Assault Girls (Review)
Assault Girls
aka Asaruto garuzu
2009
Written and Directed by Mamoru Oshii
Hot chicks shooting up giant sand whales in a post apocalyptic future should be an easy sell. Except for the fact the film isn’t really about that and is instead just a video game level. The film is short as heck, but that doesn’t stop it from being filled with lots of padding from the worst opening narration experience since Alone in the Dark to many scenes of people just walking in the desert.
Add the above to the fact the women speak badly accented English muffled behind breathing masks and we got a film that is more annoying than anything else. Luckily, parts of the film are just in Japanese, and thanks to our impatient nature we have the import DVD cuz we aren’t gonna wait for it to finally get around to having an official US release. But at TarsTarkas.NET, we don’t need no stinking subtitles!
The film is connected to Mamoru Oshii’s 2001 film Avalon, as the game the players are playing is Avalon(f), and there are references to other established canon from the Avalon film. Mamoru Oshii is probably best known in the west for directing Ghost in the Shell, one of the films that everyone who was into anime talked about all the time until I started ignoring everyone who was into anime. Now I just ignore everyone, because I’m too cool for school ::puts on shades::
Instead of being cool and dealing with the fact there is a movie filled with hot chicks fighting monsters, Assault Girls instead tries to impress us, then tries to give us a feast for the eyes, and finally delivers the goods. Except the only impression is of boring psychobabble, the feast for the eyes is more like a famine, and the goods arrive late and in small quantities. I can’t recommend enough that you don’t bother with Assault Girls. The best thing I can say about it is that it was mercifully short. But don’t take my word for it, follow along for yourself!
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Categories: Movie Reviews, Ugly Tags: Hinako Saeki, Japan, Mamoru Oshii, Meisa Kuroki, Rinko Kikuchi, We don't need no stinking subtitles, Yoshikazu Fujiki
Assault Girls trailer
UPDATE: Read our review of Assault Girls here!
Japanese girls vs giant sand worms in the post-apocalyptic future. NipponCinema brought the trailer to the outside world.
Plot: In the aftermath of global thermonuclear war, the Earth’s surface has been turned into a desert battlefield. Three beautiful female hunters: Gray (Meisa Kuroki), Lucifer (Rinko Kikuchi), and Colonel (Hinako Saeki) traverse the barren landscape armed with powerful assault rifles to fight a group of deadly sand-dwelling monsters called “sunakujira” (sand whales). When the the epic battle eventually seems to be coming to an end, the sparkle of muzzle flash dies down and assault ship flies overhead. Suddenly, a gigantic super mutation called “Madara Sunakujira” attacks.
Mamoru Oshii directs and it hits theaters in Japan in December, no word on if it will show up in the US.
previous story here
thanks to Avery for the head’s up
Categories: Movie News Tags: Assault Girls, Avery, Hinako Saeki, Japan, Mamoru Oshii, Meisa Kuroki, Rinko Kikuchi, trailer
Blood: The Last Vampire trailer
Another trailer, this time the live action version of the anime Blood: The Last Vampire. (known as Last Blood in the UK )
31-second teaser for Chris Nahon and Pathé’s live-action film adaptation of Mamoru Oshii and Hiroyuki Kitakubo’s Blood: The Last Vampire anime. The screenplay is credited to the Production I.G anime’s Kenji Kamiyama and Hong Kong’s Ronny Yu. South Korea’s Jeon Ji-hyun (under the credited name of Gianna Jun) plays the main character Saya, a 16-year-old sword-wielding girl hunting down supernatural creatures. Japanese actress Koyuki plays her opponent Onigen.
Categories: Movie News Tags: Blood: The Last Vampire, Gianna Jun, Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Jeon Ji-hyun, Mamoru Oshii, trailer
