The Film:

I get excited when I hear director Noboru Iguchi has a new film out, it gets me giddy with excitement. I don’t doubt that he’ll always be a B-movie director that’s to one-note and odd for some, and humorously outrageous for others, even so, his brand of Japanese gore-fest won’t ever be adopted into genre hearts like the films of Takashi Miike have. But that’s okay. Arm-pit swords, butt-throwing stars, and band-saw mouths, are aimed for those who smile at a title like RoboGeisha. “Wig Napalm!”

Iguchi’s Machine Girl exploded across the pond due to its imaginative premise, mixing gore, violence, and humor all the while cranking it up past 10. Tokyo Gore Police and Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl continued and furthered his style and appeal. RoboGeisha on paper seemed equally as fun and madly brilliant. Yoshie, played by Aya Kiguchi from Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge, is the younger and ill-treated sister of a renowned Geisha, is discovered to have natural strength and fighting ability, transforming herself into a robotic enhanced Geisha. Heck, he even added Asami, the beautiful star of Machine Girl. But RoboGeisha just doesn’t have that special spaz quality we originally adored in Iguchi’s films.

Despite the wild, yet campy finale, RoboGeisha is far too melodramatic for most of its second act, filling us with back story narration, Yakuza subplot, and catty sister issues. It’s all skippable. The gore is minimal. The humor is cheesy. The Transformers-meets-Memoirs of a Geisha premise has a lot of potential left untapped, making for a disappointing end result. Now, RoboGeisha just might be director Iguchi’s most slick and well-made film, as his budgets have increased, so has the technical aspects of the films. This still gives us hope for Karate Robot Zaborger, his next film. Until then, RoboGeisha kind of bores, which is sad, since shouldn’t squirting acid breast milk be a little fun? Sister Uppercut!

The DVD:

Audio/Video: Funimation delivers another solid SD presentation, and due to the film’s DYI production, all of these will please most fans. The Japanese Stereo track is limited, yet doesn’t hinder the film. The English DD 5.1 is better, but it’s still a dub track.

A little light on extras, but we get a slew of Trailers and a Short Film, that acts as a follow-up to RoboGeisha, called Geishacop: Fearsome Geisha Corps – Go To Hell. It’s enjoyable, silly, fun, all in 16 minutes, without melodrama that hindered RoboGeisha.

Conclusion: It’s okay, but far from the best director Iguchi has given us, making it shame in many regards.

The Film: Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The DVD: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The Film:

Eat your heart out, Twilight. Go find your balls, Vampire Diaries. Enter Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein, a bizarre high school romantic-comedy gore film, from none other than directors Yoshihiro Nishimura (of Tokyo Gore Police fame) and Naoyuki Tomomatsu (of Stacy fame). The mixing of their sensibilities is interesting, and refreshing, as this sub-genre of DV gore films from Japan has gotten a little old, with the bleeding (ahem) of copy cats (See Samurai Princess; here).

Right off the bat, the film lets loose that it’s a satire and a comedy, which looks at the Japanese youth culture (especially Ganguro, Lolita, and wrist cutting) in big, broad terms, all within the sugary sweet romance between a hunk, caught between two girls vying for his love: one is a queen bitch, who gets transformed into a technological version of Elsa Lanchester and a vampire. Aww, ain’t love grand? But it’s the furious Evil Dead editing and the crazed Dead Alive gore that keeps it all together.

I wish my high school experience was this much fun. The film has a mad scienctist as the principle, Igor is the janitor, and remember those cliques in high school that you were never apart of? Well, I doubt if they were vampires, or part of a wrist cutter society, and/or wanna-be African-Americans, which lands the film’s dubious attempt at raunchy satire with the “black faces”, who chant Obama’s tag line of “Yes, we can!”, so are you getting the feeling that this is one zany film? It is, times ten.

The film is low budget, but the teaming of Tokyo Gore Police‘s and Stacy‘s directors make sure there isn’t an ounce of boredom in the film. Obviously, there’s been issues with the youth culture for about a decade in Japan with identity issues, mass suicides, violence, but the film never goes into the serious nature of the subject like Suicide Club (2002) or its 2006 follow-up, Noriko’s Dinner Table. But it’s there, and the joking nature adds to the over-the-top gore and violence, as Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl blurs Salvador Dalí surrealism and pinku eiga in a splattering of awesome, that only appeals to this niche market its aimed at.

The DVD:

Audio/Video: Funimation offers up a pretty good SD presentation of the film, which as I alluded to earlier, a low budget film. Colors are bold, blacks are a little soft, but no grain or other anomalies hurt the print. The Japanese 2.0 Stereo is okay, with everything properly spaced and clear, as is the English Dub DD 5,1, but it’s a little flat for my tastes.

Funimation offers a two-disc set, with the only extras on Disc 1 are the film’s trailer and a trailer for RoboGeisha.

Disc 2 has plenty, though. Footage from the Japanese premiere is fun, with plenty of humor and info about the film’s manga origins, but the real meaty extra is a 50-minute making-of that covers the film’s short two week shoot. There’s also another shorter making-of, that still offers some new info that makes it worth a watch. Can you imagine doing 150 shots in a day? This team keeps energy drinks in business.

Conclusion: Well, it’s aimed at fans who love gore and school girls, with similar splattered links to Machine Girl that sort of gave birth this these types of films, all on a great DVD package by Funimation.

The Film: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The DVD: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Stay tuned for coverage and reviews real soon!

Press Release: Beverly Hills, CA (October 6, 2009) – Screamfest horror film festival is headed back to Mann Chinese Theaters in Hollywood CA from October 16 till the 24 to showcase the newest onslaught of fear and terror from up and coming filmmakers. Started by producer Rachel Belofsky in 2001, Screamfest provides a venue for filmmakers to present their films to members of the film industry in hopes of gaining distribution deals.

Twenty-one feature length films are being presented over the eight-day festival. Among them are the opening film, The Tournament, staring Kelly Hu (X2:X-men United/The Scorpion King), Ian Sommerhalder (Vampire Diaries), Robert Carlyle (28 Weeks Later) and The Canyon Staring Yvonne Strahovski (NBC’s Chuck). The centerpiece film The House of the Devil offers a Satanic twist on the classic baby-sitting job gone wrong motif. Screamfest will be closing with The Fourth Kind, a philological thriller staring Milla Jovovich as a psychiatrist who suspects extraterrestrial beings are involved in the disappearances of her town’s people. Also a strong representation of foreign horror is present in the films Bajo La Sal from Mexico, Before the Fall from Spain, and Macabre from Indonesia.

Screamfest also offers a short film series that gives both student and non-student filmmakers a chance to show case their works. Among the Student shorts are Clemency which Rachel Belofsky, Screamfest founder and director, described as “Very strong.” Excision is another student short that shows how far a sister will go to save her younger sister from a deadly lung disease. In the non student shorts category Tinglewood exhibits very innovative and unique creature designee and The Vampire Assistant provides us a glimpse at the very un-glamorous life of an undead’s familiar.