NYAFF 09 Review: VAMPIRE GIRL VERSUS FRANKENSTEIN GIRL

[Our thanks to Dustin Chang for the following review, though it should be noted that the man who hopped on stage claiming to be Naoyuki Tomomatsu was actually Machine Girl director Noboru Iguchi just goofing around with his good friend Nishimura..]

I had the privilege to attend the world premiere screening of Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police) & Naoyuki Tomomatsu (Stacey)’s Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl with boisterous fans who braved the bad weather to be in a packed theater on Friday night, as it was part of the NYAFF program. Present at the screening were co-directors Nishimura, Tomomatsu and also Tak Sakaguchi who was a stunt coordinator for the movie and a director in his own right (his movie Yoroi Samurai Zombie was to be screened right after Vampire Girl). They playfully introduced the movie and graciously stayed around for a spirited Q & A session afterwards.

At first glance, Tokyo High School is just another typical Japanese school with its knick-knack of social groupings: There are dolled-up Harajuku girls with a vice-principal/science teacher’s spoiled daughter Keiko at the helm, there is a wrist cutting club and Ganguro girls – comprised of Japanese girls who wish they were black (one of the trends in Japan, Nishimura kindly explained before the screening, to absorb some of the cultural misunderstanding it would undoubtedly create). But everything changes when Monami (Yukie Kawakura) a super sweet transfer student who never gets noticed in class, falls in love with the class heartthrob Jyongo (Takumi Saito, looking like Japanese James Franco) who is also the object of affection of Keiko. All hell breaks loose when Jyongo gets a Valentine’s Day gift from Monami: a chocolate filled with her blood. Her vampire blood!

Monami has to feed and it turns out that the vice-principal/science teacher has been moonlighting as Dr. Frankenstein, conducting heinous experiment in the basement of the school with the help of an oversexed school nurse. No wonder the school population is dwindling. As jealous Keiko finds out Monami’s secret, Monami needs to dispose of her and it’s Keiko’s father who finally succeeds in re-animating the dead with Monami’s vampire blood.

Blood is everywhere. Monami twirling around the arterial spray of blood rain provided by her victim in slow motion, while some sickly saccharine Broadway tune playing in the background is perhaps the most beautiful rain sequence ever put on film, only comparable to Gene Kelly’s dancing in Singing in the Rain. The body count rises as the film moves to the exciting final beat down on the Tokyo Tower between Monami and Keiko, now a monster equipped with hardened wrist cutter’s wrists & strong Ganguro girl’s limbs.

The blood soaked National High School Wrist Cutting Rally – a competitive wrist cutting contest, is just about the funniest scene in the whole film. Ganguro girls could be a hard concept to grasp. They are Japanese girls who are obsessed with Afro-American culture; they braid their hair, put on a dark makeup and listen to rap. Their exaggerated features will surely draw criticisms as Japanese minstrel show, as it was just a bit too much. But I have to admit that it was funny as they chanted, “YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN!” as they try to break 100-meter dash world record.

It’s a total gas and definitely a film to watch with a room full of rowdy gore aficionados. Limbs fly, blood bucket splatters, stereotypes confirmed. According to the directors, they only used two tons of fake blood (which was a half the amount they spent on Tokyo Gore Police). Thanks to Tomomatsu, an assistant to Shungiku Uchida, the manga artist whose work is the bases for the film, Vampire Girl has a light touch. After all, it’s a high school melodramedy. The film never takes itself too seriously and that’s the strength of it for its utterly ridiculous premise. As they talked about the state of Japanese indie film scenes and how they help each other to make low budget films, I felt hopeful that this time next year I can expect more fun from these prolific filmmakers, and promised myself that I’ll be back next year to support their effort whole heartedly.

Review by Dustin Chang.