if the members of Gedo's team are zombies, monsters, or just really mean people. Their blue skin looks a lot like the zombies in George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, but there are no other clues as to just what these people are. The colored filters used to display the mood of each scene are overused and amateurish. These low budget effects are overused on purpose to enhance the lighthearted nature of the movie.

Battlefield Baseball is definitely a movie that refuses to take itself seriously. It is a ridiculous and silly celebration of the love of baseball. There are two musical numbers and the story is riddled with clichés. It is easy to see that the cast and crew had a blast making this movie.