TODAY’S THRILLING TOHO FREATURE:

MATANGO-ATATCK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE

SEE THE ISHIRO HONDA CLASSIC MATANGO HERE >>

TODAY’S FEATURE: TOKYO GORE POLICE

(HORRIBLY DUBBED IN ENGLISH)

MORE TOKYO GORE POLICE >>

HOMEMADE CLIP OF ACTION SCENES

FROM THE MACHINE GIRL

“This is one of the best movies ever made!

Upskirt karate rules!”

Ghidorah from Chainsaw Maintenance

THE MACHINE GIRL

2008/Director: Noboru Iguchi/Writer: Noboru Iguchi

Cast: Minase Yashiro, Asami, Kentaro Shimazu, Honoka, Nobuhiro Nishihara

Noburu Iguchi

The director of Sudakan Boy (which I have queued up to see soon) Noburu Iguchi basically delivers the gory goods in this TokyoShock science-fiction Yakuza revenge blood bath starring gravure model Minase Yashiro. Also in the mix are Japanese AV stars Asami and Honoka. Now I am far from an expert in these matters (though I have done ample research) but I am pretty sure the difference in the terms is that a gravure (a term for how photos are developed for glossy magazines) models pose provocatively but rarely nude or in explicit sexual situations. An AV (adult video) star on the other hand basically does everything you can image plus some things you never have and with the cutest, most innocent faces imaginable. Well there is no nudity in The Machine Girl so don’t get excited. What flesh we see is usually covered in blood and slimy internal organs. While the CGI effects have been criticized online here I have seen much worse and had no major problems myself. The film never looked like a video game to me. If more Japanese horror/action/school girl gore films were being done like this I would praise the genre more rather than berate it or struggle to find kinder words.

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UZUMAKI

2000/Director: Higuchinsky/Writers: Junji Ito (manga), Kengo Kaji (supervising screenwriter)

Cast: Eriko Hatsune, Fhi Fan, Hinako Saeki, Eun-Kyung Shin, Keiko Takahashi, Ren Osugi

I think I have mentioned in a few previous posts about my ambivalence towards more modern Japanese  horror films(and Asian in general, though I consider Japan to be yardstick by which the rest of Asian cultures is measured, for better or worse), or cinema in general. With rare exceptions I find most of it  all wanting and repetitive and I much prefer the Japanese cinema prior to about 1970. Uzumaki is for me one  of the exceptions. I had long put off watching this movie for one reason or another, but it was on my list of films to see before I died so I finally popped it in the DVD player and was morbidly pleased with the results, though it is a far from a perfect horror film. I got the BT from demonnoid.com and was surprised to the find the entire manga comic series by Junji Ito included. I included, free of charge, a few pages for readers to check out. To honest I had no ideas this was based on a comic book unit I opened the folder. But like the film I was pleased with the story and art which I glanced over. I tend to not like the goofy looking fairy like characters that adorn the majority of manga comics and I felt the pen and ink drawing sin Junji Ito’s story to look more like the b/w independent stuff coming out of the US from places like Fantagraphic books, which to me are better drawings.

MORE UZUMAKE HERE >>

KING KONG ESCAPES

1967/Director: Ishirô Honda/ Writer: Takeshi Kimura

Cast: Rhodes Reason, Mie Hama, Linda Miller, Akira Takarada, Eisei Amamoto

I was lucky that before all my BT download problems began a month or so back I downloaded a batch of classic Toho kaiju films. Kaiju is the term for Japanese monster films, and in particular those wonderful ones with guys in rubber suits judo flipping one another all over Tokyo. I was pleasantly surprised with King Kong Escapes, the 2nd King Kong film from Toho after King vs Godzilla. It has all the trademarks of a great Toho kaiju film, such as finely detailed miniatures,  and was directed by Ishiro Honda, who turned out some of the best monster films for Toho. One thing that makes this Toho monster film a little more enjoyable than some is the drama between the human being is better than usual.

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I watched this movie last night and wonder if I can really recommend it or not. It has been reviewed by Ghidorah over at Chainsaw Maintenance and he has some nice original vidcaps to go with his post. It is one of the new Japanese zombie movies that are being churned out and is heavy on cheesy, over the top gore and nudity and sex. Students at a high become infected by a “popular” virus (as the subtitles read, as if there they out shopping for viruses and this is the one every one is selecting) and after a psychotic doctor injects the students with an “experimental vaccine” they turn into murderous zombies. There is a cure or treatment in that the swimming pool water makes you immune to the effects of the vaccine (it is never explained why).  That is where the swimming team comes in. Since they all swam that day none of them turn into zombies later and of course have to stand up to the monsters. Later almost all of them are killed at oine time by an infected teachers. Some group of heroes. Aki is the new girl in school and unlike the students around her was brought up by the same psycho doctor infecting everyone to be a super assassin terrorist. But while browsing through fashion magazines in the training compound she decides she wants a normal life like other girls and escapes. Soon she is surrounded by zombiefied schoolmates and having hot lesbian sex with her new best friend, who happened to also be secretly trained by the psycho doctor and is a bad girl.

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