RoboGeisha Review

I love foreign movies, especially the ones that are fast-paced and give you over-the-top action. So let me introduce you to a movie that does that.... and more. This movie is called RoboGeisha, and it's a film like no other.

The movie was directed and written by Noboru Iguchi, the same man who created one of my favorite films, The Machine Girl (And I promise that I will write a review for that movie sometime in the future). The special effects were done by a man named Yoshihiro Nishimura, which is interesting to note that he also did the special effects for The Machine Girl and went on to create his own movie, Tokyo Gore Police (Another movie I will review sometime). The cast for RoboGeisha include Aya Kiguchi, Hitomi Hasebe, Takumi Saito, and Taro Shigaki.

Plot Synopsis

The movie is about two sisters, Yoshie and Kikue, who are abducted by a steel manufacturer and turned into mechanized assassins. The film opens with a brief fight scene as we watch Yoshie fight Kikue and the two members of the Goblin Squad. Kikue attempts to assassinate the representative of a rivaling company, but the assassination is foiled by Yoshie.

After the opening scene, we learn about the life of Yoshie. Kikue is a geisha and has her younger sister Yoshie work as her attendant. Kikue is always looking down on Yoshie and never gives her a chance. One day, a man by the name of Hikaru notices the potential of Yoshie and has her abducted along with her sister. His goal is to create an ideal world, and plans to train Yoshie and Kikue in order to achieve his plan. However, things change when Yoshie is sent out to assassinate a small group of people living nearby....

First Impression

Oh... my... word... just the opening scene is enough to leave you with an impression of "how did they come up with this?". Seriously, I mean we witness the Goblin Squad shoot shurikens out of their butts! Then Yoshie and Kikue have a face-off with shooting missiles and other projectiles at each other. All of this is only in the first 10 minutes of the movie as well, it almost makes you scared of what's to come.

Review

So this movie has a lot of unique action scenes, and I mean unique. As I already stated above, the first 10 minutes of the film we watch two girls shoot shurikens out of their butts. That's only the beginning as well, throughout the movie you'll see crazy action sequences like that.

And there's a few comedic ones like this guy getting shrimp shoved in his eyes.

After the opening fight, the movie gets kinda slow as we follow the life of Yoshie and Kikue. As stated above, Kikue is a geisha and Yoshie worked as Kikue's assistant. After their abduction, Hikaru wants to unleash their full potential, so he forces them to fight and release the anger within. With Yoshie being victorious, the tides of life are turned and Kikue then works as Yoshie's assistant.

I have to say that Noboru did a good job when choosing the cast for the two sisters. Both girls are very attractive and keep the male audience's attention towards the screen.

I mean look at them, they're so adorable.

And of course with them being sisters, sister rivalry exists. Throughout the course of their training, Kikue tries to regain her status as the better one. This leads Kikue to be the first one to accept modifications to her body. The first modification that Kikue receives are guns... in her breasts. Remember in Austin Powers with the fembots, and they shoot from their breasts? Same concept, only one side actually shoots and the other side is the trigger. So needless to say, Kikue goes to show off her new modifications to Yoshie. While the girls are having trouble shooing their targets, Kikue comes in and dominates.

Oh, their target practice uses targets that are a little more.... life-like.

The movie just goes above and beyond with its action scenes. But if they're not crazy enough for you... then just wait...

Later on in the film, Yoshie is given some new modifications along with a shamisen. Needing to make it back to the city in time, Yoshie plays the shamisen she recieved to see what powers it contain. She begins playing when suddenly...

A tank??!

That's right, Yoshie transforms into a tank. She has no time to lose though, so she drives off and rushes through traffic.

As she nears her destination, it seems that the tide has turned...

Suddenly the Steel Manufacturer's building begins to ascend from the ground, and turns into a giant mecha.

The giant mecha walks into the city and begins releasing its wrath. It smashes one of the buildings and....

...it starts squirting blood?

Now... I've never destroyed a building in my life (nor do I plan to, just want to put that out there), but I'm pretty sure buildings don't bleed. Then again, after all the stuff that has happened in this movie, it wouldn't surprise me if they actually did.

So what now? We have an evil mecha on the lose, and it's up to Yoshie to put an end to it.

So yeah, the action gets pretty intense in this movie.

Visuals/Effects

RoboGeisha has that B-Movie look and feel to it, which fits perfectly with the action and content it brings you. Blood effects are done very well, even with the CGI blood spurt of the buildings being destroyed. Bullets and other projectiles are obviously CGI as well, but it fits with the movie so well and can be easily overlooked. The transformation scenes or when Yoshie or Kikue were to use another weapon had a smooth feel and were done in a great job. Overall, the visuals and effects are what you would expect from a B-Movie, but they fit so perfectly for a movie that was over-the-top.

Audio

The only version that I was able to watch was the English dubbed version on Netflix. The voice acting for the dubbed version is what you would expect for a movie like this, cheesy, crazy, and hilarious. Often times it would fit so well with the action or scene that was going on. I have seen clips of the original Japanese version, and from what I seen I can tell that the acting was done well. The movie used great sound effects for things such as guns shooting, explosions, and even blood squirts. The music selection used for the film fit the appropriate scenes and it drew you in even more.

Final Thoughts

This movie is probably one of the craziest movies that you will see in your life. As stated before, I watched it on Netflix so it is available for instant stream. If you ever had the chance to check out this film, I would suggest watching it because it is well worth your time, maybe even worth having the DVD/Blu-Ray in your collection. So if you're ever hanging out with your friends one night, get some popcorn and drinks and put on the movie. Oh... and enjoy the ride.