Director: Tetsuo Yamaguchi
Starring:
Genre: Japanese
Studio: Release date: 2003 Rated:
Summary: Literally translated, the title is "Hell Koshien," Koshien being the legendary baseball stadium/shrine associated with the all-Japanese high school baseball tournament. Innumerable dramas, manga, anime, movies have been made about the blood, sweat, and tears poured in order to play at and prevail in Koshien. Well, in this film--a kind of low-budget cross between all those traditional treatments, Fukasaku Kinji's Battle Royale, and your typical school ghost story film--blood, sweat, and tears (and guts) literally flow. That is the film's ingenuity (such as it is)--taking the worn-out clichéd metaphors associated with Koshien and taking them literally. Baseball and bad horror film fans will love this (I give it 3 1/2 stars). Despite its low budget, it was a surprise hit in Japan in 2003.
Starring:
Genre: Japanese
Studio: Release date: 2003 Rated:
Summary: Literally translated, the title is "Hell Koshien," Koshien being the legendary baseball stadium/shrine associated with the all-Japanese high school baseball tournament. Innumerable dramas, manga, anime, movies have been made about the blood, sweat, and tears poured in order to play at and prevail in Koshien. Well, in this film--a kind of low-budget cross between all those traditional treatments, Fukasaku Kinji's Battle Royale, and your typical school ghost story film--blood, sweat, and tears (and guts) literally flow. That is the film's ingenuity (such as it is)--taking the worn-out clichéd metaphors associated with Koshien and taking them literally. Baseball and bad horror film fans will love this (I give it 3 1/2 stars). Despite its low budget, it was a surprise hit in Japan in 2003.