Review of Tokyo Gore Police (2008) by R.john X — 12 Apr 2009

Japanese splatter. Borrowing heavily from ROBOCOP - the shock troop mentality of a corporatized Police force and the repetitious sloganeering and the interspersed fake ads - for its central premise, TGP moves forward in fits and starts, not the sprinkler spray that bathes most of the movie's action.

The story is something about personal, childhood vendettas and a silly genetically modified group of super-killers called Engineers. The Engineers, in true Japanese splatter tradition, grow and morph their organic limbs into mechanized appendages a'la VIDEODROME. Ultimately, the bad guys are bad and the good guys are bad too. Its up to the nylon thigh high clad sword weilding nymphette to slaughter the slaughterers.

The movie is very concerned with the freak show aspect, delving deep into the sexual fetishist applications of severe body transformation. There is a scene in which the ladies are revealed by falling curtain, the final one being a front piece with an overly accurate pee hole. The best perversion in the movie, though, is the amputee the Police Captain keeps on a leash. She hobbled straight out of a Micheal Manning comic! Nice work with the samauri blades too.

But the movie fails, ultimately, because every single idea they had was tossed in. The fist gun is stupid but the rebuff is groaningly idiotic. Plus the flying Police Captain lifted and propelled by the bloody jets of his severed legs is an unsatisfactory resolution. The pitboss needs to go out with undulations and explosions, But much like the last song of a GWAR set, it seems the film makers of TGP ran out of the red dye by the last shot.

I can see the influence of this thing already sinking in...