Samurai Princess

source: Samurai Princess

Samurai Princess is your typical Japanese girl gore film. A young woman gets traumatized one way or another, gets superpowers and then goes on to hack her tormentors into pieces. Lots of blood, lots of body horror, lots of gore. It's a very niche genre, but it has its fans. What keeps this particular film from reaching its supposed potential is the limited budget. The costumes are for the most part okay and it's clear that what little money they had went into prosthetics and monster make-ups. Which are fine. But that means that they had money or talent left for good shooting locations, other special effects or actors. All three of those are outright awful, which brings the whole movie down. And don't get me wrong, a lot of these Japanese gore films are clearly made with a modest budget. But at least they haven't been shot in the local forest, like this clearly is. They go into great lengths to hide the fact, but it's still pretty visible. And distracting. Then again, the gore is somewhat pleasing, the costumes have character and at least the tone is consistent with the genre. Nowhere near the best of its genre, but could be worth a watch if you're looking for something new.

Alternating your body, like putting a chainsaw on your leg, is illegal. A girl is put together like Frankenstein from the body parts of her friends and vows revenge to those that killed and raped them. The plot was not solid. The story and effects inane. Guide: Sex and nudity.

In case you didn't know, Japanese Horror has changed since the earlier parts of the last decade. Sure, there were films like "Ichi The Killer" and the ongoing wave of Japanese Zombie flicks, but in much of the last decade, the country was largely known for it's supernatural creepfests with long haired ghost girls and mounting dread. While that was fun for a while, it eventually went the way of many fads/sub-genres of horror-yesterday's news. You can only see a pale supernatural force so much until you get bored. So what's the new-wave of Japanese Horror at the moment? Splatter Comedy flicks. Movies that owe largely to the likes of old Troma movies, Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers" and the like than they do old Japanese Urban Legends and haunted TV's or whatever. Flicks such as "The Machine Girl", "Tokyo Gore Police" and the upcoming "Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl" have defined this new era, and Kengo Kaji's "Samurai Princess" is one of the latest in this new trend. The plot takes place in an alternate universe Japan, in which a our titular heroine (adult film actress Aino Kishi) was one a normal girl. That is, until a group of rapists had their way with her friends and left her for dead. Oh, and a mad scientist has fused the souls of her dead friends, implanted them into her, and turned her into a vengeful cyborg. Wackiness and arterial spray ensues. From the get go, "Samurai Princess" is utterly bug-f#@k insane. It has chainsaw legs, wacky villainous sidekicks (the mad scientist has a gaggle of fan girl types following him wherever he goes-it's actually a lot funnier than it sounds), evil monsters, a pair of breasts that double as grenades (yes, you read that right), a man wielding a guitar that doubles as a sword and a chainsaw, and so much more. It's also shockingly funny as times, with some amusing gags thrown in, as well as the non-stop insanity making sure that you never grow bored. It also helps that the gore never wears out it's welcome-quite the contrary in fact, as each set piece is bonkers and all around entertaining. Yet, the whole thing ends up feeling kind of like the sum of it's parts. One major flaw is the production values. While I normally don't complain about poor production values in genre fair, the Shot on Video style left me feeling a little let down, as it would have benefited from better editing, camera work and whatnot. Also, the performances are really hit and miss, with Aino Kishi being a bit bland as our heroine (though the fact that she's willing to disrobe doesn't hurt the least). The biggest flaw though, is the poor fight choreography. Films like this need fight scenes that can hold up with the movie, and here they just can't. In the end, it's a flawed movie, but for rainy weekend fair, "Samurai Princess" makes for a fun time. If Troma made a "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" episode, it would probably resemble this.

i feel like once you have seen one of these movies you have seen them all, This movie is very similar to machine girl, robo-geisha, and yakuza weapon. Machine girl was the first so it gets the credit and is surprisingly the best of the 4. They are all however over the top rediculouse in every way. The characters are all absurd, the gore is over the top, and they all feature crazy cyborgs with the wildest of weapons. You could probably write the same review for all 4 movies. The most memorable part from this installment would probably be the boob bomb. We are treated to this tastey weapon not once but twice just so you don't forget it. Besides that you get the regular buckets of cgi blood and as many inventive and different deaths as possible thrown at you by the boat load. One part i liked was when the guys skeleton was punched right out of his body, fake as hell but cool non the less. None of these movies should be called incredible but they achieve what they set out to do and thats is to entertain without being smart just never boring, and for this they get some credit. These movies are fun if you arnt wanting to use your brain.

If you liked Tokyo Gore Police, which was written by Kengo Kaji, the writer and director of this film, then you will probably enjoy this blend of sci-fi and horror. There is more gore in the opening than most movies have in their entirety. It doesn't quit, but keeps getting stronger. Stacks of bloody body parts appear throughout. You just have to give up trying to make sense of this movie, and enjoy the ride. It will amaze you with special effects, weird weapons, and buckets of gore. Don;t know about that ending.

This movie actually surprised me by not being too bad. In fact I found it rather enjoyable. I admit that I usually stay away from the Japanese gore movies. I find them to be too much verging on being ridiculous, disgusting and simply going for gross outs. I picked this up simply because of the title. Unlike the others of the gore genre this one isn't too over the top it its gross outs. There is actually a story, there are funny parts, no overwhelming gore and the lead is pretty. There isn't the "this is just sick and disgusting" feeling. Don't expect award winning acting. But if you don't mind watching a B movie with gore and bad special effects. This one is not bad.

First off, if you're looking for a movie with a serious plot avoid this one at all costs. The plot revolves around a young girl who's eleven friends, who just happened to be hanging out in the woods for some reason, are all raped and murdered. So the young girl is turned into some sort of android called a "Mecca", possessed by her friends souls, and now she wants to avenge her friends deaths. This movie was actually pretty fun to watch because it was so bad that it was funny. The English dubbing was terrible, the amount of gore was ridiculous, and it looked like it was filmed on a budget of fifteen dollars. The characters in the movie are pretty funny. So all in all this movie is good for a laugh.

"Samurai Princess" Once again Yoshihiro Nishimura rears his gory FX laden head in "Samurai Princess"! This time directed by Kenjo Kaji ("Ultraman Moebius").I'm convinced Nishimura could never disappoint! "Samurai Princess" is a hybrid of "TGP" and "TMG", although the lack of budget is recognizably evident, though it doesn't detract from the overall distinction of the film. The costumes are 1980's retro chic and heavily stylized. It does appear though that the cast and crew were offered a forest for a set and said go to work! That is exactly what mad scientist Director Kenjo Kaji had, and precisely what he needed to make this formula for success that is...."Samurai Princess". Kaji does a great job, but when you include Yoshiro Nishimura into the picture, you can not expect to be shortchanged, he will gross you out....hardcore!! You may in fact get more(generally bucket fulls) than you could have ever imagined. Nishimura is truly an effects master, only the best in blood, gore and the most perverse imaginations ever created. Exploitive, yet stylistic and original. At one point Samurai Princess was a normal schoolgirl, spending time with her friends by a nearby stream, living life as it should be, when a villainous gang of sadistic rapists comes along. The rapists do what they do best and Samurai Princess is left alone, clinging to life and left for dead. Along comes a even stranger individual, who specializes in typical mad scientist insanity, more specifically, experimentation's mixing human and machine. Now, "Samurai Princess" is known as a "Mecca" a cyborg like creature instilled with elaborate instruments of death. Also with the help of a Buddhist priestess they insert the souls of "SP's" dead friends into her. Now, flash forward back to present day..... awake and coming to the realization that her normal life is over..."SP concludes someone made her this way and she will do anything and kill as many as it will take to find out who. Aino Kishi plays the beautiful "Samurai Princess, clad in minimal clothing, the adult film actress fits the part to the tee. Aside from the lackluster budget, that in my opinion is only visible in video production and set design, this film is a real treat to the genre. Original costume design, stupendous effect by a true effects genius and well done acting(at times quite overdone), this makes "SP" a genre must see. Although "Samurai Princess" was not a "Tokyo Gore Police", it did have similar elements, only turned down a few notches. "Samurai Princess" wields Katanas that discover the best in arterial spray in every direction possible. Anyone standing anywhere near the spraying is sure to be bathed in blood, at times covering the camera lens, a Nishimura trademark! Two removable breasts that when attached together yield a grenade, that on occasion will make heads explode in full view. A circular saw that extends from the sternum of "SP"....I'm sure you can imagine what that does. Chainsaw legs and a guitar that emits sound waves when strummed, causing a serious mess. "Samurai Princess" is a highly creative film, filled with high quality scenes of gore filled madness, done by only the best effects director possible. What the film lacks in development and budget, it completely makes up in originality, creativity and style. The fun factor for "SP" is clearly off the charts....and for goodness sakes, IT HAS BREAST GRENADES!!!! BruceVain

I'm unashamedly fond of this genre of over-the-top, ultra-gory, and often hilarious Japanese movies. When done right, they're endlessly entertaining. Samurai Princess is not one of the finer examples that I've seen. The story is a revenge tale about a girl who becomes a Mecha (super-powered humans modified with the body parts and souls of the dead). She's searching for a group of men and two other Mechas who are responsible for the assault and dismemberment of a group of her friends. The plot is not presented in such a straightforward way, though, and there's a revolving door of random characters that pop up spout some back-story, get in a fight or two, and then die or disappear. The action scenes are weak, the attempts at humor come off as just weird, and not much of anything really makes sense. Samurai Princess is definitely a low-budget affair, with most of the money seemingly going renting the various warehouses it was filmed in. The only real entertainment to be found is from wondering what inexplicable thing is going to happen next. Watch if for that, or don't bother with it, at all. 9/10 on the WTF scale, 4/10 as a movie. And please don't ask what the title has to do with the actual movie, because I've yet to figure that out.