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Robo Geisha
Unfortunately our original reviewer fell
through with this movie <not impressed>, so here I am… Eastern Eye DVD
in hand, robot geishas on the other and me in the middle, witnessing
some of the worlds most over the top action scenes and crazy assed ideas
that had me flabbergasted and dare I say it… a little confused at the
best of times. And then there’s Astroboy! Why? I’m guessing it’s the
scene where the Robo Geishas breasts turn into machine guns or their
ability to shoot shurikens or throwing stars from their asses. This is
the world of Robo Geisha, a Japanese gore film which parodies many films
before it and even adds a strange sense of Japanese titillation to the
mix
So now that I’ve established that Robo
Geisha is not your average film, there is actually a story in all this
wildness… amazingly enough. The two main protagonists of the film
revolve around Yoshie and Kikuyakko, two sisters who have been seduced
to join a society of assassins. But this is not your average society of
assassins, it’s more like a secret society of super villains who turn
their students into robotic killing machines by upgrading their
bodies in the most strange and obscene ways. Every part of their body is
turned into a mechanical weapon of some form or another such as breasts
that fire bullets or arms that become swords, it’s definitely like a
strange live action Anime film.
However for one of the sister, Yoshie, she
discovers that this organisation is pure evil and decides to fight
against them before it threatens the citizens of Japan anymore and the
toppling of the Japanese government. The problem with the plot is that
for a clichéd beginning, it is setup quite well, however as the minutes
tick away, Robo Geisha begins to fall apart in a world of craziness with
not much ever making too much sense, like giant Mecha-Robots. Don’t get
me wrong, there are a few highlights in the movie like some of the
really bad fight scenes that had me in hysterics, not in an evil
Montgomery Burns way but more of a laughing with them, then at them.
Even the way the actresses fight lead you to believe there was not much
classical training but then one of them throws some witty dialogue at
the viewer and you’re once again sucked back into this ridiculous movie.
I'm still confused if I actually hated it or liked it!
To compliment all this craziness, the video
quality of Robo Geisha is rather impressive in Widescreen with sharp
images and vibrant colours which is highlighted even more when the blood
starts spraying and certain parts of the female body becomes weapons of
mass destruction. Add in Dolby Digital 5.1 and when the action heats up,
so do your surround sound speakers, especially with the Stay Puff
marshmallow man ending. The special features are limited with a short
spin-off film by the creator (Machine Girl was so much better) and the
original Japanese trailer. It's not much but at least it's something!
At times I enjoyed Robo Geisha but it was a
love hate relationship. For such a gruesome splatterfest and even though
the movie is meant to be campy and clichéd, it was relatively slapped
together and was not as entertaining as some of the other Japanese gore
movies. However from all the press this movie has had, it’s definitely
worth a rent, especially if you like watching nubile young Japanese
women kicking butt… just be warned that some scenes are a little creepy
with their voyeuristic spin.
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