The Machine Girl

By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: May 23, 2008

The Japanese obsession with cavorting ninjas, cunning hardware and comely young avengers in abbreviated plaid skirts reaches some kind of climax with “The Machine Girl,” a riotous blend of arterial spray and grindhouse glee.

Playing Ami, a basketball-loving high schooler whose beloved brother is killed by bullies, the soft-core starlet Minase Yashiro blazes through the movie like a vengeful hall monitor. Seeking justice, Ami confronts the parents of the lead bully, who respond by pan-frying her forearm — an extremity that will later be replaced by a machine-gun prosthesis. Like Rose McGowan’s character in “Planet Terror,” Ami is retrofitted for revenge.

Written and directed by Noboru Iguchi, “The Machine Girl” plays to the balcony with schlocky effects (the camera lens frequently suffers collateral splatter) and visible roots (a terrifically cheesy 1970s title sequence). As Ami tackles a bewildering array of adversaries — including a bunch of bereaved parents known as the Super Mourner Gang — faces are flayed and eyeballs impaled in an escalating rush of inventive mortifications.

Offering her fans only a teasing glimpse of pristine white panties, Ms. Yashiro remains aloof from the screenplay’s sleazier moments. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the movie’s scariest villain, a yakuza mom only Tarantino could love. What she does with her bra is worth the price of admission alone.

THE MACHINE GIRL

Opens on Friday in Manhattan.

Written (in Japanese, with English subtitles) and directed by Noboru Iguchi; director of photography, Yasutaka Nagano; edited by Kenji Tanabe; music by Koh Nakagawa; production designer, Yasuo Kurosu; visual effects supervisor, Tsuyoshi Kazuno; produced by Yoko Hayama, Yoshinori Chiba and Satoshi Nakamura; released by Media Blasters Releasing, Fever Dreams and Tokyo Shock. At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East Third Street, at Avenue A, East Village. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Minase Yashiro (Ami Hyuga), Asami (Miki Sugihara), Ryosuke Kawamura (Yu Hyuga), Nobuhiro Nishihara (Sho Kimura), Kentaro Shimazu (Mr. Kimura) and Honoka (Mrs. Kimura).

By: Joris Westerdaal

Thanks to Joris for sending in this review from the Amsterdam Film Festival

There’s nothing more liberating than watching a revenge movie. I just love the way these movies work. The story is simple, yet very engaging most of the times. Somebody gets treated inhumanely or gets pushed over the edge and starts taking right into their own hands by exacting cold blooded revenge on who ever has put them in these dire situations. THE MACHINE GIRL, by japanese director Noboru Iguchi, is no exception.

Ami and her younger brother Yu have no parents. They commited suicide from shame after falsely being accused of murder. Living alone now, Ami and Yu have sworn to never lose another loved one ever again so they never resort to violence and try to solve all their problems in a peacefull way, like their parents allways told them. Sho is the son of a Yakuza-clan leader and the leader of a gang of bullies who constantly terrorize poor Yu and his friend Takeshi. After Yu and Takeshi are murdered by the bullies Ami tries to investigate but gets attacked by the gang members’ parents who turn out to be even more sadistic than their offspring. Ami freaks out completely and swears to kill all of Yu’s enemies. This wont be easy because these Yakuza are members of the Hattori Hanzo ninja dynasty. Ami even loses one of her arms when she tries to attack the Yakuza home base. Barely alive she is taken in by Takeshi’s parents who happen to be mechanics. They fix her up with the perfect tool for pissed off, one armed school girls: an eight barreled machine gun prosthetic.

When I first heard of this movie I couldn’t help but immediately think of other films that use the same kind of gimmick (a body part thats transformed into a weapon) – like TETSUO or PLANET TERROR. Now that I have actually seen MACHINE GIRL it’s easy to say that this one is way different from those afforementioned two. The story is as simple as it gets and is only used as an excuse to get down to some serious blood-shedding. Most of the characters are totally over the top and unbelievable but still fun to watch. What really helps is that THE MACHINE GIRL herself (portrayed by Asami who is a popstar in her native country) is enjoyable and she looks great in that Japanese school uniform as well.

After a very bloody and disgusting opening sequence, which is a great introduction for the carnage that awaits, it took a bit too long for our leading lady to actually lose her arm and get her machine gun in my opinion. But as soon as Ami gains her machine gun arm the movie turns into the gorefest everybody expects it to be. And though the effects work at display never looks authentic it suits the cartoonish style of this movie just fine. Fountains of blood everywhere, people getting cut in two, decapitations, drillbra mayhem… it’s all in there. The only problem here is that the trailer spoiled a bit too much of the gory set pieces we get here, so if you haven’t seen it yet, I advise you to avoid it and let the movie surprise you.

There are some other minor flaws like some bad acting and poor dialogues, but the movie easilly overcomes its own flaws by never taking itself too serious. And though terribly sadistic things happen in this movie everything is so over the top insane that it had me laughing out loud many times over these atrocities like the raping of a dead school girl. MACHINE GIRL isn’t a revenge flick like KILL BILL, which leaves plenty of room for character development, this one can easilly go without any character development… just tell the story and let the mayhem begin.

This really is a perfect midnight movie; it’s simple, fast paced, funny and gory as hell. Invite some friends over, get drunk (or whatever) and let THE MACHINE GIRL lead you into a world of exploitation and bloody madness. I never saw any of Noboru Iguchi’s previous works but this weird little movie certainly made me curious. His next feature film “Tokyo Gore Police” is rumoured to be even more insane than this one so that certainly is something to look forward to.
Score: 8 / 10

If you only see ONE outrageously absurd and ridiculously over-the-top Asian splatter yarn this year – or even this lifetime, for that matter – you better make damn sure it’s Noboru Iguchi’s “The Machine Girl”! This stupendously demented piece of Japanese “Revengeploitaton” features king-size portions of all the regular and crowd-pleasing ingredients, like crazed stereotypical characters (Yakuzas, Ninjas, schoolgirls in uniform, …) and simplistic story lines, but it particularly specializes in extreme Magna-esquire gore and kitschy comedy. Beautiful and multi-talented schoolgirl Ami lives alone with her nerdy brother Yu since their parents committed suicide for falsely being accused of homicide. Ami protects her brother where she can, but she doesn’t know he and his friend Takashi are the main targets of youthful bullies with prominent Yakuza-parents. The boys get killed, but nobody wants to help Ami because of her notorious family history and her sole attempts to get revenge literally cost the poor girl an arm. She finally gets help from Takashi’s mourning parents, who also provide Ami with a machine-gun prosthesis. “Machine Girl” offers a wide selection of decapitations, dismemberment, close-up gunfire, stabbings, split-open skulls, chainsaw murders, fried limbs, slit throats, electrocutions, impalement and Samurai swashbuckling. Seen all of that before in other schlocky splatter fodder already? Well, yeah … but what about flying guillotines and drill bras? Most of the running time, the screen is literally colored red with gallons of fake blood and removed intestines, but the tone of the film continuously remains blackly comical and light-headed. The phenomenally berserk make-up effects, courtesy of Yoshihiro Nishimura, are often nauseating, but never truly offensive. “Machine Girl” definitely also stars a couple of ravishing and incredibly sexy Japanese actresses, like Ami, her partner in crime Miki and even the supremely bitchy Yakuza’s wife. The battle sequences at the beginning and in the garage, as well as the entire final showdown of course, simply have to be seen to be believed. This outrageously grotesque movie is well-made, well-acted and directed and indescribably entertaining.

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