OH! MY ZOMBIE MERMAID (Japan – 2005)
Directed by: Naoki Kudo
Starring: Shinya Hashimoto, Shiro Sano, Sonim, Nicholas Pettas

Like a musical production of SPLASH performed by the World Wrestling Federation OH! MY ZOMBIE MERMAID works as an over-the-edge action film and an over-the-top send-up of disease-of-the-week Lifetime movies. Sprinkle a bit of Bruce Lee’s GAME OF DEATH on top and you’ve got a super-slamming cinematic sundae that seeks out your pleasure centers like a sugar rush. 

Real-life wrestler Shinya Hashimoto plays Shishio, a wrestler who builds a perfect home for his demure and pretty wife, only to have it destroyed in an off-the-ropes wrestling throwdown when his rival, Ichijoh (deliciously evil Westerner and real life K-1 fighter, Nicholas Pettas), shows up and starts throwing elbows. Shishio’s wife is hospitalized and becomes infected with the Mermaid Bacteria, which causes her to grow fins, scales and start squeaking. Hoping that a new house will cure her, but weighed down by debt, Shishio accepts the offer of a fine new home from a sleazy TV producer. The only catch? His beautiful home is occupied by a team of evil wrestlers right out of a horror movie. There’s the zombie, the Amazon and other wrestlers so evil that if we wrote their name here this blurb would burst into demonic flames and burn your face! Will you like this movie? It’s hard to tell so rate yourself on this continuum: Dick Cheney would probably hate this over-the-top wrestlemania goof. But George Bush would love it.

Note: sadly, star Shinya Hashimoto died in 2005 of a brain hemorrhage.