SENTO SHOJO: CHI NO TEKKAMEN DENSETU

SENTO SHOJO: CHI NO TEKKAMEN DENSETU (MUTANT GIRL SQUAD) (2010)
JP
Directed by: Noboru Iguchi
                   Yoshihiro Nishimura
                   Tak Sakaguchi

CAST:
Yumi Sugimoto - Rin
Suzuka Morita - Yoshie
Yuko Takayama - Rei

PLOT:
     Rin, a sixteen-year-old mutant girl, meets a gang of rebel mutants who aim to take revenge on humans for persecuting their race.

REVIEW:
     While Japan has been no stranger to over the top gore in their movies, it is only in the past 10 years or so that it's truly become a sub-genre of it's own. Even though Takashi Miike has been doing films with plenty of gore and over the top action set pieces, it wasn't really until Miike's Ichi The Killer and Ryuhei Kitmura's Versus was released in Japan and in the states that this genre of movies became popular cult films. One of the key features in these films is how quickly they can be filmed and released while inventing new and even more over the top gross out gags that rivals Troma pictures itself.

     While the acting at most was average for the most part, some of the actors stood out more than the others, and not always in a good way. Tak Sakaguchi, who also directed the first segment of the movie, plays the transvestite Hiruko leader Kisaragi, and is for the most part subdued except for at the end when he just goes overboard with trying to act like he has an ultimate power. Yet, it is fun to watch him though. Naota Takenaka on the other hand is just so over the top in his roll as the head of the Anti-Hiruko Task Force Koshimizu. Now when you first see him it doesn't seem that way. Yet right before his character is killed he stops to pick up a bowl of food and comment on it while bleeding from the forehead. I could swear he was trying not to laugh throughout the entire scene. Mutant Girl Squad is just filled with so much bad acting that it get's so where you just stop caring how bad most everyone is, specially the extras that are killed, and you just start to have fun watching it.

     As for the movie itself, the best way I can put it is to compare it to a Troma movie but yet better special effects for most of it except for after Astro-mutant starts cutting off it's own limbs. I am not joking about that either. First it cuts off it's hands which is still capable of being controlled and then the feet get cut off just to keep on kicking someone in the face repeatedly for at least two minutes. All this is going on while Astro-mutant is doing its own self-propelled act in mid-air with jets of flame coming out of it's body where the hands and feet were. I will admit that toward the beginning of the movie to me is the best scene which is after Rin goes mutant for the first time and she goes on a rage fueled rampage through a shopping center. So many different characters are seen in this part that it becomes a blur (which might be why I like this scene the best). Also during this scene weapons are used that I have never seen trying to be used as a weapon before. For example, a corncob is used for a weapon, or at least tried to be used. Yet the weirdest weapon was a human being being used as a type of sword.

     As the movie is filmed by three different directors, each of the three acts have a different feel to them. The first act directed by Tak Sakaguchi feels the most together and complete. This might be because it's also the least weird out of all the segments in which Rin is introduced and how she's is basically a ball of rage just simmering at the breaking point. The second act is when we're introduced to the rest of the Hiruko and is hinted at just how weird the movie is going to get. It is also the last time in the movie that the story makes any sense for the most part. The third act is when the movie goes completely off the rails and becomes a live action anime in every sense of the word. The character Kisaragi becomes a monster. It is also in this act that the special effects go from mostly practical which I loved about the first two acts, to mostly CG which just ruins the feel of the movie which was one of fun to one of overt sloppiness. While the movie is nowhere near as bad as the worst movie I've seen, it's also a movie best left to be watched with friends, like let's say a bad movie night viewing. I do have to admit though that I was laughing after about the first five minutes and didn't stop until the movie was finished, even with all the "WHAT THE FUCK" moments and really bad dialogue throughout.

BEST DEATH:
     Eyepatch Assassin impaled through rectum by her own sword. It's also a homage to Cannibal Holocaust.

 

BEST LINE:
     This is Lemme's Butt-Sword. A sharp matter, huh?

FUN FACTS:
     At the Stiges Film Festival Mutant Girl Squad won the award for Best Motion Picture in the Midnight X-Treme section.

     For the Japanese DVD release of the film, Noboru Iguchi created a short prequel film titled Yoshie Zero that focuses on Suzuka Morita's character.

     Each director directed one third of the film with Sakaguchi directing the first part, Iguchi the second and Nishimura the third.