The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
Program to train zombies starts in Osaka
OSAKA — With Halloween on the way, aspiring zombies were offered advice on how to apply gruesome makeup and give terrifying acting performances in the “Program to Train Zombies” at Gallery Yomiuri in Kita Ward, Osaka City.
The three-session program began on Sept. 18 and is part of a series of Osaka Yomiuri Bunka Center courses.
Set to run through just before Halloween, it is designed to give participants the vocal training, makeup techniques and uncanny movements to become zombies, in cooperation with the Kadoma Film Commission, a nonprofit organization in Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture, which recently made a zombie movie.
On the first day of the program, participants received hands-on training applying zombie makeup after learning about various zombie characters.
Using a kit to become a zombie, which included stage blood, they put greasepaint on their faces and followed other instructions, while observing an instructor putting makeup on a model.
“I wanted to experience a high level of cosplay,” said Miho Nishimoto, 31, from Osaka City, who took part in the program with her husband. “The instructors and the makeup workshop were interesting, and I’m looking forward to the next session.”
An about 15-second movie featuring each of the zombie participants is made after each session.
In the following sessions, they plan to learn how to create three-dimensional scars and how to act as zombies.
After completing the program, the participants will receive a zombie certificate from the NPO.
“Zombie characters have been loved by people of all ages,” said Takashi Nasu, the head of the NPO. “After putting on zombie makeup, everyone becomes so lively.”
More than 40 years have passed since the zombie movie “Dawn of the Dead” became a hit in Japan in 1979.
The program, which is offered both in person and online, is taught by members of the NPO who have striven to revitalize the local area through activities such as holding the Kadoma International Film Festival.
The group has recently produced and released a zombie movie as well. (Sept. 26)