Tokyo Gore Police

Has the title seduced you yet?

I felt the need to watch another film set in Tokyo -- to extract the horrifying image of Enter the Void out of my brain.  Tokyo Gore Police was undeniably the appropriate pick.  I’d been anticipating the 2008 Japanese-American splatter film ever since Victor (lover of all things dark and depressing) showed me the trailer -- the most nondescript, bloody, deranged preview I have ever seen.  

I was taken aback to learn that this movie had structure… or even a storyline period.  As a child, Ruka (Eihi Shiina) looked up to her father -- an honorable police officer, who loved his job and was equally loved by all.  Following his assassination, Ruka is determined to emulate her paternal hero and becomes a sword wielding / ass kicking police officer.  In the futuristic version of Tokyo, the police are presently a privatized organization.  Their ongoing mission has been to exterminate a new race of murderous monster humans called engineers.  Engineers have the capability of mutating any of their own wounds into weapons -- and can only be defeated by cutting off said weapon.  While Ruka has proven that she is proficient in the execution of these creatures, her true life’s work is to avenge her father’s death.  

Dun dun duuuuuuh!

The director of Tokyo Gore Police, Yoshihiro Nishimura, is known for his makeup and special effects in the feature film The Machine Girl.  Although the two films are distinctly different, they were made for similar audiences, causing high anticipation for the release.  As expected, the whole film is brimming with murder after murder after grisly, blood soaked murder.  Like seriously - blood spewing far and wide in a nonsensical fashion.  Very little CGI was used, as to give the movie a natural, authentic and campy feel.  But not only is this movie cram-packed with gore, Nishimura unleashes a world of maniacal sordid creatures -- from a dog woman with knives for legs.. to a deadly, phallic firearm.. to a seductive half woman/half alligator.  A great deal of the imagery shown is straight up stunning pieces of art.  

Companion director, Yūdai Yamaguchi, proposed adding in some lighter notes to keep the film from becoming too dark.  He suggested and eventually directed short comical commercials to be played throughout the film - keeping the story amusing and upbeat.  The advertisements incorporated  several troubling recruitment videos for the police force as well as a commercial announcing the sale of designer knives for self mutilation.  Though the ads were meant to be viewed as a topical analysis - I had a hard time seeing past the hilarity and aforementioned blood and guts.  

Generally speaking, Tokyo Gore Police was EPIC.  It truly lived up to it's title. If you haven’t seen it yet, run home, get a Netflix DVD or Vudu account and watch the shit out of this movie!

At #16 -- Tokyo Gore Police.