Robogeisha (2009)

 

Yep, it's one of those again. You know: the completely over-the-top, bloody as all heck absurdfests for which Japan is oftentimes known. This is also one from the people that did 'Machine Girl', so expectations are fairly high for those needing their fix of blood and guts flying across the screen.

Alas, it's not really that kind of film. It is totally bonkers, though.

Yoshie is the younger sister of an aspiring geisha and she is pretty much a kind of Cinderella, having to do all the chores and being picked upon by her sister and pretty much everyone else. But when she is in distress, Yoshie has martial arts' skills that are out of this world. She gets norticed by the young heir to a local steel emporium known as Kageno Steel and through various plots and schemes, both Yoshie and her sister are enlisted to be trained as geisha assassins, as the head of Kageno wants to sort of but not really take over Japan. 

But things get wacky as it turns out the best and most loyal henchwomen all have cybernetic enhancements and wanting to upstage one another, Yoshie and her sister become increasingly robotic, with killing appendages pretty much everywhere. 

During her last assignment, Yoshie discovers that Kageno actually kidnaps young girls for this purpose and that the families are desperately trying to rescue them. They also get gunned down and now Yoshie wants to stop Kageno from destroying Japan entirely. 

Seems a simple enough story, but this wouldn't be one of those films without wacky antics and bizarre bodily modifications. There are boob-miniguns, katanas that emerge from armpits and butts, butt shurikens, sawblades in awkward places... At one point, Yoshie even turns into a half woman/half tank by playing the shamisen! 

Oh, and there's a pagoda that turns into a giant robot with a nuclear bomb around its neck that walks up Mount Fuji. Yes, you read that correctly. 

For blood and gore, you can give this a pass. In contrast to previous outings from this team, this one is rather tame. There isn't a lot of gore and nearly all the blood is poorly CG'd onto the picture. But for batshit insanity, this one is hard to top. But it will depend on your liking of Japanese over-, under- and poor acting, because there is quite a lot of that as well. 

It is nowhere near the most memorable of this type of film. Then you would be better off with 'Machine Girl' or 'Tokyo Gore Police'. But it is quite a wild ride from start to finish. So if you're in for something rather unexpected, you could give this a go.