Helldriver ヘルドライバー (2011)

Helldriver   

ヘルドライバー 「Herudoraiba」

Release Date: May 23^rd, 2011

Running Time: 117 mins.

Directors: Yoshihiro Nishimura

Writer: Yoshihiro Nishimura, Daichi Nagisa (Screenplay)

Starring: Yumiko Hara, Eihi Shiina, Yurei Yanagi, Takumi Saito, Kazuki Namioka, Mizuki Kusumi, Yukihide Benny, Asami, Cay Isumi, Maki Mizui,

Splatter film director Yoshihiro Nishimura has one setting: extreme. His creatures designs are extreme. His action scenes are extreme. His use of special effects and blood splashed around on screen is extreme. If you thought that Tokyo Gore Police (2008) and Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (2009) were extreme, you have seen nothing. Helldriver (2011) is a bone-crunching, head-splitting, and grotesque attempt at a zombie apocalypse epic on a shoestring budget and it is extreme action for its entire near two hour running time for better and for worse.

Mutant Girls Squad 戦闘少女 血の鉄仮面伝説 (2010)

Mutant Girls Squad   

戦闘少女 血の鉄仮面伝説　「Sento shojo: Chi no tekkamen densetsu」

Release Date: May 22^nd, 2010

Running Time: 90 mins.

Directors: Tak Sakaguchi, Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura

Writer: Jun Tsugita, Noboru Iguchi

Starring: Yumi Sugimoto, Yuko Takayama, Suzuka Morita, Kanji Tsuda, Maiko Ito, Tak Sakaguchi, Asami, Chiharu Kawai,

Splatter outfit Sushi Typhoon (a subsidiary of Nikkatsu) was founded in 2010 and one of its earliest releases was Mutant Girls Squad (2010) which features three of the company’s biggest talents directing individual chapters of the film. The first part is orchestrated by action star/fight choreographer Tak Sakaguchi, and special effects maestros Noboru Iguchi and Yoshihiro Nishimura follow him up in parts two and three. What starts out as an outrageously silly splatter-tastic tale of kick-ass girls taking on corrupt authorities in a tidal wave of blood and mutant body-parts falls apart by the end as Nishimura over-indulges his fetish for splatter special effects.

Samurai Princess サムライプリンセス 外道姫 (2009)

Another cheap and cheerful low-budget CGI and make-up gore-fest with AV actress Aino Kishi in the lead.

In an alternative shogun-era Japan a group of girls are playing in the Infinite Forest only to be attacked by sex-crazed androids. One of these girls survives and is rescued by a scientist and Buddhist nun. The rescued girl begs the scientist Kyoraku (Mitsuru Karahashi) to turn her into an android and she will become the titular Samurai Princess (Aino Kishi) and with the help of ex-Shogun Bureau investigator Gekko (Dai Mizuno) she will slice and dice her way through the forest in order to avenge her friends. Little do the two realise that Shogun Bureau detectives are on the trail of androids and are hunting Kyoraku and ultimately them.

Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl 吸血少女対少女フランケン (2009)

Yoshihiro Nishimura followed Tokyo Gore Police a year later with Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl, a movie based on a manga by Shungiku Uchida and far more accessible than Tokyo Gore Police thanks to its shorter running time and its utter adherence to care-free comedy.

The film takes place around Valentine’s Day in what seems like a typical Tokyo High School. On Valentine’s Day girls give boys chocolate in order to declare their love. Gothic-lolita Keiko (Eri Otoguro) has her sights set on handsome Jyugon Mizushima (Takumi Saito) but he is about to get snatched away by the quiet and devious care-free vampire Monami (Yukie Kawamura) who tricks Mizushima into eating her which is filled with her vampiric blood and turns him into a half-vampire. This sparks a war between the two which reveals that the school and its pupils are far from typical.

Anybody suspicious that this whole rival monsters and human love-triangle might be the Japanese Twilight fear not. It loves gore and silliness too much.

Tokyo Gore Police 東京残酷警察 (2008)

Director Yoshihiro Nishimura has a background in special effects and make up and Tokyo Gore Police shows off his love for these elements.

In near-future Japan the Tokyo Police force have been privatised and have to meet a new threat bringing violence to the streets: Engineers. These are genetically altered humans who can withstand excessive violence and sprout weapons from wounds. Leading the Engineers is the mysterious Keyman (Itsuji Itao). Leading the police fight back is ace Engineer hunter Ruka (Eihi Shiina), daughter of a murdered policeman who was against the privatisation of the police. Little does Ruka know the connection between herself, her father and Keyman but it will rock the foundations of Tokyo and its new police force.

Tokyo Gore Police is a wonderfully trashy film but very undisciplined. The world created is an extreme future where everything including compensated dating, suicide and extreme violence are privatised and made commercial as demonstrated by the numerous satirical ads throughout the film like this amusing wrist-cutting one.