The Machine Girl

Fight scenes featuring beautiful Asian women with machine guns are sexy, scary, and fetishistic. If you’re in San Francisco in June, you’re in luck—you can get a double dose of ass-busting Asian women at the Another Hole in the Head horror movie fest, where two crazy, ruthless Oriental beauties battle evil in a cumulative three hours of gory revenge and fantastical sci-fi crime-fighting. The Gene Generation and The Machine Girl are two completely different kinds of movies—one is American sci-fi, one is a low-budget Japanese gory B-movie. But when stripped of their decor, there are a lot of common themes and subtexts.

The Gene Generation is a cultish movie about a dark, crime-ridden future. Think Blade Runner meets Ghost in the Shell. Singaporean movie director Pearry Reginald Teo draws a scenic dystopia, and Bai Ling stars as Michelle, a hot, soulless assassin who just wants to get out of the creepy hell she and her brother live in. But her brother, Jackie, keeps gambling away her hard-earned cash. One day, Jackie buys a weird mutant glove with tentacles (“A Chinese finger trap!”) which turns out to be a unidirectional biological transcoder that reconfigures a person’s DNA and could potentially end disease—or wipe out mankind. As usual, Michelle has to slaughter many people to get her brother out of trouble. Her performance and hotness are mesmerizing, even if you’re just watching her walk around her blue-and-green-hued apartment in her black leather strappy shorts and holster. Michelle was probably born a badass; we don’t know anything about her past, and she lives in a totally fictional future world.

The director of The Machine Girl, Noboru Iguchi, is best known for making provocative porn featuring lesbians and skatology. Ami is played by Minase Yachiyo, a swim suit model, and her partner-in-crime, Asami, is played by a well-known porn star with dozens of titles. This movie was made only for a US Release; porn stars in violent B movies don’t always make it big back home, but busty Asian women fighting against ninjas and yakuza—well, there is apparently a good market for that kind of stuff here.

Ami, the teenager in The Machine Girl, starts off as an ordinary girl in present-day Japan. She plays basketball at school and, like Michelle, has dedicated her life to caring for her little brother. Even when the local yakuza boss’s son throws him off a balcony to his deathbed, she keeps her cool, and tries to solicit apologies from those responsible. But when a family she visits goes psycho on her and turns her left arm into tempura, Ami transforms into a blood-and-guts-loving, vengeance-seeking mean killing machine.

Here’s a quick point-to-point comparison of some of the similarities and contrasts between the two films.

Plot:
Gene: Badass older sister kills to pay the bills while her roguish little brother gambles it away and gets in trouble.
Machine: Badass older sister plots to kill everyone who was involved in the bullying death of her little brother.

Parents:
Gene: Murdered after owing too much gambling debt.
Machine: Committed suicide after being falsely accused of murder.

Weapons:
Gene: Handguns and sex appeal.
Machine: Pure vengeance and a machine gun arm made by her auto mechanic friends.

Outfit:
Gene: Sexy black leather everything.
Machine: Like a good Japanese schoolgirl, Ami is always in her uniform.

Nudity:
Gene: Yes, you get to see Bai Ling naked. And having sex.
Machine: Ironically, the pornstar-filled movie has no nudity. Just lots of spilled guts.

Cast and Crew:
Gene: Fight choreographer Jeff Imada (Fight Club, The Crow), producer Kim Winther (Mr. and Mrs. Smith)
Machine: Porn director Noboru Iguchi (Hot Girl on Toilet, Underage Girl on Toilet), actress Asami (Wild Thing x Asami, Let’s Virtual Fuck With Asami)

I was fortunate enough to watch both these movies in the past week. What did I think? Honestly, Machine made me want to throw up in my mouth, but I enjoyed the humor and the sheer insaneness of the innocent-looking school girl. And as much as I am not ordinarily a sci-fi movie nut (remember, I’m the io9-er who has never seen Star Wars), I enjoyed Gene Generation. But probably less for the sci-fi and more for the hot Asian girl. What can I say? I prefer dating guys, but I think women are easier on the eyes.

The US premiere of is on June 5, followed by the West Coast premiere of The Machine Girl on June 6, both at the Another Hole in the Head film fest. Images by Another Hole in the Head

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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).

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.

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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.

I can’t say that I really consider myself to be a trend-follower. Despite this, however, I’ve got my finger firmly on the pulse of everything that’s cool, hip and happening! I know all about what the kids are into these days, whether it’s invisible cola, pet rocks, or even the macarena. Because I care, I’d like to impart a bit of insight into the latest fad sweeping the globe: Replacing amputated limbs with firearms!

It all began during that magical era known as “last spring” when Rose McGowan … ahem … blasted her way onto the screen in Planet Terror, the Robert Rodriguez–helmed half of Grindhouse. As go-go dancer Cherry Darling, McGowan proved that there’s something oddly alluring about a gal blasting away at zombies with a machine gun that’s been crammed into her thigh. Who knew?
Upping the ante in machine-gun chic is the forthcoming Japanese flick The Machine Girl (Kataude mashin garu), a film that concerns a schoolgirl out for revenge when her family is killed (and her arm is amputated) by the Yakuza.
The Machine Girl has truly got it all: ninjas, sailor fuku school girls, revenge, Yakuza, flying guillotines, drill bras and, of course, the gatling gun arm. According to my calculations, those elements may add up to equal the best movie ever … and by “best movie ever,” I mean I made out with the trailer five times last night. See for yourself, though be warned: the trailer is over-the-top bloody and totally NSFW.

While I’ll be first in line for The Machine Girl, I would never condone such violence in real life. I mean, if my arm were ever chopped off by a clan of ninja Yakuza, I’d like to think that I’d rise above the notion of revenge. Instead of a Gatling gun, maybe I’d attach a Super Soaker to myself and spend my days watering gardens and cooling off the neighborhood children during the summer heat. You know, giving peace a chance and all that.