Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

The title is not just saying that, but you will indeed get a lot of gore when you watch this movie. Depending on your taste, you will be either delighted or disgusted by that very fact. I'll assume that you are more excited, if you keep on reading.

While I'm not fully aware of some of the Japanese gore movies of the recent years (mainly because they have too many "machines" in them or people turning into machines ... too weird to describe ... maybe "Cronenberg meets Miike on Speed" would be the most appropriate?), I still thought that this movie was kinda fun. Well "fun" might not be the right word, but the movie seemed to be over fast, which always is a good sign in my book (unless it's a short, but that's whole different story). If you don't mind the ridiculous plot and the "bad" (e.g. comedic) acting and enjoy the Gore, than you're given a treat here ...

Fmovies: I'll join all the other Tokyo Gore Police reviewers and ask: "What's in a name". A title like this creates certain expectations and it's safe to say that based on the title alone, it fulfills them all. There's Tokyo, a police force and plenty of gore. But there is more to Nishimura's first film.

Nishimura gained fame for being responsible for the graphical effects in The Machine Girl so it didn't take long for people to catch on to Tokyo Gore Police. At the same time this raised expectations and made comparisons to The Machine Girl inevitable. And while the films do have a lot in common (and will probably cater to the exact same audience), there are enough differences to set the two apart.

Depending on where you're coming from, you might be overwhelmed or slightly disappointed by the amount of actual gore found in the film. Of course this film splurts blood like a genuine pro but compared to The Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police isn't all that more violent or bloody. There are parts where the pacing drops down a few notches and where the level of gore is pretty acceptable.

On the other hand, if you are only used to films that circulate within the regular film circuit and are peeing your pants when watching the blood fountains in Kill Bill, you might be in for quite a surprise because this film goes way beyond.

The Machine Girl was a film purely focused on gore and camp, but Nishimura goes beyond that. There is no doubt that there is enough camp, weirdness and goofiness to keep any fan satisfied with Tokyo Gore Police, but Nishimura is a much better director that Iguchi. Tokyo Gore Police is more filmic, has a more serious undertone and mixes all the weirdness with a slice of social comedy very reminiscent of Verhoeven's work in Robocop and Starship Troopers.

The intermezzo commercials are simply hilarious, praising first class harakiri swords, messed up recruitment videos for the police force and one particularly hilarious scene where Japanese high school girls are praising designers wrist cutter knifes. Even though these interludes might miss their effect as grinding social commentary in a film like this, the result is as amusing as can be.

Visually Tokyo Gore Police is a serious step up from The Machine Girl too, with much more attention paid to the camera work, good and atmospheric use of color and some snappy editing from time to time. It helps to hide the imperfections and low budget and makes for a more compelling and interesting viewing. Use of CG is kept to a minimum which helps the film to uphold that lovely, squishy and gory feel which a film like this just needs to have.

The soundtrack is the only real sub par element of the film, with some catchy but ultimately failing tunes that are supposed to raise the adrenaline further but only manage some moderate feet tapping. As for the acting, it's not particularly amazing but on the other had perfect for a film like this. Completely over-the-top, with lots of posing and insanity going on. Eihi Shiina's performance is noteworthy though, as she seemingly disappeared from view after her infamous role in Audition.

As for the gore in the film, Nishimura manages to turn blood fountains into an art. Add to that plenty of torn limbs and exploding people and gore fans won't be disappointed at all. But where the film really shines is the deformities and weirdness. There are some awesome looking creatures crawling through the film, from the SM girl-dog running arou

Holy freaking crap! Dystopian future Japan's specialized privatized police force, complete with samurai sword wielding hot Asian girl, hunts mutant "engineers" who manifest biological/functional machine weapon parts when wounded. More blood is sprayed in the first 10 minutes than the whole climax of Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive (aka Brain Dead)". Throw in a few "Robocop"-esque fake commercials, and you'll get a biting satire on Japan's obsession with suicide, kinky sex taboos, and over the top violence. I wouldn't expect anything less from the effects master behind "Meatball Machine" and "The Machine Girl". Not for the squeamish... something in this is bound to offend you. If you like hard core violent Manga or Anime and live action movies that have that feel, you'll love this as much as I did.

Tokyo Gore Police fmovies. This movie is proof positive that the Japanese are the craziest people on the face of the earth. It bears a striking resemblance to Robocop, while, at the same time, putting the gory effects of the Peter Weller film to shame. Commercials let us know that this epoch of Tokyo is one where self mutilation and violent death are not only the norm, they are entertainment. Where Robocop addresses the privatization of law enforcement, this film starts after the privatization occurred.

The woman who plays Ruka is an attractive stoic sort, believable as a tough woman seeking vengeance for her father's death. Ruka is an "engineer" killer. An engineer, in this movie, is kind of like a Guyver if the movie were done by the effects people from Videodrome. If you don't like gore, avoid this flick like the plague; although, if you bought or rented a movie called "Tokyo Gore Police" and didn't expect gore, there isn't much hope for you.

I gave this movie a seven out of ten because they did try to make a real movie out of this. The concept was a little dumb; but, the world that the movie was set in was interesting...

Blood is a very important thing, I mean very important. Without it people, mammals in general, birds, fish, lizards, hell even insects tend to die. I'm afraid that is indeed true, luckily for us "Tokyo Gore Police" teaches us that an ordinary human body contains enough blood to put the entire European continent under water... under blood really. But blood can be very helpful, amazing I know, but "Tokyo Gore Police" shows us how we can use this completely ordinary not-so-interesting combination of some cells and some plasma as a stylish fashion accessory for our daily clothes. Even more, blood can help a human being fulfill one of his most ancient, ever since that video on youtube with that guy running around flapping his arms, and holy desires, namely to fly. To do so you must simply cut off or saw of your legs from the knee down and the endless gush of arterial blood will do the rest. Blood can also be used for offensive purposes, to accomplish this we must simply combine ordinary blood tissue with some brain and voila, bloody brain bullets with some nice visual and physical effect, also that way you can save some iron, some petrol, some gun powder thus ending the Financial crisis.

But "Tokyo Gore Police" teaches us so much more. Here are some short descriptions of the wisdom and brilliance director Yoshihiro Nishimura and writers Kengo Kaji and Sayako Nakoshi demonstrate in this film, in no particular order: - don't ever get on the wrong side with a woman who has jaws for legs. - on that same note, sex really hurts. - I mean really really hurts. - The worst thing that can happen to you if you're a policeman wearing a modern samurai armor is your friend, comrade and colleague trying to kill you with his penis. - having four katanas instead of four limbs looks kind of awesome. - having four machineguns instead of four limbs looks kind of awesome. - if you're planning on doing a chainsaw duel with a friend, don't do it in a crowded area, people might get hurt, oh, what am I saying. - don't ever buy one of those fist firing miniguns, pretty useless stuff.

And if that's not all, "Tokyo Gore Police" continually mocks itself, in a way, satirizing the whole violence-obsessed media by means of mock commercials, much in the same ways as Paul Verhoven did in his classic "Starship Troopers".

And if you seriously think "Tokyo Gore Police" is more cynical than some random action blockbuster just because it shows actual violence on screen, you need to rethink your moral values.

Seriously now, it's a wonderful splice of pure Japanese splatter, that doesn't takes itself seriously, but is actually pretty smart and inventive monster of a film. And running at 2 hours long it never bores with its head-on, full throttle pace, the only thing you could wish for is a sequel. Yoshihiro Nishimura, Kengo Kaji, Sayako Nakoshi a tip my hat off to you sirs, because this is a film worthy of the title: bloody brilliant.

Well, it's finally here. After watching the 5-minute trailer (quite possibly the best trailer ever made, IMO) in early spring of this year, "Tokyo Gore Police" ("TGP") became one of the most highly anticipated films of 2008 for me personally. This anticipation was accentuated even more after these same filmmakers treated us to the wildly entertaining piece of bloody insanity known as "The Machine Girl" (2008), which convincingly showed that these guys give the viewer exactly what they want.

In TGP, Eihi Shiina (of "Audition" fame) is a special division of a privatized Tokyo police force who is called into action when her comrades run into "engineers" – genetically modified supercriminals who can transform open wounds into flesh-metal weaponry. Needless to say, there's much here that mirrors Shinya Tsukamoto's "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" (1989) and the weaving of flesh and metal has been cited as prominent in David Cronenberg's earlier works (of which I am not personally familiar). There are also references to "Robocop" (1987) by way of blackly comic commercial advertisements that are peppered into the film at various times.

Comparisons with "The Machine Girl" are inescapable. We get a similarly impressive opening fight scene in TGP, as well as an ocean full of blood and gore, but what impressed me the most about TGP is the pacing, which is no less than fantastic from start to finish. This is no doubt attributable to the greater presence of horror in this entry. The events in between the action are nearly as engaging as the action itself, with boatloads of cool gore effects all over the place. The character designs of the engineers is so delightfully over-the-top and perverted that it's a joy to simply watch them exist. Despite a 110 minute running time, this feels like an 80 minute film, which is a good thing.

Neither the characters nor the storyline are particularly well developed, but the goodies are more than enough to compensate. As I've mentioned in my previous user comments on movies like "Tom Yum Goong" (2005), applying formulaic "standards" to a film such as this would prove detrimental in that they would undoubtedly smother the inventive visuals that could only exist when the scriptwriter says to himself, "Okay, let's pack as many wild, weird, grotesque combinations of flesh and weaponry as humanly possible into one feature length film." The makers of TGP do exact that. Much of the film follows the lead antagonist as he assimilates various individuals into engineers and unleashes them against the police force. More character/storyline development in TGP would have demanded a cut in the quantity of visual insanity. Trust me when I say that such orthodox methods would prove disadvantageous indeed.

The action is directed by Tak Sakaguchi – made famous by his leading role in "Versus" (2000) – and he does an admirable job. The choreography isn't as good as a Hong Kong martial arts flick, but it piggybacks off of the character designs to provide fights that have never been seen before. It's difficult to get into the specifics without spoiling the fun, so I'll just point out that the good stuff appears *after* someone has been dismembered.

This is quite simply a very cool film that should be seen by anyone who likes mutant-style insanity and ultra stylish film-making. I find that gore films are so much more fun when they're mixed