Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

Warning: if the insanity of Japanese splatterfilms is something you can do without, then you needn't read on. 

However, if you are intrigued, you might discover something rather special, albeit not for the faint of heart.

There, you have been duly warned.

It is the near future and the Japanese police force has been fully privatized. The costumes more resemble some ancient samurai armour, but that is not really important. We meet Ruka, our silent heroine, who has also joined the police force after seeing her father being brutally killed. She doesn't talk much and before an assignment, she cuts herself profusely. The police force is on the hunt for some sort of mutants, that sprout defensive implements whenever they are hurt or shot. It turns out they all have a key-shaped tumour in their bodies, put there by someone known as the Key Man. The mutated people are called engineers, and the chief of police wants them all destroyed. Yet, there is more at play here, as Ruka delves deeper into the mystery of who this Key Man is, eventually being turned into an engineer herself and discovering the horrible (yet enormously predictable) truth.

Let's be honest: we're not watching this for the story. We are also not surprised that blood and guts fly through the roof during this film. I mean, with a title like that, they had to go all-in to bring the goods. But strangely enough, for all it's low budget glory (this film was shot in two weeks), the effects are extremely well done, the editing is snappy (but sometimes a little too shaky and erratic) and the atmosphere is one that feels similar to something like Cronenberg's 'Videodrome'. The obsession with the malleability of flesh also hearkens back to Mr Cronenberg's work. But his is more cerebral, this is more balls-to-the-wall-batshit-insane. 

Really, the acting chops are nothing special and there is mostly overacting to be seen, except from our stoic lead, who is more wooden than a wooden stick, but again: that is not why you are here. 

No, the reason we're here is for the blood and guts and decapitations and dismemberings and boy, do you get plenty of those! Heck, the first five minutes alone already give you a taste of things to come and it's geisers of blood and exploding heads. The practical effects look fittingly gruesome and only occasionally a little too rubbery. I mean, obviously it's all rubber and prosthetics and the like, but there are times in this film where everyone would cringe at the abuse some bodies undergo. Some of it is silly and funny, some of it is disturbing. 

What were they smoking? I do not know. 

One of the better scenes is in a very bizarre fetish club, where a girl is turned into a walking crocodile monster, but the mouth is where her legs and hips used to be. It's hard to explain, but it looks awesome and frightening at the same time. Also, the police officer she emasculates later shows up in the police station (that looks like an empty apartment building, by the way) sporting the most impressive bullet-firing elephant schlong you have likely ever seen. And I haven't mentioned the duel between Ruka and the human pet without arms and legs, but who suddenly has swords attached. It is here where the CG feels off in a long way, but the ideas and creativity are excellent. 

Like stated before: this is in no way for everyone. If body horror, geisers of blood, dismemberment, mutations and an off kilter sense of humour are not up your alley, you may give this one a wide berth. If you are up for something that is gross (but not in a 'throw up your own intestines'-sort of way), yet fascinating and that has cool designs, you might want to give this a watch.