Thanks for the memories!

Instant Favorite.

disgusting, overrated, pointless

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Higanjima otherwise known as Vampire Island was a recommendation and not something I'd ever heard of. It was an absolute beast to find an English subtitled copy of but I'm very happy I managed it.It tells the story of a young man who learns that his missing brother is on a mysterious island that has been taken over by vampires. With friends in tow he sets off to find his brother and combat the undead force.Japanese made with a little help from South Korean production Higanjima has plenty of the usual over the top Japanese tropes and is all the better for it. Very gory, action packed and perfectly paced it exceeded all expectations that I had.On the flipside the lack of budget shows in places, when CGI is required it really looks quite bad. The movie is also oddly a bit camp, I'm not sure why that approach was used and our vampires look like extras from Big Trouble In Little China (1986).Despite its flaws Higanjima is a lot of fun and though I'd argue against it entirely being classed as a horror its certainly something I'd have liked to see more of. It could have easily been turned into a television series and one that I really would have watched.Silly violent fun.The Good:Some great momentsLooks the partVery well constructedThe Bad:Some ropey cgiSome unanswered questionsThe vampires could have looked a tad betterThings I Learnt From This Movie:Banishing vampires is as easy as locking them in a cupboardPong was right, they were terrible friends

I found "Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island" to be a rather entertaining movie. And as for an Asian vampire movie, it was a nice change to see it not being those hopping vampires. I assume that being credited to this being a Japanese vampire movie, and not a Chinese.The story in "Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island" is about a group of young people being brought out to a mysterious island that isn't on any maps, where they are looking for Atsushi, Akira's brother who has been missing for two years. Something is very wrong on the island, however, and the young people soon find themselves surrounded by vampires. The entire island is controlled by Miyabi, the master vampire. Will the group be able to slay Miyabi and make it off the island alive?Actually the storyline is a bit 'mainstream' and borrowing from various movies, so it doesn't really offer all that much new and innovating material. But still, it worked out well enough, because the storyline is well accompanied by lots of action, thrills and good acting.Not being familiar with the Manga upon which this movie is based, I have no idea how true (or not) the movie is to the Manga. So I watched the movie without any prior information about it and without having been influenced by the Manga. I found "Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island" to be fun and overall exciting. The fight scenes were well choreographed and the characters were nice and well cut out.So if you like Japanese cinema and enjoy vampire movies (where vampires don't have sparkly skin, big hair, and are romanticized) then you should give "Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island" a chance.

So it tries to be funny and dramatic at once. I think it does not achieve it's goal, but of course you might feel different. It's a shame, because there are quite a few good scenes in here. But it drifts into melodrama at times, when it is completely unnecessary. Not to mention that the acting (even for that sort of a movie) is bland, if you are being nice to the movie.Then again, since this is based on a Manga, it is always difficult to put the complexity of those onto one film. Unfortunately I have not read any of those "comic books" (hope you are not offended by me calling them that, but not everyone might know what a Manga is). Still I'm sure they are far better than this one, that can be enjoyed at times ... especially with low expectations

Wow, Higanjima if considered a horror movie is a total fail (except for he fun head smashing opening scene). If taken as a comedy this movie is pure genius... you get some of the funniest over-acting, staged shots of the coolest nerd-losers in movie history, some of the gayest smart-ass vampires, some of the most annoying screechy ghost grannies, the Korean version of Harry Potter as a sidekick funnier than even the cliché fat dumb funny guy.... and don't even start with the "cool" main characters. Akira is the handsome nice guy who tends to sit down for misplaced scenes of unfitting sadness and staring at the horizon, his brother is some kind of a nerd who watched too many Rambo movies and decided killing vampires is fun and makes you look cool and then there is a cool rocker dude (love the staged scenes with the baseball bat) who seems to have been snatched from a bad 70ies rock gang movie. He tends to appear more retarded than the obviously retarded Pong character.Anyway... that gang of idiots for unexplainable stupid reasons heads of to retardation island Higanjima where they fight a bunch of vampires, exploding winged vampire sluts, cheap CGI dragon-meets-Giger-style-Alien monsters and zombie degenerates like the kick ass brain dead "Reaggae" zombie who is by far the funniest. The whole movie doesn't make an inch of sense and the random editing adds to the ridiculous funny bone of Higanjima, mixing shaky cam fight sequences that are barely watchable without throwing up with endless shots of Akira sitting on a wall and being sad for 20 minutes or having some romantic puppy-flashbacks before turning into a bloodthirsty fighting machine that splits flying leaves in slow motion. The fight sequences are always accompanied by misplaced epic heavy rock music and tend to recycle the basic ideas of smashing heads, chopping off arms or driving swords through hollow vampire-zombie heads in a repetitive fashion. They really just had these 3 ideas, so even a massive monster dragon has to have his head smashed first and then stabbed just to make sure its really dead. Of course this movie is 2 hours long to elaborate on the exquisite plot and thrilling fight sequences. On higanjima heroes die slowly so they can scream the names of their loved ones for minutes even after having a samurai sword driven through their nerd-brains. The director is either a total comedy genius or a lobotomy patient... anyway, put on your diapers when watching this.