[DVD Review (R2)] VAMPIRE GIRL Vs FRANKENSTEIN GIRL
Have you ever watched a movie that is so over the top, out of this world crazy that you just don’t know if it’s any damn good or not? Well, not until watching this movie have I really had that happen to me. Usually, no matter how strange a movie is, I know if I’ve enjoyed it or not. Unfortunately, this time around I was left scratching my head after I’d finished watching it and it wasn’t until a couple of days later that I could really get around my head what it was I’d seen.
Plot
From Yoshihiro Nishimura, the director of <strong>Tokyo Gore Police</strong>, and Naoyuki Tomomatsu, who has written and directed a number of movies that I have neither heard of or seen, comes <strong>Vampire Girl Vs Frankenstein Girl</strong>, a tale of a vampire girl, Monami, who falls in love with the local high school heart-throb, Mizushima, and to try and win his heart she gives him the gift of a chocolate, as is tradition on Valentines Day. What’s not so traditional, at least as far as I know, is to fill the chocolate with your vampiric blood in the hope that it will start to turn the object of your affections into a vampire so that you can spend eternity together.
But that is what Monami does, and slowly Mizushima finds himself drawn more and more to this strange girl. The growing attraction between Monami and Mizushima doesn’t go down over well with Keiko, the daughter of the vice-principle of the school, who tries to keep the two apart. This strange love triangle comes to a head one day when Keiko finds Mizushima & Monami kissing, tries to attack Monami & unfortunately falls off the roof to her death.
Fortunately for Keiko her father, the Vice-Principle of the school, is also a mad scientist bent on continuing the work of Doctor Frankenstein & manages to resurrect his daughter.
So the stage is set for a titanic battle between the Vampire Girl, Monami, and the Frankenstein Girl, Keiko with Mizushima as the prize.
Review
Now, first things first, a lot of people are going to be offended by this movie, especially the depictions of Africans, but this is possibly one of the most politically incorrect movies I have ever seen – but it is completely fair in that everything and everyone is fair game!
This is crazy, over the top madness on a scale I haven’t seen for a long time. Monami’s blood can be controlled, which she can use as a weapon (sprouting swords from her wrists!), there’s a “suicide club” at the school, there are song and dance moments, blood spouting in fountains from bodies, Keiko treats her body like a model kit, adding parts here there and everywhere, and it is possibly a surrealists dream!
Parts of the movie make little sense, but when viewed as a whole it almost comes together. Almost. There were moments where I couldn’t figure out why they had done certain things, but for the most part these are extras to the main storyline of Monami & Keiko’s conflict (like the scenes with the suicide club). But there is such a broad brand of inventiveness here that it really was more enjoyable than I thought it would be.
The performances of the actors are, for the most part, pretty good. Monami, played by Yukie Kawamura, and Keiko, played by Eri Otoguro, are both very good, but the rest of the cast really don’t make a very big impression (as most of the characters are there to serve one purpose and one purpose only) and I could never quite figure out the attraction of these two girls to the rather bland Mizushima, played by Takumi Saito.
As for the SFX, it really put me in mind of early Peter Jackson movies, as it had that level of inventivness coupled with a flair for making the cheapest special effects look as good as possible – and I seriously doubt I’ll ever see skin ripped off of someone’s head in quite the same way that happens in the beginning of the movie!
Basically, if you have a fairly strong stomach, as there is lashings of gore, and are not that easily offended then I would say that this is something well worth hunting out and watching.
It’s very much a live-action Manga movie, with the requisite over the top ideas that comes with that but it is also one of the most surreal and inventive movies I have seen in a long time.
Vampire Girl Vs Frankenstein Girl is released on Region 2 DVD on the 15th of March 2010.
2 Responses to “[DVD Review (R2)] VAMPIRE GIRL Vs FRANKENSTEIN GIRL”
Awesome that you sought this out, Gareth. I’ve been waiting to see it here, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to get a US DVD release anytime soon. Sounds about on par with some of the non-Machine Girl work the crew has done (ie: Meatball Machine or Samurai Princess). Still, I’m interested in checking it out.
Nice review!
Yukie Kawamura was good as the lead but IMO the prettiest girl in the movie was Aya Nishisaki (though she only had a small role). Aya’s a fashion model not an actress
http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/aya-nishisaki-pretty-japanese-fashion-model/
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