Machine Girl movie review

by Chris   ⋅   June 7, 2008   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

Director: Noburo Iguchi
Starring: Minase Yashiro, Asami, Honoka
Genre: Japan, comedy, horror
This film will be screening at SF Indie’s Another Hole in the Head 2008, June 6, 12, and 14. Click here for showtimes.

Former AV director Noburo Iguchi’s latest picture will undoubtably be compared to Yudai Yamaguchi’s Meatball Machine — at least by those attending SF’s latest Another Hole in the Head festival. His American funded Nikkatsu/TokyoShock co-production shares a number of similarities with 2006’s festival pick, complete with biomechanical body modification, severed limbs, gallons of blood, out of this world prosthetics, and gonzo violence. However, unlike Meatball Machine, Machine Girl provides an experience that is as satisfying for general cult film/splatstick horror audiences as it is for discerning gore-hounds.

The story of Machine Girl is streamlined cult gold. A college schoolgirl, Asami(Minase Yashiro) suffers the loss of her brother at the hands of a band of ruthless bullies. A stalwart believer in non-violent action (an ideal instilled in her by her also expired parents), she sets about engaging the families of her brother’s attackers in forceful conversation. Big mistake. It turns out that the bullies belong to a formidable and ruthless Yakuza/Ninja family, whose leader is descended from none other than the legendary Hattori Hanzo (Festival attendees: This is NOT a reference to Kill Bill). Asami comes to the cruel realization that if she wants to right the wrong that was done to her brother, she will have to take revenge herself. And so she does. After a series of increasingly violent confrontations, which see Asami taking out a number of Yakuza members, the gang liberates Asami of her left arm. Slinking off to recuperate, Asami finds herself taken under wing by a family of mechanics, themselves having also suffered the loss of their son at the hands of the same gang of bullies. Being mechanical geniuses, the two equip Asami with a prosthetic Peckinpah-style chain gun. Finally fully armed, Asami sets out to take her ultimate revenge.

Most of the festival audience will probably go away with the impression that Machine Girl was just a procession of “fucked up/funny scenes,” or worse, as one attendee loudly proclaimed, an homage to Tarantino and Rodriguez’s Grindhouse. While that last assertion is not entirely out of the realm of possibility, Nobuo Iguchi’s film is instead a loving homage and parody of nearly every Japanese pulp genre, including Keita Amemiya-style tokusatsu films (see: Mechanical Violator: Hakkaider), 1970’s sukeban films, femme-fatale revenge films, ninja films, occult period horror, chanbara pictures, and others (If you’re not familiar with some of these genres, just poke around this site a bit). And unlike Machine Girl’s American counterparts, Iguchi’s references take the form of hilarious, yet knowing nods at genre cliches, rather than the usual carbon copy/run through of sequences pulled from specific, yet respectably obscure genre films. This serves to make the reference base broad enough for even casual enthusiasts to enjoy, while freeing up the narrative to focus on its original content. And what a crazy batch of originality it is. Aside form the titular machine-gun armed female, Machine Girl features chainsaw battles, tempura tortures, sweet basketball moves, uber-creepy parents, intestine-vomiting culinary instances, American football fighting, Adidas-clad super ninjas, face nailing, booby-drills, and much much more. Seriously, much of the stuff on display has to be seen to be believed.

In terms of acting, Machine Girl is B-Movie gold. Evey line is delivered in perfect tongue-in-cheek style, a mix of complete earnestness and absolute ludicrousness. Every female in the picture is under thirty, and some form of martial artist, gravure idol, or both. And, surprisingly enough, all do a pretty respectable job. Minase Yashiro, while a bit unbelievable in sequences of hand to hand combat, completely sells her character’s machine gunning badass. Asami, who plays Miki, the mechanic mother turned chainsaw-wielding avenger, proves she has the swordplay skills and martial arts moves to put many an action hopeful to shame. Lastly, Honoka, who plays the female baddie in the picture, exhibits a surprising and unrelenting mean streak throughout the picture. In the film’s final sequences her prized assets come into play, wielding the aforementioned drill weapon, delivering maximum laughs and maximum splatter.

And again it would seem I’ve let my review run away from me. Machine Girl is easily one of the funniest and most entertaining genre films I’ve seen in quite a while. Admittedly, there are a few lulls in entertainment here and there, but for the most part Machine Girl had me — and the audience at last night’s screening — completely in stitches. A delight for horror and Japanese cult cinema fans alike, Machine Girl is an absolute blast.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.

Related Articles

• Sukeban Boy (aka: Oira Sukeban) — dvd movie review early