American movies nowadays don’t have the same appeal as movies made back in the 90s. The few decent movies that’s not based on an old TV show or a remake of a movie made just 20 years ago get buried in the dirt in favor of the next Fast and the Furious or Saw movies. Thankfully, The Machine Girl is an original Japanese movie that is nothing like Saw, at all.

Preview

The movie looks like a knock off of an Quentin Tarantino film (that probably voids the statement I made above), but when it comes to Japanese films, it’s many times better than Grindhouse/Death Proof—but it takes one movie to tell a story.

The Machine Girl is about an ordinary High School girl, played by Idol and rising actress, Minase Yashiro, who lives an average life of an simple High School teen, with the perfect boyfriend and a normal family… Until one day she loses everything, including her family…and her arm, by the hands (no pun intended) of a Ninja Yakuza family… That’s correct: Ninja Yakuza--who jump around like the Power Rangers, if not, another Sentai TV series.

With a missing arm and a score to settle, she gets an prosthetic arm—loaded with the features similar to the woman’s leg in the Grindhouse movie (maybe the director is a Tarantino fan?). She sets out to get her revenge, leaving those behind her in shock—literally.

Comments

The Machine Girl looks very exciting and it could be worth adding to one’s growing Japanese film collection, next to Audition, Suicide Club (Circle), and Battle Royale. With that said, this movie is not for everyone: It contains mature themes and has lots of extreme violence in the style of Kill Bill. This movie has been out for quite sometime, but it’s not too late to check it out. The Machine Girl is available on Region 1 DVD as well.

Warning: The trailer contains intense violence. Viewer discretion is advised.

* Purchase “The Machine Girl” DVD: Region 1 | Region 2