Right, well if you have made your way to actually sit down to watch "The Machine Girl" (aka "Kataude mashin gâru"), then you already know exactly what you are getting yourself into. Because this is one of those unique Japanese gory splatterfest movies that are so over-the-top that it is entertaining and fun to watch.The story in "The Machine Girl" is about Ami (played by Minase Yashiro), an average college girl who is captured by a vicious Yakuza family and end up with her arm chopped off. She manages to escape the clutches of the ruthless Yakuza and end up at a local machine shop owner who takes her in, nurtures her back to health and give her a custom built machine gun replacement for her missing arm. Vengeance is now in the hands... sorry, hand of Ami, and vengeance is a dish best served with countless of bullets.Right, this is what you are getting yourself into. It is fun and bloody all the way. And if you are familiar with the Japanese gore genre, then this should not be a surprise to you.The effects in the movie were adequate. After all, you know what you are getting into, and the Japanese gore movies are not overly known for having multi million dollar budgets and the best of effects or CGI available. "The Machine Girl" is no different. But the effects and CGI team made good use of what they had and managed to come up with effects that entertain and prove effective for what they were supposed to do.I was laughing a good amount throughout the course of the movie, especially because of the special effects and CGI. But the dialogue also did spur a good laugh here and there.And this is, of course, nowhere near being a Shakespearing thespian experience, so don't get your hopes up in terms of having a masterpiece of acting performances dazzle you on the screen. That being said, then don't get me wrong. I am not saying that people were doing bad jobs in acting in "The Machine Girl". It is just that the genre of the movie does have a certain type of talents that usually end up landing the roles. I think that the acting in the movie was adequate enough and was fitting enough for the type of movie and genre that it is.All in all then "The Machine Girl" is a good, fun and entertaining movie if you enjoy the Japanese gore splatterfest genre. If you are not fond of this particular odd genre, then you should probably stay well clear of this movie to start with.I am rating "The Machine Girl" a well-deserved six out of ten stars.

I am very pleased to report that Japanese special FX master (and occasional director) Yoshihiro Nishimura is now a very solid 3 for 3 with me. In 2001's "Suicide Club," Nishimura's splattering gore FX gave this ultimately bewildering story just the visceral shocks needed to put it over. In 2008's "Tokyo Gore Police," which saw Nishimura also taking the reins of director, his gore FX entered the realm of high art, with many characters transformed into gushing, human blood geysers and sanguinary fountains. (These gushing blood FX, perhaps inspired by Akira Kurosawa's shocking finale of 1962's "Sanjuro," could conceivably be deserving of some sort of Nipponese patent or copyright!) And now...2008's "The Machine Girl," which, if not quite as bloody as "Tokyo Gore Police" (but what film IS?!?!), incorporates the FX more cleverly, and into a more endearing story line, as well. Personally, I loved it!In the film, the viewer meets a pretty high school girl named Ami, winningly portrayed by Minase Yashiro. An orphan for some years, Ami lives with her younger brother, Yu, with whom she is very close. "Violence doesn't solve anything...it only hurts people," Ami tells Yu early on, but her attitude quickly changes when Yu and his buddy are killed by the gang of Sho (hissingly well played by young Nobuhiro Nishihara), the odious son of the local Kimura yakuza leader. Quickly going into vengeance mode, Ami handily disposes of her first two victims, after which she laughingly runs down the street, proclaiming "I'm a demon! I turned into a demon! I'll remain a demon until I kill every last one of Yu's enemies!" But more trouble looms, as the yakuzas capture poor Ami and, in a grisly sequence, chop off her fingers and then her entire left arm! Fortunately, the local mechanic and his wife--the parents of Yu's late friend--take pity on the mutilated girl, and construct a nice prosthesis for her new stump...a prosthesis that just happens to be one seriously heavy-duty machine gun!Perhaps inspired by the "Planet Terror" segment of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's "Grindhouse" (2007), in which Rose McGowan's Cherry Darling character loses her right leg and is fitted with a high-powered machine gun prosthesis, "The Machine Girl" tells a simple story of vengeance, but one that is exceptionally well done. In the lead, Minase is absolutely adorable in her white blouse and pleated skirt, and could easily pass as one of those 54 innocent-looking schoolgirls who leap onto the tracks in "Suicide Club." But just watch her lip curl into a snarl as she fires off her "arm" or chastises her foes! It is a wonderful performance from Ms. Yashiro, who is certainly required to do more physical stunt work and give five times as many line readings as the kick-ass character portrayed by Eihi Shiina in "Tokyo Gore Police"; hard to believe that this was Minase's first role as an actress! But then again, ALL the players here are just terrific, and the colorful characters that they portray should linger long in the memory. Special kudos to Asami, who plays the supertough Miki (the mechanic's wife); to Kentaro Shimazu, who plays the yakuza boss; and especially to (another single-name actress) Honoka, who plays his even nastier wife, as lethal and sadistic a Dragon Lady beeyotch as has ever been shown on screen. And of course, kudos to writer and director Noboru Iguchi, for his colorful story and incredibly stylish and dynamic helming of the film. I have become an instant fan of his, and not just because the man shares my birthday (June 28th, if you care to send gifts); I look forward now to someday seeing some of his other nonporno fare, such as "RoboGeisha," "Mutant Girls Squad," "Zombie Ass" and "Dead Sushi" (you've gotta love those titles!).But let's get down to the meat of the matter. Putting aside all questions of story line, acting, fashion and style, "howzabout those shock FX?," all you gorehounds must be asking. Well, as in "Tokyo Gore Police," the carnage on screen is so UNrealistic and over the top that any queasiness that might otherwise be engendered is somehow averted. But boy, is that carnage ever up there! Thus, the audience is treated to the awesome spectacle of one punk getting his face machine-gun blasted away, bit by bit (a truly staggering effect); hands cut off; Ami getting her arm tempura'ed in boiling oil (played for laffs, strangely enough); a bloody head in a pot of miso soup; a knife blade going into the back of a woman's skull and out of her mouth; a bloody dousing using a decapitated torso; finger sushi (don't ask!); another woman getting a knife through the top of her noggin, only to be then raped by two yakuza henchmen (surely, the film's sickest moment); a foot-wide, see-through hole in the torso of a machine-gun blasted ninja; those razor-sharp throwing stars (shuriken, I believe they're called) slicing a man to pieces; nail-in-the-face torture; chainsawings; a mace with a steel trap, aka a "flying guillotine"; and, most incredibly, a metal bra with twin power drills attached (possibly inspired by Ursula Andress' bullet-spitting bra in 1965's cult classic "The Tenth Victim," and possibly the inspiration for Sofia Vergara's machine gun brassiere in Robert Rodriguez' upcoming "Machete Kills"). As you can see, truly, one wild and crazy entertainment package, but in all, quite winning and ingratiating, and perfect fodder for a possible sequel. Personally, I would love to see Chloe Grace Moretz' Hit-Girl character from "Kick-Ass" take a trip to Japan and team up for some serious butt kicking with Ami, but I suppose we ALL have our little fantasies, right?

This is so over the top full of gore that even if you aren't into Asian flicks you will love it. Everything gorehounds love is available in this entertaining flick. The red stuff is sputtering all over bodies, even on the camera lens. There are decapitations, ninja fighting, bodies been cut in two, beheading, bodies being burned an of course you just can't take it seriously. If someone would encounter the things that are happening with the main lead you just won't survive it. But if you watch the opening credits than it's clear that they wanted to make some kind of exploitation. The surely succeeded in it. There are naturally some use of CGI and some cheap effects or stupid mistakes for example when one of the girls is being killed you still can see her heart beating in her neck. Nevertheless, big fun. And I was lucky to have met Asami, one of the coming stars in the genre, she was so friendly, I even had signed this DVD and had a picture together with her.

The have just watched The Machine Girl (Kataude machine garu) tonight and i thought that it was very ultra violent, and the most insane horror film i have watched since Ichi The Killer. It is about a Japanese college girl called Ami. She is a bright, friendly, popular and athletic girl she is an orphan, who is left to care for her younger brother after her father committed suicide after being falsely accused of murder. Ami's brother has kept up a massive debt to another boy at school, and the boy happens to be the leader to a clan of vicious ninja-yakuza. Ami's brother is unable to pay the money to the boy. violence breaks out and trying to protect her brother, Ami is captured by the clan. They torture her and hack her arm right off. Ami escapes, almost hardly alive, and she is taken in by the owners of a machine shop who build her a customised, bullet spraying arm. The amount of gore in this film is incredible so much that it is hard too look at the screen at times. body parts are chopped off, whole torsos are completely ripped apart. and blood is spraying out in every direction I feel that that some parts of this film were the most graphic i have ever seen in a horror film, I WOULD ONLY Recommend THIS FILM TO PEOPLE WHO ARE ABLE TO WATCH STRONG GRAPHICE VIOLENCE. This is one of the best Asian films i have seen since Mike Takashi's Ichi The Killer. Strongly Recommended. 8/10