HELLDRIVER

HELLDRIVER

(A.k.a. NIHON BUNDAN: HERU DORAIBA)

A strange ash falls from the sky and onto a large section of Japan, where it turns people into zombies. I think.

The government develops a way of containing the virus by sealing off those contaminated in Tokyo and leaving them to kill each other off. Again, I think.

It also looks as though a people’s Army rises to oppose the government and further mayhem ensues. Oh, and Kika (Yumiko Hara) is a heavily armed acrobat of a woman who must take the undead on to protect the world. Once again, this is largely guesswork on my part.

Maybe I’ve got it all wrong. But if I was following the storyline any closer, I think I’d (a) be even more bamboozled, and (b) have missed the point entirely as to why this film was made.

HELLDRIVER is a real curiosity, as is this whole sub-genre of post J-Horror gonzo splatter that it belongs to (see also VAMPIRE GIRL VS FRANENSTEIN GIRL, THE MACHINE GIRL etc). The film is often stylish in look, with a sheen of colour and creativity that suggests it’s making great use of what must’ve been a relatively small budget (estimated as being $600,000.00). Aesthetically the film is pleasing to behold, and has clearly been crafted with a love for pop art.

But with the love for pop stylistics also comes a pace that is literally unrelenting, making this feel like a 2-hour music promo video. Honestly, if you thought VERSUS was bananas then you must see HELLDRIVER. The kinetic energy never ceases and, while impressive in its panache of delivery, this is to the detriment of the plot. Quite frankly, I have no idea what this was all about. A breathless pace and non-linear narrative that includes flashbacks shouldn’t provide too many issues, and neither do normally. But this ... this is messy.

Even so, on a superficial level I still appreciated the endless barrage of violent, incredibly choreographed set-pieces, the crazy stunts and even crazier humour that helped the otherwise intrusive instances of CGI find their natural place amid the action. Chainsaw-wielding zombies may turn up without explanation, but that doesn’t make them any less entertaining.

HELLDRIVER’s main strength is also one of its weaknesses. The opening 10 minutes are more high octane than the finales of most modern genre efforts. And, against all odds, director Yoshihiro Nishimura (TOKYO GORE POLICE, EROTIBOT etc) sustains this frenzied approach for almost the film’s entire running time (106 minutes for the original theatrical version – the director’s cut is 11 minutes longer). In either cut it’s too much: the non-stop gore, fighting, sight gags and computer trickery become exhausting. Any semblance of plot in-between would have been gratefully welcomed – but Nishimura delivers too little in this sense (and when it does come, it follows the opening titles which bizarrely occur almost halfway through the film – and it’s too late by then to recover from the constant assault beforehand).

Bubblegum pop songs play over scenes of chaotic splatter; luminous starfish-type aliens clamp themselves onto their human victims’ heads; zombies rip their unborn children from their womb so they can use them as weapons ... It sounds bonkers and it is. Nishimura undeniably films it all with aplomb, and his influences are worn on his sleeve throughout: BLADE RUNNER, ARMY OF DARKNESS and DAWN OF THE DEAD being the most obvious ones (of many) that spring to mind.

Ultimately though, the forced "wackiness" of the whole thing overwhelmed me and, despite some impressive technical merits, I can’t imagine I’ll be sitting through HELLDRIVER again. I know, I am a curmudgeon.

Bounty Films are releasing HELLDRIVER on blu-ray and 2-disc DVD. Only the DVD set was made available for review purposes.

Disc one is home to the theatrical cut of the film only. It’s presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio and is enhanced for 16x9 television sets. The image quality is variable throughout the film, largely because the filmmakers have gone for different looks: at times visuals take on a psychedelic music video style; at others they’re pin-sharp and attractive. A large portion of the film also seems indebted aesthetically to the grindhouse era of moviemaking, and therefore adopts a deliberately distressed look that is difficult to rate for review purposes.

Japanese audio comes in 5.0 and is a very good, well-balanced proposition to these ears. Optional English subtitles are generally well-written and easy to read.

The disc opens with a static main menu page. A static scene-selection menu allows access to HELLDRIVER via 14 chapters.

Over on disc two, we get the director’s cut and a couple of extras.

I couldn’t see any discernible difference between this cut of the film and the one on disc one, but there clearly is, what with the running times being so significantly different.

Anyway, we get the same static main and scene-selection menu pages as on disc one. Also, the audio and video presentations of the director’s cut are on a par with the theatrical version.

Extras begin with a 43-minute Making Of documentary which is a little slower in pace than the main feature. I found it to be more interesting than HELLDRIVER, in fact. It comes in Japanese with English subtitles, and successfully mixes lots of excellent on-location footage with Q&A snippets and on-set interviews.

The only other bonus feature is the film’s original trailer, which clocks in at just under 2 minutes in length, and is once more subtitled in English.

A fair set from Bounty Films then, and a good-looking film that is alive with insane energy and gore. But it’s plain to see that Nishimura’s first occupation is that of FX artist: he’s not yet developed as a storyteller (he co-writes alongside Daichi Nagisa), and this is an episodic, exhausting mess as a result.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Bounty Films
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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