Cinema reflects life, so there is no shortage of apocalyptic visions filling our screens. What Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (now streaming on Netflix) presupposes is: maybe it isn’t so bad. When civilization ends, new opportunities can begin as one strung-out Japanese corporate zombie finds out for himself.  

The Gist: Tokyo office worker Akira Tendo (Eiji Akaso) is caught in a droning cycle of existence where he basically lives at his place of business. He’s practically the walking dead in his own life. That vicious, dispiriting cycle of workaholism ends up serving him well because when the zombie apocalypse comes … he actually sees the bright side. Now, he actually has the time to do the things he wants to do! Armed with a list full of “bucket list” items he wants to accomplish before becoming food for the zombie scourge, he sets out to finally live with his best friend Kencho (Shuntarō Yanagi) and a ragtag crew of fellow survivors.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like to combine The Bucket List and Shaun of the Dead into a manga, now you’ll know.

Performance Worth Watching: As the spry, silly Akira Tendo, actor Eiji Akaso nimbly carries the film. He’s the right level of earnest leading man and necessary punching bag to make a movie like this work at all.

Memorable Dialogue: “At this rate,” Akira says after escaping a horde of zombies at the beginning of the film, “they’re gonna mark me late today at work!” It’s a perfect encapsulation of the incisive yet irreverent tone the film strikes throughout in one brilliant laugh line.

Sex and Skin: There’s some female nudity in a love hotel when it’s revealed that, of course, there’s an underground economy of survivors using the zombies for sex.

Our Take: The joke at the core of Zom 100 is simple and smart enough to sustain the movie for a long time – who would be so burnt out by the modern world that they’d see the zombie apocalypse as some kind of break? While most COVID-tinged cinema dwells on the isolation and paranoia of lockdowns, director Yûsuke Ishida locates the fun in the illicit freedom that comes from finding yourself when the world hits pause. Some of that initial energy begins to dissipate over the course of two long hours, especially by the third act that all but literally jumps the shark. But this high-energy manga adaptation finds ways to surprise and delight throughout as it finds rich, unexplored thematic territory within the zombie flick.

Our Call: STREAM IT! The strength of concept alone in Zom 100 is worth a watch amidst the sea of sameness in zombie movies. While it loses steam with time, there’s enough humor and horror (especially frontloaded) to make it an overall worthwhile watch.

Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, The Playlist and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.

Watch Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead on Netflix