Review of Tokyo Gore Police (2008) by Rachel A — 12 Jul 2008

A cult gore-fest and Nishimura's directorial debut following his 'raise to fame' in the makeup and special effects for Suicide Club, Strange Circus, Meatball Machine and Machine girl. It stars Eihi Shiina (of Ôdishon fame) as a super cop of future Tokyo, where police has been privatized into a videogame-like task force sporting samurai swords, costumes, and glowing red one-eye goggle.

The semblance of a story was a caricature police revenge and betrayal story (which in fact is at some point explained through animated storyboards by one of the characters) and is just a pretext for having the pretty Eihi run around in miniskirts and fuckme boots and slashing limbs with her samurai sword (or chainsaws).

Overall not as shocking as you'd think. There is the obligatory golden shower scene in the S&M club, and various other mutants running around which reminded me of Cronenberg's various creations.

There are also Verhoevenesque police propaganda commercials which are hilarious, and in a way I think this what pushes this one slightly above other cult-gore flicks, in that it tries to have some sort of message, albeit one buried deep under the 4 tons of blood that were supposedly used for this (the director and cast answered some questions for us after the screening and 4 tons was his answer when asked how much blood was used).

Overall a nice example of the genre. Had a good chuckle and I think that's pretty much what I was going for. Hopefully Nishimura has more to come.