Flicks: Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (2009)

East meets West somewhere in the upper thigh region of a Japanese schoolgirl? Well... I'm in.

Directors Yoshihiro Nishimura and Naoyuki Tomomatsu both have unique horror backgrounds that are pitted against each other as they co-pilot this wild Japanese horror/action film Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (2009).

Nishimura, the Frankenstein half of this duo is clearly obsessed with machinery and human's interaction with it as seen in his SFX work for Machine Girl (2008) and Tokyo Gore Police (2008) which he wrote and directed.

Tomomatsu, the Vampire/Dracula side of this directing duo, has a background in gore as well with his shocking directorial debut Eating Schoolgirls: Osaka Telephone Club (1997) featuring a young couple whom a yakuza gang force to find victims for sadistic rape/snuff films. Both of them are sexually obsessed; one is addicted to telephone sex whilst the other can only function sexually, whilst seeing mutilated female corpses. Bloody stuff.

The two horror director combine their talent and knowledge on this very watchable film. After making it Tomomatsu, perhaps influenced by the collaboration made Maidroid 2: Maidroid vs. Hostroids (2010) and Erotibot (2011). Nishimura, in the past two years alone, has worked in SFX and make-up for 20 films.

References:
IMDB, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009)
IMDB, Eating Schoolgirls: Osaka Telephone Club (1997)

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Flicks: Gamera 3: The Revenge Of Iris (1999)

So I like 500-foot-tall toortles. Sue me, already.

Now that all annual hu-mon festivities have concluded for this portion of the pathetically inaccurate Earthling "year" it is time to get back to doing what the Blender does best - watching terrible movies with his growing gang of manling pals on the Internet.

Gamera is an unlikely Godzilla clone from 1965. There are only two things that anyone needs to about the original "Showa" era Gamera. ONE, the giant toortle emerged from, of all the frickin places, Antarctica. And TWO, he used to suck. And I mean Gamera used to suck in the way that only Twilight and True Blood fans come close to resembling. In that typically shallow, dim-witted and narcissistic way that makes Erkel look like "Downtown" Jackie Brown. O.G. Gamera sucked bad. Get me?

In the 90's, Studio Daiei revived the series in a spectacular way. No longer was Gamera a Godzilla rip-off but a series in it's own right. Cutting edge effects/FX incorporated brand spanking new CG imagery to allow Gamera to fly minus the clunky strings and to shoot fire at an astonishing realistic clip. The models improved drastically. By The Revenge in 1999, the traditional kiddie market for kaiju was nearly forgotten by the film-makers, and giving this "Hesei" era series a horrifying and gruesome new life leading into the Millenial era to come.

A total of three amazing Gamera flicks, all directed by Shusuke Kaneko (Death Note) were released from 1995 to 1999: Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, Gamera 2: Attack of Legion and Gamera 3: The Revenge Of Iris. Iris is regarded as one of the finest films of the late Hesei era.

In 2010, the Blu-Ray contains a deep commentary with actors and the award-winning of the now defunct ADV (Super Milk Chan) crew who dubbed the English version of the film.

References:
IMDB, Gamera 3: The Revenge Of Iris (1999)
Wikipedia, Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe
Wikipedia, Gamera 3: The Awakening Of Irys

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Flicks: Sister Street Fighter (1974)

Sister Street Fighter teams up with Sonny Chiba to face Reiko Ike and Jun Jo.

Sonny Chiba, reprising his role as Terry "#1 Man" Tsurugi appears for the second half this great chop sockey/crime-action movie. Production values are slightly better with more characters and Toei studio actors appearing including a hokey Hong Kong heroin boss and Japanese actress and model Reiko Ike. It should be noted that Reiko Ike was a cult persona herself. Reiko had also co-starred in Street Fighter's Last Revenge (1974) with Chiba as well as two very successful "pinky" (Japsploitation) movies: The Sex And Fury (1973) and Female Yakuza Tale (1971).

In Sister Street Fighter, Jun Jo, minus the trach box from Return of Sreet Fighter appears as another different-but-still-evil karate master-villain in another blockbuster kung fu epic. This film was followed by The Street Fighter's Last Revenge (1974), which featured much higher production values as the genre earned more money for Toei and international distributors.

References:
IMDB, Sister Street Fighter (1974)
IMDB, Reiko Ike
IMDB, Sex And The Fury (1973)
IMDB, Streetfighter's Last Revenge (1974)

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Flicks: The Manster (1962)

A tale of two cultures featuring a two-headed beastie w/a serious thang for the ladies.

Welcome to beautiful rural Japan! Home to lovely dark-eyed ladies, lush forests, evocative nightlife and - blood thirsty two-headed beasties?! So it goes in this United Artists "co-production" between Japanese and US production studios in a film that was originally released in Japan in 1959 and the US in 1962.

In the Manster, professional foreign news correspondent and part-time sucker Mr. Larry Stanford (Peter Dyneley voice of The Thunderbirds) finds himself an unwitting test subject for the nefarious, volcano dwelling Japanese scientist Dr. Suzuki's experiments in "eviloution". Unbeknownst to the the rube, Suzuki uses a mysterious serum to mutate Stanford into a murderous two-headed monster who sets about wrasslin' country girls, caustic secretaries and Buddhist monks.

In a scene from this film that was later re-enacted by Sam Raimi in Evil Dead III 40 years later ol' Stanford sprouts an eye from his shoulder that becomes a full on monkey head! A must see groan fest for innumerable reasons...



References:
IMDB, The Manster (1962)
Wikipedia, The Manster
Girls, Guns and Ghouls, Beware Of Manster

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Robo-Geisha (2009)

Why are the pretty ones are always so sharp tongued?

Inter-genre action flick (kung-fu vs kaiju) with impressive effects, chicksploitation hack and slash features some great model/minature work in the style of 60's and 70's era Toho Godzilla movies.

A fast-paced and fun romp through Japanese cultural cliches, history and humor with some of Tarantino's Kill Bill styled fights.

References:
IMDB, RoboGeiaha (2009)



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Flicks: King Kong Escapes! (1967)

Two Kongs enter! One Kong leaves! Two Kongs enter! One Kong leaves!

King Kong Escapes! (1967) aka Kingu Kongu No Gyakushu aka Mechanikong aka King Kong vs. Robot Kong was originally made by Toho Studios in 1967 and was recently re-released on DVD in 2009. Rankin/Bass, the animation production studio that made Mad Mad Monster Party (1968) with Boris Karloff, produced the US cut of the Ishiro Honda film.



The Japanese studio who shot the live action that makes up 90% of the movie added some interesting stop-motion shots in the traditionally convoluted script with a "Stomp Tokyo" approach to monster motivations.


References:
Horror Hut, King Kong vs. Mechanikong
Go Go Godziller, King Kong vs. Godziller
Gargantuan Media, Kingu Kongu No Gyakushu Wallpaper

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