Never heard of it, huh? Don't feel bad. I didn't either. Fellow blogger Andyboy had a very brief review on his page and it looked rather intriguing. Plus, the cover of the movie alone looked like something straight of the "Kill Bill" pages. That wouldn't be that big of a stretch since Quentin Tarrantino is known to have borrowed heavily from Japanese cinema. Although these days, what filmmaker doesn't?
In "Tokyo Gore Police", a mad scientist known as Key Man (Itsuji Itao) has created a rampaging virus that mutates unsuspected humans into nightmarish abominations of nature. In order to dispose of these repulsive monstrosities, the Tokyo police privatize their force and create a special squad of fearless fighters.
Ruka (Eihi Shiina) is the top dog among the futuristic SWAT-like quad. The sword-wielding assassin has a special knack for dispatching with Key Man 's hideous creations, known as "engineers". Despite the fact that they operate on opposite sides of the law, Key Man and Ruka have both dedicated their lives to one common goal: seeking vengeance against the crooked cops who killed both of their fathers many years ago.
It had been a good while since I had seen a bad Japanese dubbed movie. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones that "Godzilla" made famous where their lips are moving and don't come anywhere close to matching the English words we hear them speaking. It was a refreshing change though. I had been complaining about having to read subtitles so this is the alternative when it comes to foreign films. I'm still conflicted over which I like better. The dubbed format seems to work better with this particular film because its entire content was meant to be so ridiculously absurd that it already fit right in.
Japanese movies seem to like their women in the role of he heroine. I'm beginning to see more and more of those. Alot more so than our own movies. Maybe American cinema could take a cue from that. "Kill Bill" is about the only one that comes to mind as a big money maker and it was clear that that one was patterned after Japanese cinema. We could definitely use more films in the same ilk. Although maybe not quite as gory.
Speaking of which, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is definitely the grossest movie I have eve seen. Ever. These engineers grow back weapons on the body part that is injured. So when dude has his man junk bit of, you can just imagine what became his weapon. Never seen anything like it. "Tokyo Gore Police puts any and all zombie movies I have ever seen to shame in the gore department. They are ALL "Mary Poppins" compared to this one.
Because this is set in a futuristic society, they take several liberties for the benefit of the sci-fi aspect of the film. Like the random commercials they intersperse throughout that are freaky yet definitely creepy. One shows a dude committing suicide yet it is supposed to be an anti-suicide spot. Then another showing three preteen girls advertising stylish wrist-cutters that come in several different colors, purposely geared toward the self-mutilation audience. This movie was like a weird combination of "Blade Runner" and "Starship Troopers".
You have to expect with a name like "Tokyo Gore Police" that you can anticipate a wild ride. That's just what they deliver. Remember the fight scene in "Kill Bill, Vol I" where blood and body parts were flying everywhere as Uma Thurman's character took on the Crazy 88s? Imagine an entire movie like that and that's what you get here. They try to make as over-the-top as possible and they succeed with no problem at all. This is an addition to the gore genre that doesn't disappoint by providing mindless entertainment from start to finish.
My rating: A-
