Noboru Iguchi

  • Kataude mashin gâru [The Machine Girl] (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, September 2022) As much as it’s tempting to look at films such as The Machine Girl and think that Japan must feel constitutionally obligated to out-shock all other nations on Earth, the truth is more prosaic: There’s an extreme subgenre of Japanese cinema, and those tend to be the films best known in North American genre circles. In this specific subgenre, gory horror and over-the-top comedy make close companions: Tokyo Gore Police, Dead Sushi, Meatball Machine and Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead had their brief moment in the sun circa 2009 or so, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing if it remains a marginal phenomenon. (To wit: The Machine Girl, Zombie Ass and Dead Sushi were all written and directed by Noboru Iguchi, who has an extensive background in pornographic films.) They’re not all that successful—the blend of gore and comedy doesn’t always take, and the failure mode of such imperfect blending is films that are simply too gross to be liked. The Machine Girl skirts that line closely—it’s about a girl who, thanks to an assault from hoodlums who also murdered her brother, has her amputated arm fitted with a machine gun and goes on a rampage of revenge. It’s not a pretty rampage—limbs are cut off, heads are decapitated, holes are blown through bodies, and body-puppets spray enough blood to fill up kiddie pools. It could have been unbearable, but it somehow manages to have enough comedy and manic energy to avoid nausea. Much of the film’s sense of cool depends on a fascination for gruesome special effects, and that’s not necessarily for everyone. As such, you won’t be surprised to learn that the film is often mean-spirited, needlessly sadistic and doesn’t really sport anything like character development or a complex plot. But you get what you get from The Machine Girl: an overdone segment of extreme cinema, barely made tolerable by copious comedy and some filmmaking zaniness… even if the manic energy often goes out of control and creates issues of its own. Not for everyone, but certainly memorable.

  • Zonbi asu [Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead] (2011)

    Zonbi asu [Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead] (2011)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, August 2021) While it would be hilarious to take Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead as representing something fundamental about Japan, let’s admit that this is a film that’s far from the mainstream. Yes, it fits with films such as Tokyo Gore Police and Meatball Machine, but that’s a very specific flavour, not a national obsession. But anyway: As the title suggests, this is a film that blends gory zombie horror with flatulent comedy. As young students head to the woods for a weekend of camping, they encounter zombies created by a mad scientist’s experiment. The tropes pile up without too much logic, but then again if logic is what you’re after, you’re clearly not in the right frame of mind for Zonbi asu. As schoolgirls are bitten and experience fatal flatulence, director Noboru Iguchi goes for funny gross-out and generally achieves its objectives, all the way to a climax in which flatulence once again plays a pivotal role. It’s mildly funny, not really horrific, and clearly meant to disgust at times, but it’s saved by a tone that doesn’t quite go for extreme nihilism. It’s far from being the worst horror film I’ve seen this week, although that’s not really saying a lot. One fair warning: Zonbi asu is not quite as good as its title. But it’s not that far off either.