It's a splatter comedy and a loose remake of Battlefield Baseball (2003) from the same director and star. Misaki and I prefer the original, which is more light-hearted and funnier. This one's nastier, more serious and held Misaki's attention less well (although six-year-old girls definitely weren't its target audience).

Tak Sakaguchi returns as baseball prodigy Yakyuu Juubei. (Why doesn't his brother share his surname? Ah, never mind.) Once again, Juubei killed his father years ago with his so-fast-it-bursts-into-flames fastball, which involved leaping so high into the sky that he almost reached outer space. Today, he's Japan's most feared delinquent. He's in prison. He's sworn off baseball... but he's heading for Gestapo Prison School, where the headmistress does Nazi salutes to a picture of Hitler and has all the students/inmates anally invaded every day. She wants Juubei on their baseball team and she won't take "no" for an answer.

The violence is silly and absurd, but also ultra-gory and sometimes outright unpleasant. (It also overuses blatant CGI that's not meant to look convincing.) It's also in bad taste. Sakaguchi's anal revenge on the headmistress made my jaw drop, although fortunately it's not sexual. (He inserts his arm up to the elbow, which is nothing compared with the foreign objects she'd had inserted into him.) The film's best jokes tend to be outrageous violence and fight scenes, but these go so far that they sometimes become "ew" or worse. The film on the murder of a homosexual, as the "punchline" to an earlier homophobic comment.

That said, though, I was amused by the agreement on North Korea's ruler having pubic hair on his head.

The remake's story focus is different. It's more protagonist-centred from the start, makes different use of Juubei's family and doesn't even mention the enemy team until the second half. (They're not zombies, but instead hot girls in midriff-baring outfits. Doesn't make much difference. They're just as lethal.) Who needs an Evil Enemy School when the school into which Juubei's transferred is run by card-carrying Nazis with black lipstick and killer Pierrot butlers?

There's actual baseball, including a match. It's ridiculous and the balls contain death gadgets, but hey. Also, Juubei's fastball returns repeatedly and is used against baddies. (The original film almost completely ignored the game.)

Sakaguchi's still fun, even if there are fewer jokes. I liked the moment where he sings along with the incidental music, then winks to camera.

The only thing that's better in the remake is Sakaguchi's cellmate, played by Mari Hoshino. (The film never acknowledges that she's female, but she's still a point of emotional engagement for the audience. I liked her. Atsushi Ito played roughly the equivalent role in the original film.) This film contains silly and occasionally mildly parodic things, e.g. a man called Avatar who's painted blue, but there's nothing as clever or funny as the original's manga parodies. The plot's tighter and more akin to a standard action movie narrative... but the ending's a mess and has a superfluous-looking follow-on that makes me wonder about last minute rewrites. That said, though, this film's still definitely in the upper half of Japanese splatter comedies and I prefer it to the previous Yamaguchi-Sakaguchi film, Yakuza Weapon, even if that had a better ending.