Introduction
Romero's
horror classic "Dawn of the Dead" seems to lend itself as a
source for remakes. The year 2004 brought a
feature film of the same name and also the british comedy
"Shaun of the Dead". Now we encounter yet another
variation of the theme, titled "Dawn of the
Overrated".
Content
A mysterious
plague makes the overrated martial artists to leave the
antisenseis' fun clubs and seek entrance into authentic dojos,
longing for good techniques and mental energy. Soon, everybody
engaged in training with them will be turned into an overrated
himself.
Four traditional budoka manage to flee to a big
sports arena. They find its parking lot infested with
overrated members, driven there by their memories of events
for freebie ranks. The refugees seek shelter in the relative
safeness of a side wing. Access to a small gymnasium, shower
rooms, makiwaras, and a cafeteria provide them with everything
they need to carry out training. They resolve to seal off
the building and to teach the enclosed overrated in small
groups, hoping for repatriating them to the true budo
life.
The plan works until a group of association
officials unblocks the entrance in order to enforce the unity
of all members at all costs. As the confrontation escalates,
the refugees have to realize that it is the antisenseis and
not the overrated who pose the greatest
threat.
Editions
The movie
comes in two versions:
18+
In order to get an 18 rating, scores of kihon and
kata rank examination footage had to be cut. However, the
censors left all kumite sequences untouched, because "The
unrealistic execution of techniques is outshone by even more
unrealistic distances so that any danger for possible
imitators will be ruled
out".
Indexed
The
indexed director's cut includes 30 minutes more running
time, containing among other things a subplot which is totally
omitted in the 18 version. On first sight, the extended
footage seems to show fictitious nightmare sequences but
soon emerges as the characters' real memories of their
previous experience during a
graduation event.
Review 
