Production art from Ronin Apocalypse-The Sequel to Samurai Apocalypse

The film starts at night as we see two lanterns illuminating a dark and eerie woods.  The two men are unemployed samurai (ronin), and are a bit nervous and a bit scared out here alone in the dark.  They are are walking a foot path and bump into something heavy hanging from he trees.  One of the ronin holds his lamp up slowly and we realize he bumped into a woman's corpse, hanging upside down and twisted up like a pretzel.  The samurai fall down in terror as they hold up their lanterns to see 5 women hanging from the trees like bizarre ornaments.  Their bodies are upside down and twisted in strange ways and pretzeled so that they look like Cirque De  Sole corpses hung on trees.  The men cry out, "what is this?"  A creaky,withered voice answers, " Students."

 

The men hold their laterns  higher to see and old, short man balanced on a single branch, reclining.  He barely notices the intruders and doesn't look at them as he talks. 

"Students?  They are dead! You killed them?

"I have killed no one.  They came to me for certain knoweledge and couldn't handle what was imparted on them.  Some don't have the will to handle what I can teach them."  The old man replies.

"knoweldege?"  The ronin holds his lantern closer to one of the women's corpses.  He sees her eyes are gone and only two smoldering holes remian.  "You are a demon!"

"A demon to some, a teacher to others. I have knoweledge that others wish to share.  I have information that can help you men."

He explains how they are raggedly dressed and he can hear their stomachs growling.  He tells them that if they travelled by day, they actually might fight work,  and wants to know what they are hiding from and offers them a way to fill their stomachs and make some money.  He tells them to go back to the village they jast passed through and look for work on the next day.  They explain that there is no work there and the old man says to eat at an outdoor restaurant and be seen.  There will be work.

 The ronin leave and are very unsure about what they have seen  but with few other options the decide to give it a shot. We cut back to the old man concentrating very hard.  We see him from behind and slowly pan around to see he is hard at work performing magic using hand seals.

We track into a village where it is very quiet and few lights are on.  Slowly we hear shuffling and notice zombies, only one are two at first and then upwards of twenty.  They make their way through the town to a sparesly guarded building where the guards at first don't understand what is happenening, and then see this as an attack on the gold storehouse.  The two guards pull their swords but are quickly overcome by the zombies. The zombies take a few containers of gold and walk out of the town without awaking anyone in the town.  One of the injured guards sees the retreating zombies walk away to the river and walk right underwater.  As he paases out, he notices the undead walking out on the other side of the river.

The following morning, the village is awake and talk is of the robbery and how to solve the problem.  They plan on going after the attckers and are trying to put together a "posse" to do this.  A couple of ronin arrive in the town looking ragged and tired and settle in to eat at an outdoor cafe.  At the restaurant they order only rice and no sake.  Clearly they want to eat, but can't afford it.  Being seen at the restaurant the ronin are offered work by the head of the viallge (who arrives after being told of their arrival).  They are told their isn't much money to give them, but they will house them and feed them well.  The two ronin agree and move into the home and village elder and plan to protect the village and go after the theives. 

That night the two ronin are outside relaxing and having a smoke when a voice appears out of the darkness.  It is the old man who is returning for his "pay.  The ronin are told that in exchange for their good fortune, they need to finish the deal. He says he needs a young, determined "student".  He suggests that their is one right under their noses.  He leaves as mysteriously as he arrived.

The following day, the ronin meet the elder's grandaughter, and one of the ronin,Toshiro is clearly smitten by Miko. Throughout the day we see Miko traing in martial arts of various types and is an obvious archer of great skill.  As the day turns to night we see Toshiro and Miko spending more time together and flirting some.  That night as Toshiro lays in his room, he is again surprised by the appearance of the old man in his room.  He is told again, that he wants a student, and his patience is at an end.  He is told to leave and that Miko is not to be his next "student".  The old man says that he provided them food, housing, and money and they have done nothing to repay him.  He offers a warning to Toshiro again, and explains that he knew the nature of the deal when they first met. Toshiro grabs his sword snd waves his sword at the old man to find him gone.

 

Early the next morning, the villagers are surprised by a spring shower.  But as the ronin and villagers soon find out, the rain is hot to the touch and seems to sear the earth and anything outside.

 

 

More to come soon.....

 

 

The Sequel-Ronin Apocalypse is coming soon.  A treatment is in the works and will be posted soon.