[Back in January regular ScreenAnarchy reader indiemaker drank a great deal of alcohol, watched Isaac Florentine's Ninja and sent us a wildly entertaining review as a result. He pledges to maintain this tradition throughout Philadelphia's Danger After Dark Festival.]
Robogeisha is the type of film you watch drunk late on a Saturday night with a large and boisterous audience before hitting your favorite dive bar, blacking out, and then waking up not knowing where you are next to a complete stranger whose name you can't remember. Or at least, it was that type of film for me.
Most of Noboru Iguchi's film is a blur. Luckily, I was wise enough to come prepared and took some notes during the film and wrote down further impressions afterwards at the bar before traveling in time. So please excuse me as I try to piece an actual review out of these random linear notes.
Ok, so this is not really a criticism of the film, but I noted that a full house of overweight Japan-o-philes, gore hounds, and comic nerds can lead to one very stinky theater. According to random jottings, there was many a strange, indiscernible body odor permeating the theater and it took half a flask to ignore it.
Also, I want to apologize to all of the nice Asian and Asian American women out there kind and giving enough to date dorky white men who enjoy films like Robogeisha. I'm so very, very sorry your boyfriends forced you to come out to see this. I know you didn't enjoy it and it was very gracious of you to tolerate it.
Now, Robogeisha isn't exactly new. The trailer was an internet sensation well over a year ago, and I've actually already seen large chunks of the film at its U.S. premiere back at the Fantastic Fest last September. Unfortunately, I was stone cold sober then and watched most the film from the projection room. Initially, I felt confident proclaiming Robogeisha as the single most inane thing I had ever seen and wasn't exactly a fan. I liked Machine Girl, thoroughly enjoyed Tokyo Gore Police, and even found bits of Sukeban Boy inspired. But Robogeisha was beginning to feel like old hat. I wasn't necessarily impressed with Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl either and couldn't even finish Samurai Princess. These films seem to rehash and recycle the same bits from all of the other Nishimura, Iguchi productions.
But I decided to the give the film a second chance. And I wanted to support the return of the Danger After Dark film fest here in Philadelphia. Now, Robogeisha is still probably the single most inane film I've ever seen, but it is a beautifully, blissfully, brilliantly inane film. I get it now. The jokes that felt stale and juvenile while sober had me buckling over in laughter under a heavy bender.
Iguchi has come a long way from Sukeban Boy although I would argue that Nishimura is still the better filmmaker of the two and has a much stronger command of the medium. Meaning, Robogeisha looks like shit and it's not the intentionally campy, low fi effects and sets that I'm referring to. The film is incompetently shot and on par with any generic Japanese AV release filmed on Betacam in the early 90s and then degraded through multiple VHS dubbings. I've seen Stan Brakhage films with a clearer image and better lighting and much of the special effects look like graphics from a Sega CD video game circa 1995. At times, I wondered if some scenes were shot on Hi-8 and anyone here younger 21 probably doesn't even know what that is.
Still, Iguchi's sense of comic timing has improved by leaps and bounds. The jokes are still as infantile as you'd expect, but Robogeisha's pacing and editing is classic Zucker brothers. Iguchi is throwing everything and the kitchen sink in. Like Airplane, the jokes and sight gags are largely hit or miss but it moves quickly enough that it doesn't get bogged down or grow tiresome like previous efforts. The laughs were pretty consistent.
Robogeisha is kind of like a re-telling of Aurthor Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. It's a heartfelt tale of two orphaned sisters who are brought into a geisha house. The elder sister becomes a highly esteemed Geisha while the younger is left to do the chores. She's emotionally and physically abused by the older sister sparking a fierce sense of competition. But it's the younger sister's beauty that attracts the eye of a wealthy and respected industrialist who recruits her into his company; a company that trains Geisha to become deadly assassins. Again, the two sisters compete to become the top ranked assassin and have body modifications to enhance their lethal skills, boob guns, ass swords, and acidic breast milk. High art, Robogeisha ain't. If you've seen the trailer, then you know what you're getting into. An Edo period castle turns into a giant mecha and climbs Fuji Mountain after destroying half of Tokyo's sky line. This little bit of pure insanity is what really put the film over the top and earned my punch drunk love. I also learned an important lesson, buildings bleed when they're pummeled by said Edo Castle mechas.
The art of acting may be a bit irrelevant in this genre, but it should be noted that the female cast of Robogeisha does a commendable job. This was the first of the Japanese splatter comedies that I've seen where the actresses seem to be in on the joke and actually appear to be enjoying themselves. Generally, I always feel sorry and embarrassed for Iguchi's actresses. Most of them have been small time AV idols who take these roles as a paycheck (and a small one at that) and they always look uncomfortable and awkward. I had the pleasure of talking with Iguchi at Fantastic Fest and was told that many actresses never work for him again after seeing the final film. Here, Iguchi and Nishimura regular Asami returns again and has a great time chewing up the scenery as a goblin assassin. The two female leads playing rival sisters are also game for this special brand of craziness and earn some decent laughs. The whole damn cast seems to be having a great time.
I'm still unsure of this whole Japanese splatter comedy fad and expect that it'll wear out its welcome soon enough if it hasn't already. For me, Tokyo Gore Police is still superior and the most accomplished of the bunch, but Robogeisha has now become a close second for me. A warning though, this is a film best appreciated under the right circumstances, namely, with group of friends and a lot of alcohol to dull your brain into accepting the utter idiocy.
Review courtesy of indiemaker and his flask of liquid magic.
Robogeisha is the type of film you watch drunk late on a Saturday night with a large and boisterous audience before hitting your favorite dive bar, blacking out, and then waking up not knowing where you are next to a complete stranger whose name you can't remember. Or at least, it was that type of film for me.
Most of Noboru Iguchi's film is a blur. Luckily, I was wise enough to come prepared and took some notes during the film and wrote down further impressions afterwards at the bar before traveling in time. So please excuse me as I try to piece an actual review out of these random linear notes.
Ok, so this is not really a criticism of the film, but I noted that a full house of overweight Japan-o-philes, gore hounds, and comic nerds can lead to one very stinky theater. According to random jottings, there was many a strange, indiscernible body odor permeating the theater and it took half a flask to ignore it.
Also, I want to apologize to all of the nice Asian and Asian American women out there kind and giving enough to date dorky white men who enjoy films like Robogeisha. I'm so very, very sorry your boyfriends forced you to come out to see this. I know you didn't enjoy it and it was very gracious of you to tolerate it.
Now, Robogeisha isn't exactly new. The trailer was an internet sensation well over a year ago, and I've actually already seen large chunks of the film at its U.S. premiere back at the Fantastic Fest last September. Unfortunately, I was stone cold sober then and watched most the film from the projection room. Initially, I felt confident proclaiming Robogeisha as the single most inane thing I had ever seen and wasn't exactly a fan. I liked Machine Girl, thoroughly enjoyed Tokyo Gore Police, and even found bits of Sukeban Boy inspired. But Robogeisha was beginning to feel like old hat. I wasn't necessarily impressed with Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl either and couldn't even finish Samurai Princess. These films seem to rehash and recycle the same bits from all of the other Nishimura, Iguchi productions.
But I decided to the give the film a second chance. And I wanted to support the return of the Danger After Dark film fest here in Philadelphia. Now, Robogeisha is still probably the single most inane film I've ever seen, but it is a beautifully, blissfully, brilliantly inane film. I get it now. The jokes that felt stale and juvenile while sober had me buckling over in laughter under a heavy bender.
Iguchi has come a long way from Sukeban Boy although I would argue that Nishimura is still the better filmmaker of the two and has a much stronger command of the medium. Meaning, Robogeisha looks like shit and it's not the intentionally campy, low fi effects and sets that I'm referring to. The film is incompetently shot and on par with any generic Japanese AV release filmed on Betacam in the early 90s and then degraded through multiple VHS dubbings. I've seen Stan Brakhage films with a clearer image and better lighting and much of the special effects look like graphics from a Sega CD video game circa 1995. At times, I wondered if some scenes were shot on Hi-8 and anyone here younger 21 probably doesn't even know what that is.
Still, Iguchi's sense of comic timing has improved by leaps and bounds. The jokes are still as infantile as you'd expect, but Robogeisha's pacing and editing is classic Zucker brothers. Iguchi is throwing everything and the kitchen sink in. Like Airplane, the jokes and sight gags are largely hit or miss but it moves quickly enough that it doesn't get bogged down or grow tiresome like previous efforts. The laughs were pretty consistent.
Robogeisha is kind of like a re-telling of Aurthor Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. It's a heartfelt tale of two orphaned sisters who are brought into a geisha house. The elder sister becomes a highly esteemed Geisha while the younger is left to do the chores. She's emotionally and physically abused by the older sister sparking a fierce sense of competition. But it's the younger sister's beauty that attracts the eye of a wealthy and respected industrialist who recruits her into his company; a company that trains Geisha to become deadly assassins. Again, the two sisters compete to become the top ranked assassin and have body modifications to enhance their lethal skills, boob guns, ass swords, and acidic breast milk. High art, Robogeisha ain't. If you've seen the trailer, then you know what you're getting into. An Edo period castle turns into a giant mecha and climbs Fuji Mountain after destroying half of Tokyo's sky line. This little bit of pure insanity is what really put the film over the top and earned my punch drunk love. I also learned an important lesson, buildings bleed when they're pummeled by said Edo Castle mechas.
The art of acting may be a bit irrelevant in this genre, but it should be noted that the female cast of Robogeisha does a commendable job. This was the first of the Japanese splatter comedies that I've seen where the actresses seem to be in on the joke and actually appear to be enjoying themselves. Generally, I always feel sorry and embarrassed for Iguchi's actresses. Most of them have been small time AV idols who take these roles as a paycheck (and a small one at that) and they always look uncomfortable and awkward. I had the pleasure of talking with Iguchi at Fantastic Fest and was told that many actresses never work for him again after seeing the final film. Here, Iguchi and Nishimura regular Asami returns again and has a great time chewing up the scenery as a goblin assassin. The two female leads playing rival sisters are also game for this special brand of craziness and earn some decent laughs. The whole damn cast seems to be having a great time.
I'm still unsure of this whole Japanese splatter comedy fad and expect that it'll wear out its welcome soon enough if it hasn't already. For me, Tokyo Gore Police is still superior and the most accomplished of the bunch, but Robogeisha has now become a close second for me. A warning though, this is a film best appreciated under the right circumstances, namely, with group of friends and a lot of alcohol to dull your brain into accepting the utter idiocy.
Review courtesy of indiemaker and his flask of liquid magic.