The Machine Girl

We mentioned quickly last night that Tokyo Gore Police director Yoshihiko Nishimura had mentioned that the next film from the crew behind Tokyo Gore Police and Machine Girl would be Drill Bra Sisters and we had the chance to ask Nishimura for a few more details today. The film is still being written so details are scarce but one of the lead characters is obviously carrying forward from The Machine Girl - which raises the possibility of further character cross overs - and Nishimura confirmed that it will be Machine Girl director Noboru Iguchi calling the shots on this one as well. As for Nishimura? Well, he’s got something big on the horizons himself as well: he will be taking over the reins of the hugely popular Ju-On films - remade in the USA as The Grudge. The next installment of the long running franchise is being written now, series creator and original director Takashi Shimizu will be involved as a producer and Nishimura will be directing. More details as we get them.

So most of us are aware of the Japanese splatter film The Machine Girl. which was one of my Top Ten Favorites for 2008. However, what many of you probably dont know is that there is already a twenty minute short film sequel to the blood filled original. This short sequel is titled Hajirai Machine Girl and has a new girl take over the mantle from the previous film. It revolves around the character Yoshie as she must overcome her shyness to become the new Machine Girl.

Yeah I know, sounds a little strange but the good news is the good folks at TwitchFilm got their hands on the trailer for this new short film sequel and it is more of the rediculousness that the first film had. However, be warned that some people may find this new follow up a little on the tasteless side as one of the weapons…..well, lets just say it comes out of the body instead of being attached to it. Intrigued? Then check out the trailer for Hajirai Machine Girl below. It’s in Japanese so dont expect captions but it’s more Machine Girl mayhem to enjoy!

The 20-minute Hajirai Machine Girl short sequel is an added bonus feature to the new Japanese DVD release of the original film. No word on any release of this short film any other way other then as a Japanese DVD bonus feature. Also, keep your eyes peeled for more information as a full lenght sequel titled The Drill Bra Sisters is set to be made sometime soon.

(Hajirai Machine Girl trailer starts at about the 40 second mark)

The Machine Girl
Price: USD 12.99

63 used & new available from USD 8.88

Source : Horror-movies.ca

One-armed bandit: Machine Girl’s Asami lost an arm in her battle against a shady ninja family, but that doesn’t mean you should stand in the way of her quest for vengeance (witness the poor slob in the rear).

Ho boy, are you ready for the nightmares? That’s practically guaranteed this weekend as the Another Hole in the Head fest closes out with its final mow-down. Fans of arterial spray, extreme Japanese filmmaking, random acts of unkind dismemberment, and fatal flying guillotines will be able to get their geek on one last, but hella amazing time with this last-minute double feature of Japanese shock-and-argh at Brava, showcasing the late add Tokyo Gore Police and crowd fave Machine Girl.

MACHINE GIRL

Possibly the most exuberantly bloody and cartoonish offering in the fest, which bites off/pays homage to Grindhouse AND Kill Bill. This archetypal Japanese revenge story - passionate and cruel by turns - hinges on the trials and tribulations of Ami Hyuga (Asami), a high-school basketball nut, fresh-faced daughter of an accused killer, and loyal big sister. Her younger brother becomes snared by spiralling gambling (!?) debts and ends up in hock to the local budding young hoods, including the son of a yakuza/ninja kingpin (whose devil ‘do bears a remarkable resemblance to that of Prodigy’s lead vocalist) - it doesn’t end prettily. Something snaps in Ami, and she goes after the kids responsible for her bro’s death, only to come up against a formidable array of monstrous parents driven to protect their equally rotten offspring. Losing her arm - slowly - in a nasty torture scene just sends her over the edge. Don’t even ask yourself how she can possibly operate a attachable machine gun with a stump - Rose MacGowan figured out how in Planet Terror, so can she.

You won’t soon forget the memorably ’60s-ish comicbook-like action sequence opener, evocative of both Seijun Suzuki and Sin City, or the finale, less a balletic bloodbath than a completely over-the-top showdown between the “Super Mourner Gang” of grieving parents (just because your son chose to become a ninja doesn’t mean you don’t hurt), giant holes blasted in bodies, a driller bra donned by the meanest mama ever, and a scalping scene that combines disco strobing and an almost Looney Tunes-esque dark comedy.

TOKYO GORE POLICE

Also produced by the venerable exploitation house Nikkatsu (well, they made all kinds of films, though their “roman porno” and “pink” softcore films brought them infamy) with a few of the same actors popping up, Tokyo Gore Police is the eagerly awaited, latest turn by the cruelly beauteous Audition S&M star Eihi Shiina. Here, she’s a girl cop - part of a sinister Philip K. Dick-ish privatized police squad commissioned with ridding the world of monstrous psychopaths who grow weapons out of whatever body part they lose. Sound familiar? Yes, these are the same good - or bad, depending on how you feel about this level of gore - people at Nikkatsu who gave you Machine Girl.

Directed by first-time auteur Yoshihiro Nishimura (who crafted special effects makeup for Machine GIrl, the also memorable Hole in the Head features Exte and Meatball Machine), Tokyo Gore Police is chock-full of disturbing scenes: point-blank exploding heads (recurring like a child’s bad dreams), exposed brains, intimations of limbless sexual servitude, and natch the Snail Girl, above. But the movie’s blend of Ultraman live-action monster brouhahas and a Burner-y, nouveau goth-steampunk aesthetic that, personally, pulls me out of the narrative. I felt a little less invested in Tokyo Gore Police than the more, ahem, classically B-minded Machine Girl. But, hey, this isn’t a competition - unless you want to see how far I can throw a severed hand - so stick around for both flicks. Shock fiends won’t be disappointed.

The Machine Girl is one of those movies that is successful only because it tries to be bad. (Remember Snakes on a Plane?) Of course, that doesn’t make it good. Ninjas, flying guillotines, drill bras, a girl with a machine gun for an arm — how could you not want to watch this movie after viewing the trailer? Unfortunately, Girl i s also one of those movies with a trailer that shows all the best parts, rendering everything in between underwhelming by comparison.

Want to have a good time? Don’t watch the trailer, gather a bunch of friends, and sneak some forties into this movie. The trailer spoiled all the best parts for me, but I can certainly imagine how outrageous this movie would’ve been had I walked into it blindly. The conundrum here is that most people probably would have no interest in watching this movie without seeing the trailer. And if you have seen the trailer, well, I guess the movie is still worth watching, but I’d either try to sneak in through the fire exit or wait for it to come out on DVD.

Whew. With that said and done, Girl is a Japanese revenge fantasy that revolves around Ami Hyuga (Asami), whose brother is brutally murdered by bullies for lunch money. In a Kill Bill-like fashion, Hyuga starts hunting down his killers one by one. But when she confronts the ninja/Yakuza family responsible for her brother’s death, she’s outnumbered and captured. Rather than killing her, the family chooses to torture her, first slicing off her fingers and then her left arm. She manages to escape and seeks refuge with a friend who engineers a machine-gun arm for her to aid her in her revenge quest.

You’ll get everything you want out of a movie with this premise. It’s a 90-minute splatterfest with enough blood spraying to fill a swimming pool. The bad guys are so bad they’re not just senseless killers; they’re also necrophiliacs. It’s always fun to see how far the Japanese will go with the bizarre and the grotesque, and clearly in this movie there’s no limit line.

Director Noboru Iguchi made a wise decision by not taking the movie seriously. The over-the-top visuals and cheesy lines like “What would Mom and Dad say, before they killed themselves over murder allegations?” make it clear this movie is a big joke aimed to amuse in the cheapest ways possible. Takashi Miike made the mistake of trying to make a serious movie out of Ichi the Killer, which was about a sexually repressed man who fights with blades that come out of his shoes. That movie is as repugnant as Gi rl but is lacking the laughs, which makes it feel more like you’re watching a snuff film. Awkward.

Aka Kataude mashin gâru.

Reviewed at the 2008 Hole in the Head Film Festival.

Reviewer: Brian Chen

So anybody viewing this product already knows what they should expect. I mean, look at the DVD art… you’re not going to get oscar-winning cinema here, but what you will get is some of the more violent, gory, gruesome and action-filled movies i have ever seen. We all know about Ichi the Killer (Unrated Edition) and Riki-Oh - The Story of Ricky and i think this could be lumped into the same category. Totally over the top action and violence to see how far the creators can go. So down to MACHINE GIRL specifically. Acting and overall plot were pretty god considering… A young girl’s brother and his friend are killed by a gang of high-school aged yakuza and she seeks revenge, only to get her arm chopped off in the process. She finds herself at the parent’s house of the other kid who was killed and they nurse her back to health. They also make her a gigantic machine gun arm just in time to have ninjas show up to make use of it. The father is killed and “Machine Girl” and the mother of the other dead boy basically go out to seek revenge on the rest of the family. EXTREME violence ensues throughout - holes blown in people’s head, chests; decapitations; drill-bras; limbs chopped off; bodies cut into pieces, Kill Bill, Volume 1 style blood-sprays - the works. I was surprised to see that the special effects were for the most part top notch in the old-school manner. Most were all practical effects and all worked - even if they were a lil cheesy, i think it worked for the movie considering it was all that way. This will be a great movie to add to a gore-hound’s collection, or those who are fond of grindhouse-revival cinema. I’m proud to add it to my collection (of over 850 titles) and can’t wait to show it off to my friends who could stomach it… lol

The Machine Girl is available right now on Amazon

Japanese aligned LA production and sales outfit Eleven Arts has picked up international rights, excluding Asia and certain territories, of a love story “Cobalt Blue.” Pic, now in production, is directed by Yosuke Nakagawa as an adaptation of his own novel, and stars Masami Nagasawa (”Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World”.)

Company also picked up “Tokyo Gore Police,” a horror-actioner from the same team as sales hit “The Machine Girl.” Helmed by Yoshihiro Nishimura , it stars Eihi Shiina (star of “Audition”) and Itsuji Itao. Eleven Arts is selling rights outside the U.S. and Japan.
Patrick Frater

Not only does Noboru Iguchi’s Machine Girl arrive on DVD June 3rd but apparently she’s a cheap date, too, Amazon currently offering the disc for under fourteen bucks. Having seen the film I can say that, yes, this is every bit as crazy and chaotic as the trailer would lead you to expect. It is sheer low budget, exploitative, splattery madness. And a whole lot of fun. Check the trailer below the break if you need to refresh your memory.

source

The Japanese have really taken it to the next level. Earlier this year we had a machine-gun-leg heroine named Cherry Darling, and now we’ve got The Machine Girl. The plot - oh screw it, this movie is about a high school girl who gains a gatling-gun-arm, and there’s ninjas, flying guillotines, a drill bra, and more blood than you’ve ever seen before. Where do the hell do they come up with this stuff? Only over there across the Pacific, I guess I’d say. This could end up being “the cult film of next”, but my only question is when the hell will we be able to see it?! At least this trailer will hold us over.

The Machine Girl is both written and directed by Noboru Iguchi, of other crazy Japanese films like Cat-Eyed Boy, Sukeban Boy, and Kazuo Umezu’s Horror Theater: The Harlequin Girl. The film doesn’t have a US distributor or any release dates yet, but I hope in some way, shape, or form it makes its way here.

Carl Morano of Fever Dreams passed on the above costume/makeup test shot from the company’s latest project, tentatively titled TOKYO GORE POLICE. “It’s our next production to be shot entirely in Japan,” Morano tells Fango. “The film will be directed by special effects designer Yoshihiro [MEATBALL MACHINE] Nishimura, and is currently in preproduction, with shooting to begin in early 2008.” Plot details are currently under wraps, but that title is certainly enticing; look for more on the movie at this site in the near future.

In addition, Fever Dreams just unveiled the splatterific trailer for MACHINE GIRL, its previous Japan-lensed film, which we last reported on here. Noboru Iguchi wrote and directed this blood-drenched saga of a young girl who gets revenge on those who killed her brother and severed her arm, with the help of a machine gun attached where her limb once was. Check out the over-the-top preview below! —Michael Gingold

December 18th, 2007 11:54 am
In News: Tokusatsu

A brief look at Noboru Iguchi’s upcoming film
Author: Elliot Gay
Source: Richard York, Twitch, Fangoria, Fever Dreams LLC, Gomorrahy
Special Thanks to Keith Aiken and Sheldon Warnock

Director Noboru Iguchi’s latest film effort, THE MACHINE GIRL (Kataude Mashingaru, THE ONE-ARMED MACHINE GIRL, 2008), will be seeing its theatrical release in Japan in 2008. Written by Iguchi himself, the film follows the story of Ami, a young high-school girl who sets out to take revenge on a gang of bullies after they kill her little brother. On the way to revenge, Ami loses an arm and replaces it with a high powered gun. Insane foes armed with their own bizarre weapons meet a violent end as Ami seeks vengeance for the deaths of those she cares about most.

Noboru Iguchi is no stranger to horror films. Some of his previous credits include but are not limited to director Yudai Yamaguchi’s MEATBALL MACHINE (Mitoboru Mashin, 2007), and SUICIDE CIRCLE (Isatsu Sakuru, a.k.a. SUICIDE CLUB, 2002).

Also on board for THE MACHINE GIRL are Yoshihiro Nishimura and his company, Nishimura Motion Picture Model Makers Group (Y.K. Nishimura Eizô) - “NMPMMG” for short, who will be handling the multitude of special effects in the film. Previous special effects credits include MEATBALL MACHINE and SUKEBAN BOY (Oira Sukeban, 2006). Yuji Shimomura, director of the hyper kinetic film DEATH TRANCE (2005), is handling the martial arts choreography of the film.

The film is said to be a mix of the relentless action of DEATH TRANCE, with the over the top gore of MEATBALL MACHINE, combined to create a dynamic action/horror film. THE MACHINE GIRL stars J-idol Minase Yashiro as Ami. Rounding out the cast are adult actresses Asami Ogawa (Director Noboru Iguchi’s previous film SUKEBAN BOY) and Honoko, model Noriko Kijima, Kentaro Shimazu, Taro Suwa (BATTLE ROYALE, MEATBALL MACHINE), Nobuhiro Nishihara, and Ryosuke Kawamura.

THE MACHINE GIRL is a co-production between the US company Fever Dreams, LLC and Media Suits, a Japanese production house that merged with Nikkatsu Corporation (Nikkatsu K.K.) in 2006. Fever Dreams and Media Suits had previously partnered on DEATH TRANCE. The film’s international distribution rights were put up for sale by Nikkatsu at this year’s American Film Market. Media Blasters may be releasing THE MACHINE GIRL in America as a “Tokyo Shock Original” sometime in 2008.