Director: Yûki Kobayashi
Year: 2019
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Bakuretsu mashin shôjo - bâsuto mashin gâru
Genre: Action; Exploitation
Plot:
Living in the lawless Ishinari District in a future Japan, two sisters who sold their bodies to help their parents, try to earn a living performing as an idol group in the area. When their performance causes a notorious hitman to notice their condition, they realize their worth to each other in the fight against the female boss of a notorious organ harvesting ring in the area. Realizing that even their skills are no match for her army of goons and henchmen, the two are outfitted with special homemade weaponry to their bodies become the ultimate killers
Review:
This one is an enjoyable enough if somewhat flawed effort. When the film works is when it goes overboard on the ludicrous action and splatter that has been a series trademark. This is started off almost immediately with the opening assault on the henchmen featuring tons of bullets flying around piercing every body part or ripping through the other victims with the other tools on their bodies which gives the film a high-energy opening alongside the copious blood spray unleashed. Their pop-idol performance is a nice change of pace from other such scenes in other films and the raids on the various organ-harvesting centers she controls offer up several intriguing short bursts of fun gunplay during the craziness. A stellar encounter with the enhanced models wiping out the troop lead by the assassin in the abandoned factory features plenty of blazing stuntwork and crazy action setpieces that play up the traditional sexy angle with their enhanced weaponry that adds the bizarre element from the franchise. The final half appearance of the pregnant assassin with a special surprise packed inside her anatomy is where the film really hits its stride where a plethora of action setpieces arrives with numerous gun-battles, excessive stuntwork and utterly impressive practical effects that make this a fine action-centered exploitation offering.
That said, there are still problems with this one. Among the biggest problems is the film's incredibly obvious and somewhat painfully apparent low-budget that hampers the film more than anything.else. The main culprit is the paltry look and feel present here that is entirely underwhelming. Despite being set in a post-apocalyptic setting, the entire setup of the small village where they live is just flimsy walls and abandoned locations that fail to really enhance the scope of the storyline as it just screams cheap and low-budget instead. The molds for the weaponry is no better, with the machine parts looking like plastic parts with no detail or realistic flourishes applied to make it seem like they’re believably attached. The other distressing part about that is the over-use of cheap CGI that comes about for everything from extravagant body weaponry to the blood-splatter which is a direct contradiction to what made the original so fun with the over-the-top practical effects. Going with the CGI here is wholly underwhelming and disappointing.especially after the greatness of the practical efforts earlier on.
The other issue with this one is the disjointed pacing present here. There’s a wholly disappointing feature where the film spends a great deal of time in the first half setting up the unique universe that exists here from the organ-harvesting of the poor to the girls’ own backstory involved with that harvesting that really could’ve been left to the propaganda video that tells everything needed to about the society. Instead, the story meanders around with these utterly unnecessary tangents featuring aspects unimportant to the main story or why the girls are getting mechanized implants that would turn them into machine girls which is the whole point of the film. That, in turn, keeps those action scenes into brief spurts where they’re over so quick it’s hard to get any true enjoyment out of the scenes being that they happen with such infrequency and are so short. As well, the finale also features the utterly curious decision to film an entire battle between the two and her evil henchmen entirely in fast-motion as if trying to get through the sequence quicker is confusing as that material could’ve provided the film with a longer run-time had the explosive action been viewed in a regular format. Instead, as it just comes off as a curiosity to leave it in that format here which are what hold this one down.
Overview: **.5/5
Despite a few solid points involving the action present here, for the most part, this one is a cheap, staggering effort that serves as a wholly underwhelming reboot of one of the most enjoyable and impressive Japanese exploitation offering in its history. Only the curious or the most ardent follower of J-exploitation will find much of value here while most will simply want to stick with the far better and entertaining original.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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