I’ve been waiting so long to see this one and it didn’t disappoint. Great way to start a new year! – Will

A group of mutants decide it’s time to take over the human race.

Directed by – Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Tak Sakaguchi

Written by – Noboru Iguchi, Jun Tsugita

Starring – Naoto Takenaka, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Noboru Iguchi, Tak Sakaguchi, Asami, Cay Izumi, Yumi Sugimoto, Suzuka Morita, Yuko Takayama, Maki Mizui, Kanji Tsuda, Demo Tanaka, Chiharu Kawai, Erika Terajima, Kentaro Shimazu, Yuya Ishikawa, Yui Murata, Maiko Ito, Miyu Wagawa, Rie Hayasaka, Yumemi Kato, Arata Yamanaka, Naoi Nagano, Hikaru Shida

It’s hard to even try to sum this movie up and in reality it’s probably pointless anyway. Anyone who has seen the previous work of Noboru Iguchi or Yoshihiro Nishimura will know what to expect. On board helping to direct this time around is Tak Sakaguchi, more known as an actor than a director. Together the three of them craft a story that is coherent, even if it is basic, and extremely bloody. It’s exactly what I was hoping to see and a perfect film for the first review of 2011.

Let’s see if I can manage some sort of plot synopsis here. I know I’m gonna confuse names or something now! On her 16th birthday Rin finds out that her father is a mutant (with weird talking nipples and a penis. Don’t ask, just accept it!) and that she is also a mutant. Immediately after finding out a team of assassins with nose guns attack her and kill her parents. She makes her escape but is stalked by the locals who all want her dead. After she makes short, bloody work of them she is taken in by a group of mutants who want nothing more than to take over humanity. At first she goes along with their plans but she soon starts to realize that their violent ways are not the best and that she must make a stand against them.

Rin manages to escape the angry locals leaving a trail of blood behind.

I’m always looking forward to the next film from these wacked out directors but I’ve been left wanting more after Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl and Robo-Geisha. They weren’t terrible films but they didn’t have the fun that I loved so much with Tokyo Gore Police. Mutant Girls Squad is a return to blood spurting, appendage shooting, boob sword and butt chainsaw fun. This one may actually have had more squirting blood than TGP and the use of CG blood was also much less than the previous couple of films which is a relief. Really there’s nothing good about these flicks. The stories rarely make sense and there isn’t usually much story anyway. The acting is over the top and what CG effects there are, are usually painful to see. What the films are really all about is pure insanity.

Just a few of the mutants on display in the film.

The mutants in the film range from the most exotic like a girl with what looks like a mini elephant trunk and octopus tentacles for arms to a girl who can make a red spot appear on her face. In between we get a girl with swords that come out of her boobs, another that can make a chainsaw come out of her butt, a girl whose head can detach from her body and has little arms and legs and a girl with a giant face on her belly. Some of them are pointless. I don’t even know what the girl with the red spot on her face is contributing to the battles but she’s there anyway.

The group is led by Kisaragi (Tak Sakaguchi), a cross-dressing psycho intent on resurrecting some demon-y thing that winds up combining with him to form a very strange looking mutant indeed. This may be the mutant of the film. Kisaragi looks like he’s piloting the worlds most squishy Gundam. Or imagine Sigourney Weaver in that exo-suit cargo loader thing but it’s made of organs, has a head and two giant swords for arms. I don’t think I can explain it much better than that and having a pic would only ruin the fun of seeing it for yourself.

The gore is on display in this one and there's a lot of head damage going on.

As you would expect the film is totally over the top in both acting and gore. I lost count of how many heads exploded in the movie not to mention the amount of limbs that get cut off, spraying blood all over the place. The only people who are going to enjoy this are fans of the genre. I guess you’d call it Japanese Splatter, I’m not sure if it really has a name yet! If you were left a little disappointed by VG vs FG or Robo-Geisha you don’t have to worry about Mutant Girls Squad. It delivers on the insanity, body mod horror and blood. It’s everything that my new year needed!

Under the marquee – Will