ferbs54
I am very pleased to report that Japanese special FX master (and occasional director) Yoshihiro Nishimura is now a very solid 3 for 3 with me. In 2001's "Suicide Club," Nishimura's splattering gore FX gave this ultimately bewildering story just the visceral shocks needed to put it over. In 2008's "Tokyo Gore Police," which saw Nishimura also taking the reins of director, his gore FX entered the realm of high art, with many characters transformed into gushing, human blood geysers and sanguinary fountains. (These gushing blood FX, perhaps inspired by Akira Kurosawa's shocking finale of 1962's "Sanjuro," could conceivably be deserving of some sort of Nipponese patent or copyright!) And now...2008's "The Machine Girl," which, if not quite as bloody as "Tokyo Gore Police" (but what film IS?!?!), incorporates the FX more cleverly, and into a more endearing story line, as well. Personally, I loved it!In the film, the viewer meets a pretty high school girl named Ami, winningly portrayed by Minase Yashiro. An orphan for some years, Ami lives with her younger brother, Yu, with whom she is very close. "Violence doesn't solve anything...it only hurts people," Ami tells Yu early on, but her attitude quickly changes when Yu and his buddy are killed by the gang of Sho (hissingly well played by young Nobuhiro Nishihara), the odious son of the local Kimura yakuza leader. Quickly going into vengeance mode, Ami handily disposes of her first two victims, after which she laughingly runs down the street, proclaiming "I'm a demon! I turned into a demon! I'll remain a demon until I kill every last one of Yu's enemies!" But more trouble looms, as the yakuzas capture poor Ami and, in a grisly sequence, chop off her fingers and then her entire left arm! Fortunately, the local mechanic and his wife--the parents of Yu's late friend--take pity on the mutilated girl, and construct a nice prosthesis for her new stump...a prosthesis that just happens to be one seriously heavy-duty machine gun!Perhaps inspired by the "Planet Terror" segment of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's "Grindhouse" (2007), in which Rose McGowan's Cherry Darling character loses her right leg and is fitted with a high-powered machine gun prosthesis, "The Machine Girl" tells a simple story of vengeance, but one that is exceptionally well done. In the lead, Minase is absolutely adorable in her white blouse and pleated skirt, and could easily pass as one of those 54 innocent-looking schoolgirls who leap onto the tracks in "Suicide Club." But just watch her lip curl into a snarl as she fires off her "arm" or chastises her foes! It is a wonderful performance from Ms. Yashiro, who is certainly required to do more physical stunt work and give five times as many line readings as the kick-ass character portrayed by Eihi Shiina in "Tokyo Gore Police"; hard to believe that this was Minase's first role as an actress! But then again, ALL the players here are just terrific, and the colorful characters that they portray should linger long in the memory. Special kudos to Asami, who plays the supertough Miki (the mechanic's wife); to Kentaro Shimazu, who plays the yakuza boss; and especially to (another single-name actress) Honoka, who plays his even nastier wife, as lethal and sadistic a Dragon Lady beeyotch as has ever been shown on screen. And of course, kudos to writer and director Noboru Iguchi, for his colorful story and incredibly stylish and dynamic helming of the film. I have become an instant fan of his, and not just because the man shares my birthday (June 28th, if you care to send gifts); I look forward now to someday seeing some of his other nonporno fare, such as "RoboGeisha," "Mutant Girls Squad," "Zombie Ass" and "Dead Sushi" (you've gotta love those titles!).But let's get down to the meat of the matter. Putting aside all questions of story line, acting, fashion and style, "howzabout those shock FX?," all you gorehounds must be asking. Well, as in "Tokyo Gore Police," the carnage on screen is so UNrealistic and over the top that any queasiness that might otherwise be engendered is somehow averted. But boy, is that carnage ever up there! Thus, the audience is treated to the awesome spectacle of one punk getting his face machine-gun blasted away, bit by bit (a truly staggering effect); hands cut off; Ami getting her arm tempura'ed in boiling oil (played for laffs, strangely enough); a bloody head in a pot of miso soup; a knife blade going into the back of a woman's skull and out of her mouth; a bloody dousing using a decapitated torso; finger sushi (don't ask!); another woman getting a knife through the top of her noggin, only to be then raped by two yakuza henchmen (surely, the film's sickest moment); a foot-wide, see-through hole in the torso of a machine-gun blasted ninja; those razor-sharp throwing stars (shuriken, I believe they're called) slicing a man to pieces; nail-in-the-face torture; chainsawings; a mace with a steel trap, aka a "flying guillotine"; and, most incredibly, a metal bra with twin power drills attached (possibly inspired by Ursula Andress' bullet-spitting bra in 1965's cult classic "The Tenth Victim," and possibly the inspiration for Sofia Vergara's machine gun brassiere in Robert Rodriguez' upcoming "Machete Kills"). As you can see, truly, one wild and crazy entertainment package, but in all, quite winning and ingratiating, and perfect fodder for a possible sequel. Personally, I would love to see Chloe Grace Moretz' Hit-Girl character from "Kick-Ass" take a trip to Japan and team up for some serious butt kicking with Ami, but I suppose we ALL have our little fantasies, right?
griffsta
There's B movies, and there's Grindhouse, but this film was just pure garbage. I honestly thought they must have realised halfway through filming it was dreadful, and tried to come up with ideas to make it worse... I mean come on, drill bra? Really? This film is p*ss poor in my opinion. The props are rubbish, the OTT blood and gore isn't even funny, its just ridiculous. The acting is mediocre, the fight choreography is substandard.I've seen a lot of these kind of movies, and at least other B movies have a half decent story or are at least written so you enjoy at least 1 scene.Was this film made by a 12 year old?
tonymo1977
"The Machine Girl" I thought for sure that I had had enough of the "Tokyo Shock" scene after seeing "Tokyo Gore Police", after seeing that film I nearly gave up on the sub-genre all together. Feeling froggy I figured it would be safe going with a Tokyo shock as long as it wasn't written and directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura. It was OK that he had done the FX, his work in that department is really quite good. Instead I went the safe route (really sarcastic) with porn director Noburu Iguchi's " The Machine Girl" Thank goodness there was no penis gun this time around. Just your classic "Tokyo Shock" Nishimura style! Fingers, heads, arms all cut off with the single swipe of a Katana blade. Imagine again the fan like sprays of blood in full force."The Machine Girl" was a very stylistic, well written and acted yarn that spins itself around young High Schooler Ami Hyuga (MInase Yashiro).When Ami's brother Yu and his friend Takeshi are murdered by a young gang, led by the son of a Yakuza Clan Leader, Ami stricken with anguish, vows to avenge her brother, doing whatever it takes, including becoming a "demon" for her family and tracking down his killers."The Machine Girl" was a really cool film with elements of "Master of the Flying Guillotine" "Mighty Morphine Power Rangers", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and Tekken. The Yakuza boss is a dead on ringer of "Heihachi Mishima, he even sounded like him too. This film never really takes it self too seriously and exploits itself in all the right ways. The characters were all very likable and stylized end over end.One scene in particular that really stood out, raised it's arm, waived and screamed at the top of its cinematic lungs, was when Ami visits the home of one of the young gang members. She extracts info from him and proceeds to cutting his head off, the scene cuts to his mother setting the table for dinner when suddenly the power goes out and suddenly back on. Well, in that short amount of time, Ami put his head in a stew pot and when the mother opens it to see her sons head inside, she screams, giving Ami the moment to stab her in the back of the head with a kitchen knife. What comes out of her mouth is , including pints of blood, a bit of her intestine, yellow puss? I think? The camera cuts from her mouth spewing to the stew put filling and covering the boys head or the hand in boiling oil making a Tempura hand. Really intense and very well done( In a exploitive, over the top sort of way). Ohh, I forgot to mention that Ami loses her arm during a torture scene led by the Yakuza boss and his clan, including his sadistic wife. Only to have a Gatling gun prosthesis to replace it."TMG" is nothing but style and fun. The ninja "Mighty Morphine Power Ranger" looking scenes were very cool and any time you have a flying guillotine grabbing peoples heads and legs and ripping them off and showing it, is pretty freaking amazing too. Chime in the bra drill in the closing scene and you have an exploitation film at its very best. The film does exactly the way you want it to do. No weird twists and turns or perverse scenes to derail this locomotive of shocking fun. Interesting that a porn director has no nudity in the film, but a very nice touch. For a good time....check out " The Machine Girl" BruceVain
