Japanese horror films are becoming increasingly popular among cinephiles. Perhaps more accessible to Western audiences than such decidedly more Japanese efforts as Kairo and Uzumaki, due in part to the influences it draws from, Junk does offer a few original touches in terms of both gender roles and the intelligence of its undead. Whether it be a female getaway driver who is more willing than her male partner to drive headlong into a horde of zombies or a prototype female zombie whose strength and abilities exceed that of five men, director Atsushi Muroga's refreshing reversal of traditional roles and refusal to take the proceedings too seriously make for a movie ten times as entertaining as the majority of recent stateside efforts. For those who associate subtitled foreign films with deliberate storytelling, Junk will certainly shatter those preconceptions with gleeful abandon.