R1 DVD
Tokyo Shock
(Media Blasters)
Machine Girl by Noboru Iguchi is quite an
experience, Iguchi is well known for both his extreme cinema and for his
various adult titles, so if you expect Machine Girl to be wild entertainment it
certainly lives up to your expectations.
Machine Girl is a prime example of extreme Japanese horror entertainment
with a high level of violence, gore and dysfunctional family stereotypes, from
the Yakuza and Bullying to violent abusive parents and an obsessive need for
revenge “we all need to become demons to protect our children” – wow...
Ami lives with her younger brother Yu and
has taken care of him ever since their parents committed suicide after being
accused of murder. They promised their parents they would avoid the use of
violence considering the slander against their family name, but find it hard to
live in a society where organized crime and school bullying is rampant.
Yu and his friend Takeshi are tormented
and bullied by Sho, the son of a local Yakzua boss and after they are forced to
hand over large amounts of money are thrown off a building. The police, of
course, write it off as suicide but Ami is not convinced. She finds a list of
“people I want to kill” in Yu’s diary and decides to investigate. Her first
stop is the home of one of Sho’s gang members, Hyoto. His parents are less than
helpful, the father is a violent policeman and the mother pathologically
devoted to her family. In fury at the “slander” against his son’s reputation
Ryota’s father attacks her and her mother covers Ami’s arm in tempura batter
and pushes it into the deep fryer !
At every turn she is accused of being a
murderer just like her parents were supposed to be and this pushes her over the
edge. She returns and kills Hyoto and his mother and confronts the Yakuza
family. An onslaught unfolds; however, she is caught and tortured. She is able
to escape but has lost an arm and is injured.
Led by visions of Yu, she wanders to the
home of Takeshi’s parents. His mother Miki at first blames Ami for the death of
her son but soon they band together to get revenge. Her husband, a rather
innovative mechanic as well as the son of a doctor comes in handy. He sews up
Ami’s wounds and builds her a machine gun and chainsaw attachment for her stump
! She is now a killing machine primed for revenge and does not plan to take
prisoners.
For then on it is battle after battle with
nearly constant bloodshed, gore and torture. The way they find the hidden
location of the clan by driving nails into the security guards face is
especially difficult to watch.
The climactic scene is well developed,
with Miki and Ami having to first fight through the families of the people they
have killed along the way. They then have to fight against Sho’s father with
his Ninja decapitation device and finally Sho’s mother who has a electric
bladed ninja bra of steel !
Machine Girl is an outrageous gore fest
which offers constant bloodshed from beginning to end. Sure there are some
passing themes related to bullying, dysfunctional families and the Yakuza but
these don’t get in the way of the sheer ferocity of the film. This is a gleeful
and exuberant splatterfest and should be enjoyed accordingly.
This review will appear in Volume 2:1
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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