It's a straight-to-DVD zombie film by one of my favourite directors, Koji Shiraishi. This one isn't a mockumentary, but its camerawork can be similar to those.

Our taxi driver protagonist (played by Nocchi) is a loser. He thinks the only good thing in his life is being a fan of an idol called Mika Enno and he's attempted suicide many times. A girl hires him for a 47,250 yen (about 250 pounds) drive into the mountains and tells him he's creepy, so after dropping her off he goes a bit unfortunate.

Weird stuff's happening out there. Soon, he's being haunted by a ghost.

We then jump back to the previous day, with completely different protagonists. Some youngsters (including Mika Enno!) are having a school reunion, while a Neanderthal-like academic played by Yanagi Yurei is investigating a stone circle. He tells everyone not to meddle with the circle... so one of them immediately does. He's a punk. He thinks destroying history, swearing in English and not doing what you're told is the essence of punk. He unplugs a mystic stone. This is a zombie film. Guess what.

That mountain village is more populous than you'd think, incidentally. It looked empty, but soon it'll be swarming (ish) with zombies. "I hope the adorable child doesn't get eaten," I thought at one point... oh dear.

The timelines link up. Nocchi and Yanagi Yurei are both fans of Mika Enno, so they set off to rescue her.

This film lives up to its promises. There's both a ghost and zombies, plus an unexpected blurring of the line between life and undeath in the last 10-15 minutes that made me laugh. Nocchi is hilarious. The guy's hardly appeared in any films (and I think I've seen them all) but he deserved to make more. His martial arts effort against a punk zombie is hilarious.

I can't believe how little-known this film is. The production values are fairly low, but so what? The script is ingenious, the blood sprays are vigorous and the actors give their all. It's also funny. "Are you all right?" asks Nocchi after running someone over in his taxi and bisecting them. Had I been Koji Shiraishi, the only things I wouldn't have done are: (a) squashing that earthworm, and (b) the game show sound effect on that spirit communicator. Flashing lights were enough. We get it. Overall, though, this film is great fun and suggests interesting speculations. Could someone be both a zombie and a ghost, for instance? The ending's oddly downbeat and slightly disappointing, but it's right for the characters and I can imagine writing sequel fanfic to explore what our heroes did next.

Koji Shiraishi should have made a sequel, actually. I'd have watched the hell out of it.