Friday, July 22, 2011

Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl-review with spoilers.

Ventriloquism has gotten so brutal in Japan.
Well I found another Yoshihiro Nishimura movie to watch.  I did a write up on him a while back as the Tom Savini of Japan.  He makes incredibly gory and over-the-top movies.  I usually enjoy his work though especially, “The Machine Girl” or “Tokyo Gore Police” and “Samurai Princess”.   This movie is wild though.  Where “The Machine Girl” was funny at parts and ultra violent this one is almost a cartoon. But despite how borderline offensive it is at times it can be funny some times and wretched at others.

Tim Burton's dream girl.
“In Japan it is traditional for girls to give boys chocolates in order to confess their LOVE.”   That text crawl is what opens this movie. Aww isn’t that cute.  We see a girl and a boy walking together.  Three Frankenstein girls start to kick the boy’s ass until the vampire girl he is with saves his butt as J-pop starts blasting like a Dance Dance Revolution machine.

The same thing happened to me when I left my contacts in too long.
We journey some time ago to a class room on Valentine’s Day where a teacher confiscates the girl student’s chocolates.  Apparently, they are not allowed personal belongings.  Three of the girls, who dress like Lolita porn stars, are really into the boy Mizushima; he becomes the reluctant boyfriend of the leader of the pack Keiko.

  This high school is VERY over-the-top complete with people in blackface.  There is also a group of girls who meet just to cut their wrist, because girls cutting on themselves is funny…right?  The answer is no.  I am pretty sure in all cultures that is pretty tasteless.   

Oh yeah.  They went there.
Monami also falls for Mizushima.  It’s kind of out of the blue. However, she is a teenage vampire. A love triangle ensues.  Keiko’s father is apparently a mad scientist who dons kabuki outfits while he experiments.  He discovers that Monami’s blood is the key to reanimating dead body parts. Mizushima eats some chocolate with her blood and becomes a half vampire. When Keiko discovers this she attacks Monami but accidentally falls off the school roof.

Keiko’s Father then uses Monami’s blood to make a Frankenstein style monster out of her.  They then battle it out for Mizushima’s affections.  Now there are parts that are pretty funny.  Watching Monami dance in a fountain of the blood of a victim is a moment to enjoy.  It’s amusing moments like that and the parts that are gore fest without CGI that are very cool.  Then you come across the cutter club and the black face group and if you are like me you find that distasteful. 

Can you see the girl with the spear?  Offended yet?
            In all fairness, since it is a foreign film I may have lost something in the translation.  For all I know the use of the kabuki makeup on the mad scientist means the director knew how over-the-top this movie was. Nishimura movies are insane and are usually a lot more fun than this.  Maybe I just found one that wasn’t for me.  Is it worth seeing?  Unless you are a fan of bizarre violent foreign films and if so the three at the top of this review are vastly superior to this movie.

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