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Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl
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| Year: |
2009
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Director: |
Yoshihiro Nishimura, Naoyuki Tomomatsu
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| Stars: |
Yukie Kawamura, Eri Otoguro, Takumi Saito, Jiji Bû, Sayaka Kametani, Sayako Nakoshi, Aya Nishisaki, Eihi Shiina, Takashi Shimizu, Kanji Tsuda
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| Genre: |
Horror, Comedy, Action, Trash |
| Rating: |
  6 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
Vampire Girl Monami (Yukie Kawamura) is recovering from a battle, supported by her boyfriend and one true love Mizushima (Takumi Saito), when suddenly there appear three formidable foes in front of them on this plain. Gathering the last vestiges of her energy, she casts Mizushima aside and begins tearing the enemies limb from limb, piling their skulls up on the ground once she has finished with them. As he watches in awe, her partner recalls how they met and what brought them to this wanderer's existence: it was at Tokyo High School on Valentine's Day that he first noticed her, in spite of the chocolate ban in their class...
Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl was one of those way over the top comedy horror science fiction amalgams from Japan which emerged in the twenty-first century apparently to cash in on certain Western audiences' love for such lurid entertainment, in this case brought to you by the fellows behind Tokyo Gore Police. It was based on a comic book and appeared faithful to the anything goes business that typically went on in such material, all done on a budget that was not high, but did very well with the resources they had, with most of the cash being spent on fake blood by the looks of things. If you wanted unpretentious action and gory mayhem, all with that peculiar Japanese flavour, then this would fit the bill.
At the heart of it is a love story, a love triangle in fact, that saw the hapless Mizushima stuck in the middle between the characters of the title who both vied for his affections. Although the plot sounded complicated if you attempted to explain it, it did not seem that way when you were watching, where an unusual state of mind settled over you in that the viewer would attune themselves to its ridiculous tone and accept whatever nonsense the filmmakers threw at them, after all, it was supposed to be a comedy. While with many of this type of film a meanspirited air undermined the jolly violence, with this the sense that you were not under any circumstances intended to take it seriously was what saved it.
Naturally this was not for everyone, and one's tolerance was tested by such obscurely targeted humour as the factions in the school like the self-harming wristcutters who are training for a competition to prove who is the best at opening their forearms, or the girls who wish they were black to the extent that they dress up in blackface and even go to the lengths of wearing makeup which renders them like some bizarre racist parody. That's not mention the elaborate methods writers and directors Yoshihiro Nishimura and Naoyuki Tomomatsu found to part the characters from their limbs and organs, all to the accompaniment of extravagant sprays of the red stuff shooting out of wounded arteries.
For some, this will be too silly for words, though for others this will be the movie Let The Right One In should have been with its school-based romance between a vampire and the boy who falls for her. The Frankenstein Girl enters into the fray when Keiko (Eri Otoguro) sets her sights on Mizushima, and being of a higher social standing means to get her way or else. One tumble off a roof and a rebuilding from her mad scientist father in the school's basement later, and the stage is set for the battle that was alluded to at the beginning, complete with impossible feats and franklly not very well choreographed fight sequences, all performed with more enthusiasm than flair. One thing this did have in its favour was that it did not swallow all the lovey-dovey shenanigans outright, with a cynical twist where the insanely upbeat Monami reveals the truth of getting into a relationship with a bloodsucker. This was made for a very specific market, but cannily and sure to satisfy somebody. Music by Kou Nakagawa.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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