Title: The Machine Girl aka Kataude Mashin Gāru
Genre: Horror/Action
Director: Iguchi Noboru
Format: Movie, 96 minutes.
Date: 2 Aug 2008

Synopsis: When Hyuga Ami’s brother is killed by a gang of ruthless bullies, she swears to see that justice is done. But, when the police prove useless she takes the matter into her own hands hunting down the boys responsible for her brothers death. Losing an arm along the way, Ami makes friends with an autoshop owner who makes her a machine gun attachment to replace her arm. With her new weapon she goes after the leader of the bullies, the son of a yakuza-ninja boss.

The Highlights
Characters: Sadistic? Bloodthirsty? You know it!
Violence: Over the top gore like its seldom been done before.
Ninja action: Surprisingly well choreographed fight scenes.
Drill bra: That’s right… drill bra…

Created in the same spirit as Versus and Battlefield Baseball, The Machine Girl is an over the top action horror kill fest that doesn’t take itself all that seriously. When a body part is cut off, it doesn’t start to bleed, blood sprays out violently and in abundant amounts. How much blood does the human body contain anyways?

The story starts off well enough; a young boy bullied by a gangster’s son eventually gets pushed too far and fights back, only to be killed in the process, and his older sister sets out to get revenge. Was the story in any way believable? No, when you go into a movie knowing that the girl has a machine gun for an arm you basically throw believability out the window to start with. What follows is a roller coaster of melodrama, gore, and machine gun rounds. Every character in the movie, aside from the good guys, are sadistic and on the side of the evil ninja yakuza boss.

The fight scenes are fairly well choreographed and whole lotta fun to watch. The main draw of the movie is all the unique weapons that you probably haven’t seen, and will probably never see again. The most bizarre being the aforementioned drill bra. The different weapons make every fight exciting as you don’t really know what to expect next.

I’ll admit, I am a fan of these types of movies, but even I was skeptical of The Machine Girl. However, it managed to entertain all the way through, never letting up on the gas and never letting up on the violence. Most of the action is so ridiculously over the top that its hard to stop laughing at times, but hey, entertainment is entertainment, and this movie delivered. If you liked Battlefield Baseball and Versus, or if you’re just an advocate of killer undergarments, give The Machine Girl a shot.

The Rating: 7

Reviewed by: DarkKanti