Current mood:

contemplative

Machine Girl
So, every once in a while I browse through Netflix Play Instantly and I come across things that make me chuckle because they are obviously soft-core porn masquerading as something else. And every once in a while I come across one that's SO obvious I can't help but try and confirm my suspicions. For example, I started watching a film called Virtual Girl which is about a AI sex program that becomes obsessed with her programmer. Yup. Soft-core porn. I watched about 20 minutes, got the idea and turned it off. That's what usually happens when I have to "check out" some of this oddities.

Well, a couple days ago I came across a film called Machine Girl. It's a Japanese movie that bills itself as an action-comedy-horror movie about a high school girl whose brother is killed by a Yakuza. Oh yeah, and they cut her arm off, which she replaces with a machine gun to seek revenge. This set off my, "Oh, I HAVE to see the first 10 minutes of this."

And now I have a question: What do the Japanese know that we don't know? Because I watched the whole damn thing.

Do not get me wrong. This is a splatter movie. I mean REALLY gross stuff. Dismemberment. Torture. High Pressure Blood Spray. The works. The production company was even called something like "Tokyo Shock!" or something like that. And it managed to keep topping itself. Every time you think the movie's reached its peak there's another, "Oh what the fuck is this!" moment around the corner.

And yet...

And yet, the narrative was fucking gripping. I mean, real genuine moments of human empathy. It was funny, sad, and horrifying (in the human emotion way, not just the shock way). The action scenes were fraught with real tension, not just suspense, but actual dramatic tension. I was riveted and amazed.

As an example, let me tell you about what clued me in by spoiling the opening. These are the first 10-15 minutes which I had intended to stop after watching. So, we have some youth-gang looking like guys who have another guy cornered. They're threatening him and throwing knives at him. Machine Girl shows up and, well, blows them away. Again, this is a splatter film. This scene is a blood bath in the most gross out way possible.

When she's done she turns to the guy who was previously cornered and says, "You're safe now. You can go." The guy looks at her, absolutely horrified, and runs away screaming, "Murderer! Murderer!" I wasn't expecting that. The character in the film reacted with as much shock and horror as the audience was expected to. I just had to keep watching.

And I can't help but think, what are we in American "schlock" cinema doing wrong? When Japan's toss away low-budget gross out shock pictures are THIS good, why are we resorting to a entire genre being derisively labeled as "Torture Porn"?

Edited Note: Special kudos to the scene whose first five minutes made me think, "Man, I could REALLY go for some Sushi right now" and whose last five minutes made me think, "Dear god, I never want to eat Sushi ever again."

Also, there was exactly ONE line of dialogue spoken in English. It was, "Kill, Kill, Kill." I can't help but wonder WHY that line was in English.