THE MACHINE GIRL

THE MACHINE GIRL

(A.k.a. KATAUDE MASHIN GARU; THE ONE-ARMED MACHINE GIRL)

If there was ever a film that opened with an in-your-face statement of intent, surely Noboru Iguchi's THE MACHINE GIRL is it: uniformed schoolgirl Ami (Minase Yashiro) confronts a gang of teenaged thugs in a derelict building, blowing them to pieces with the huge machine gun protruding from her left arm, severed at the elbow.

We learn that Ami is hell-bent on avenging her brother's death, and is set upon slaying every member of juvenile hoodlum Sho Kimura's (Nobuhiro Nishihara) gang.

As Ami leaves the thugs in pieces, she contemplates on how only six months ago she was a happy-go-lucky schoolgirl.

The film then takes us back to six months earlier, where we see Ami happy at school and home, where she chirpily raises her younger brother Yu (Ryosuke Kawamura) since the death of their parents.

One afternoon after school, Yu asks for a loan from Ami. He tells her it's to buy a new game, but in reality he and his friend Takeshi owe money to Sho. Seeing as Sho's dad is the leader of the local Yakuza, it's not wise to be in his debt.

Takeshi and Yu sneak out on the evening and meet with Sho's gang. Unfortunately the money they've raised is only a fraction of what they owe. Events escalate from there, culminating in Yu and Takeshi being thrown to their deaths from the top of an apartment block.

Distraught, Ami doesn't believe the cops' suspicions of suicide, and vows to find her brother's killers. She asks Takeshi's parents, Miki (Asami) and Suguru (Yuya Ishikawa), for help. But they send her packing, blaming Yu for their son's troubles.

When Ami reads Yu's diary, she discovers that he was being terrorised by a gang at school. She embarks on a mission of vengeance that sees her take on the school gang and the Yakuza single-handedly at first. Later she enlists the help of Suguru and Miki when they find her outside their garage, bleeding heavily after having her left arm sliced off by Sho's father, Ryuji (Kentaro Shimazu).

Suguru fashions a huge multi-barrelled machine gun appendage that can fix to the stump at Ami's elbow, effectively turning her into a killing machine to be reckoned with. Which is just as well, because Ryuji is determined to pull out all the stops to save his son from Ami's wrath ...

THE MACHINE GIRL is absolutely mental fun. It thrives on spastic energy, convulsing with kinetic camerawork, breathless editing and insanely speedy choreography.

It's cheap in look and feel, and the prosthetics gore FX are certainly primitive by latter-day standards. CGI is so poor that it's best described as being camp. But this all adds to the film's barmy, tongue-in-cheek vibe.

Performances are largely overplayed, adding to the comic strip-style violence (incredibly over-the-top). The film as a whole comes across as theatrical to the extreme, and is immensely enjoyable as a result.

At its core though are two surprisingly penetrating performances from Asami and Yashiro. Their combined warmth and charm keep the film from descending into complete farce, and allow for a couple of quieter moments which come across as a necessary gap between the endless bouts of gore.

The most interesting aspect of THE MACHINE GIRL for me, is that it's one of the most impassioned films ever when it comes to addressing the instinctive need to protect your loved ones.

For the most part, this is relayed as our love and protective instincts towards our children: Ami is a child herself, forced into a position of parentage when her folks die; Miki has nothing left to live for once her son dies, save for avenging his murder; Ryuji, for all that he's the villain of the film, is simply trying to protect his own son; the parents of the gang members slain by Ami desperately want their own revenge against her ...

When characters attack each other, they scream out the names of their dead children in pain. Beneath the light veneer, THE MACHINE GIRL has an almost unique anger about it. Once you find it, it hits home hard.

On another level, the film can be enjoyed just as much for it's insane set-pieces. For example, there's the character who gets several huge nails hammered into his face. Or, what about the villainess with the drill bra ...?!

The film is presented fully uncensored in anamorphic 1.85:1. It looks just great, with sharp detail and fine accurate colour balance. Blacks are solid throughout. Presentation is smooth and clarity could hardly be better.

Japanese audio is available in 2.0 and 5.1 options. Both offer well-rounded and finely poised channels of dialogue and music. Optional English subtitles are easily readable and free from typing errors. The English-dubbed tracks that were provided on the US disc from Tokyo Shock are not present, but that's no loss.

An attractive animated main menu leads into a static scene-selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 23 chapters.

Extras are sadly thin on the ground.

The main bonus is the same 10-minute Behind-The-Scenes featurette that graced the Tokyo Shock disc. This offers on-set cast and crew interviews, plus some decent footage from the film's making. It's a short but satisfying window into what seems to have been an enjoyable production. Yashiro, in particular, comes across as almost insanely cheerful.

Next up are two high-speed trailers for the film - the theatrical and International trailers.

The disc also contains a plethora of trailers advertising other Cine Asia titles: THE GUARDPOST, CHOCOLATE, MONKEY MAGIC, THE EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS, THE MYTH, DRAGON TIGER GATE, FLASHPOINT, FATAL CONTACT, HOUSE OF FURY, KUNG FU DUNK, HEAVEN'S SOLDIERS, BATTLE GROUND, IP MAN, APARTMENT 1303, GHOST GAME and END CALL.

It's a shame Cine Asia couldn't get the 22-minute spin-off SHYNESS MACHINE GIRL as an extra.

Crazy, zany, gory as fuck ... fully uncut and fully charged, THE MACHINE GIRL is a riotous party film with an underlying theme that really hits home. Despite the fact that at moments it appears a little desperate to be perceived as "cool" (the Tarantinoesque opening titles; the surf score), this is tremendous fun. Recommended.

Also available on Blu-ray. It's worth noting that THE MACHINE GIRL is exclusive to HMV initially, hence no one else is advertising it online at present.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Cine Asia
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
Back