Movie Review: Tokyo Gore Police

Peachey blogged about this movie in an inquiring fashion, i.e. she hadn't seen it and wanted to know more about it. I told her I had the DVD on my mantle, and I'd watch it and tell her about it.

What Peachey wants, Peachey gets. I missed Tokyo Gore Police last fall at the Independent Asian Film Festival (or whatever it was called). It was one of at least three gore/zombie films. Unfortunately I saw none of them.

But I found Tokyo Gore Police on DVD in the US, and I bought it.

Tonight I watched it.

And...

How can you review a movie when you don't understand it?

Let me see what I can say about it for now.

It's shot on video, and doesn't have the biggest budget in the world.

But it is very visually interesting in places and well-made within its limitations. The CGI was especially good for a film of this production level. The acting was pretty good, and in places it was not easy to act well.

Eihi Shiina of Takashi Miike's Auditionplays Ruka, an orphan girl brought up by a Tokyo police chief. She is adept at killing Engineers, genetically modified criminals whose non-fatal wounds become weapons.

No, I can't explain it. So don't ask.

This movie has blood, violence, mutilation, cannibalism, astounding violence, (fake) pubic hair, and lots and lots of latex prosthetics and (what looks like) strawberry jam (or whatever its Japanese equivalent is),  in mind-boggling proportions.

And that's just the first five minutes of the film.

Then it reallygets gory.

This movie makes you wonder where you can buythat much fake blood.

Eihi Shiina is a very good actress. She does a lot with a role that could easily have been sleep-walked through, but she manages to animate her character in a believable fashion.

Her action scenes, sadly, are a lot less convincing.

But given the amount of prosthetics and blood, you don't really notice it as much as you might otherwise.

My biggest impression I got from this film was that I didn't understand it specifically because I am not Japanese. I think a lot of the subtext and humor would be much more entertaining if I had the cultural context for it, and I don't. Which is not to say it ruins the film, but I really felt like I was missing a big part of the film.

I made myself write this review before I look the movie up on the internet to learn more about it.

So Peachey, unless you reallylike movies with outrageous amounts of blood, violence, and more blood, I'd say give this one a miss.

Trust me, you don't want anyone in your family to walk in on this film while you're watching it.

That said, I wouldn't call it a badfilm. I am sure it would be a howler in a theatre. There are things worth watching it for that I won't mention here, but seeing them makes the effort well worth it.

Okay, now I'm going to go look it up and see if I can find out anything more about it...