Tokyo Gore Police: Japanese Film Review

Manga-style Horror from Director Yoshihiro Nishimura

Aug 15, 2009

Starring Audition's Eihi Shiina, Tokyo Gore Police a.k.a Tokyo Zankoku Keisatsu, is a b-movie bloodfest and one of the most downright bizarre spectacles you will ever see

In the near future, the privatized Tokyo Police Corporation are battling the rise of a genetically modified breed of murderers called the engineers. At the heart of this struggle is Ruka (Eihi Shiina), the Corporation’s top engineer hunter. Adopted into the Corporation, Ruka is searching for answers to her father’s murder as she battles against growing numbers of a freakish enemy.

Special Effects Artist Nishimura Delivers the Gore, but Loses the Plot?

As a B-movie, TGP delivers on its premise – and then some. The opening scenes could’ve been created by a collaboration of Sam Raimi and Paul Veerhoeven, with the classic ‘Raimi-cam’ technique in full effect (on a flying chainsaw no less) and Starship Troopers/Robocop-style propaganda ads frequently intervening.

The bloodshed only takes a backseat while something like a plot is introduced as a way to set up the next gore-geyser and the special effects are so far over-the-top that, with few exceptions, they’re harmlessly unbelievable. Along the way, as you might expect, there are some inspired creature concepts (including, without saying too much, the Crocodile Girl and the Dog Girl) and the plot actually comes together in a roundabout and obscene sort of way.

As an effects artist, Nishimura and his team are clearly dab hands, but it's hard to know whether or not this is a well-directed piece. Somewhere in the utter, utter madness of the breakneck pace, the wild editing, a hawaiian shirt of a colour scheme, and the heaps and heaps of obscuring blood there just might be a director who knows exactly what he’s doing. Then again this could’ve been created by an insidiously smart, dangerously sociopathic eight year-old and if the credit for director had read ‘Eric Cartmen’, then everything would make sense.

As it stands, even the filming here, along with the special effects, was a collaborative effort with some parts shot by other crew members - apparently to balance the film’s tone. While that explains why TGP is visually incontinent, the approach does help create a truly eclectic debacle of death and depravity that occasionally throws out a mind-bendingly brilliant scene. It is then, a quintessential b-movie.

Tokyo Gore Police Cast

The delectable Eihi (“Kiri, kiri, kiri”) Shiina should be applauded for her insane choice of role, in an industry that hasn’t become elitist enough to exclude these flicks as a legitimate form of expression and source for original entertainment (which is not to say TGP is a legitimate form of expression).

Anyone who’s seen Audition will know Shiina can be an exceptional actress and this role falls far from making the same demands of her as Miike Takashi’s unforgettable Asami (with the demands of this film including the ‘Bruce Campbell treatment’, i.e: lots of splatter, but her role is far too serious to compare to the king). Shiina’s present here more for body language – with which the former model speaks volumes – rather than characterization. Even so, she was poorly handled by Nishimura and done no favours by a frantic two-week shoot that must have limited physical preparation and familiarization with the role. The good news is, if there’s a sequel (and who’d bet against it?), Shiina has gone on record saying she’d happily resume the part.

There are few other significant roles to speak of, some played in an oddly real and creepy way, others in a totally deranged, straight-out-of-anime way. Veteran Itsuji Itao is the Key Man, whose performance is understandably hampered by some whacky make-up that leaves him half a face to act with. That can’t be easy.

Stealing the show, however, is relative newcomer Yukihide Benny as the Police Chief and surrogate father of Ruka. More than anyone else, his role is best suited to this kind of film, allowing him to ham up his performance to no end. His Chief wouldn’t have been out of place in any number of the old head-butting, flying-kicking Godzilla movies and some of his scenes will undoubtedly draw the majority of laughs from viewers.

Tokyo Gore Police Summary and Other Nishimura Films

The result of TGP is an absurd and serially grotesque flick that most fans of the genre will treasure. While it can’t match Raimi’s second Evil Dead for laughs, it stands as small part of a nipponese philosophy that seems determined to explore every conceivable perversion and/or act of sadistic violence heretofore unknown to mankind. Who can say to what end, but one thing’s for sure. They’re years ahead of us.

Despite failings that might leave TGP incapable of really immersing its audience (except, of course, in blood), there are plenty of strong and endearing points. Besides a good, if somewhat mishandled, cast, there’s some great use of music, a huge variety of shot compositions (including the telling of backstories), and it’s always something good if the final scenes are so unpredictable that someone could honestly spend the rest of their lives guessing what happens next. Suffice to say, the last 20 minutes are pure b-movie gold and freaking hilarious.

Other Nishimura films include the successful Machine Girl (2008) and most recently the spectacularly titled (in international English) Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (a variety of prefixes attached to ‘-Girl’ does seem to be a major muse of inspiration for Nishimura) He also worked as effects artist on the somewhat infamous Meatball Machine (2005), which, along with TGP, is part of a trinity of recently imported Japanese gorefests. The other film is a forthcoming release: Grotesque – a kind of Hostel meets Saw under the influence of a Guinea Pig film (re: Flower of Flesh and Blood). One for all the family then.

Meanwhile, shock and amuse yourself with the – so much more subtle – Tokyo Gore Police!

The copyright of the article Tokyo Gore Police: Japanese Film Review in B Movies is owned by Michael Pantazi. Permission to republish Tokyo Gore Police: Japanese Film Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.