It’s weird thinking that it has already been nearly two years since I sat down to watch my first Japanese splatter film at the New York Asian Film Festival. My first foray into this exploitative and bloody world of wild cinema was with the Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura and Tak Sakaguchi co-directed x-women-like feature, Mutant Girls Squad.
Probably one of the wildest coming-of-age stories you’ll ever see, Mutant Girls Squad follows 16-year old Rin (Yumi Sugimoto), a girl who is constantly bullied, but on her birthday her parents let her know that she is HILKO, a mutant race that allows individuals to sprout weapons from their body. When her parents are assassinated, Rin goes on a killing spree throughout town even though she doesn’t want to kill people. Eventually she is eventually recruited by a group of HILKO “soldiers,” led by Kisaragi (Tak Sakaguchi), in order survive and restore the HILKO people back to their former greatness.
Rin’s weapon is a wolverine-like metal hand that also shoots out wires to hit people while her rival of sorts, Rei (Yuko Takayama), has her head and arms covered with stone to smash people up. And while that’s all in good, if you know anything about co-director Noboru Iguchi then you can probably guess what kind of weapons some their teenage teammates have. There’s one girl with a chainsaw that comes out of her ass which she then waves around to kill people. There’s a cosplay nurse (Suzuka Morita) who grows tentacles and weird, life sucking face. Another girl has dual boob-wielding swords that come out of her nipples and there’s even a girl whose face has a red circle on it, making her a patriotic fighter, I think. The most ridiculous and over the top character has to be Kisaragi. He is a very loud man playing a woman with white face makeup whose HILKO power is a belly sword that he has to arouse in order for it to get hard and be useful.
The movie is divided into three parts. Part one-Awakening, part two-Revolution, and part three-Rebellion. This breakdown makes it easy to figure out where the film is going and how Rin evolves as she tries to figure out her identity. It is also a way to know who directed which part of the film: One-Sakaguchi, two-Iguchi, and three-Nishimura.
As mentioned earlier, this is a splatter film and oh does it splatter. Whenever there is a fight, and it is always a long, drawn out fight, blood rains down on the screen. It doesn’t matter how simple or excessive a kill is, when someone dies everything that comes out of their body is very gratuitous, but this is why we watch these films. When you watch someone get slashed by a boob sword it becomes really difficult not to sit back, relax and enjoy t
he insanity that’s unfolding before your eyes.
While still pretty entertaining, watching this film alone just doesn’t have the same effect as it does when watching it with a group of individuals who share the same love of splatter as you do. Though it isn’t my favorite Sushi Typhoon title, it’s still one to enjoy simply because of how ridiculous the fights are, how zany and hilarious the dialogue is, and how creative the mutants’ weapons are. If you like Japanese cult cinema then you should probably grab a few beers, a few friends, and watch this film asap.
The Disc:
Like with most Sushi Typhoon titles, the movie looks great in blu-ray since it was shot digitally. Watching fake Nishimura blood pour all over the screen in HD is just glorious and never disappoints. More importantly though, and is always the case with a Sushi Typhoon/Well Go USA release, the disc comes with a bunch of fun special features including:
“Opening Day” Featurette-30 minutes worth of opening night footage from premieres all over Japan including film introduction Q&As and post film Q&As. Features Tak Sakaguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Noboru Iguchi, Yumi Sugimoto, Yuko Takayama and Suzuka Morita.
Interviews with the Filmmakers-30 minutes worth of interviews that have more of the same from the opening night Q&As plus some other interesting tidbits. The interviews are of the same people mentioned above.
“The Making of Mutant Girls Squad” Featurette-30 minute long documentary that shows just how crazy and fun working on a Sushi Typhoon set can be (even if the shoot was in the middle of winter). This has a bunch of behind the scenes footage and even more interviews for us to fully understand how one makes a wacky film such as this.
Yoshie Zero Short Film (which is a prequel by Iguhci based on the character Yoshie)- As with Helldriver and other Sushi Typhoon titles, the directors love making shorts that expand the universe and explain different parts of the story. This one focuses on the cosplay nurse, Yoshie (Morita), and how she met Kisaragi (Sakaguchi), learned to appreciate her powers and became the first HILKO fighter under the man who decided to become a woman.
Overall, Mutant Girls Squad might not be my favorite Sushi Typhoon title out there but it’s still a fun film to watch for any fan of Japanese splatter films. If you’re going to watch this movie, skip the DVD and grab yourself the blu-ray version.
Movie Rating: Pure madness-When X-Men meets the perverse minds of exploitative Japanese filmmakers (6/10)
Disc Rating: 7.5/10
Mutant Girls Squad is available starting today on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and DVD from Well Go USA.
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