Ghost Squad (Review)
Ghost Squad
aka ゴーストスクワッド aka Gôsuto Sukuwaddo
2018
Written and directed by Noboru Iguchi
G-g-g-g-g-ghost Squad!! Sorry, just getting the “g-g-g-ghost” joke out of the way early! Ghost Squad is the latest from splatter auteur extraordinaire Noboru Iguchi, who has been covered by TarsTarkas.NET many times and will be covered many more times, as his films are usually filled with fun dumb energy and lots of ridiculous effects and plots that manage to entertain and occasionally comment on various aspects of society in the warped way that only exploitation cinema can. Ghost Squad joins the pantheon of his fun films, with plenty of crazy action and weird effects. Splatter fans might find little to be excited about, as the gore is subdued for a Iguchi film. But there are ghost ladies beating a guy in the junk with a meat hammer arm, a ghost with a dog for an arm, a ghost with a Machine Girl-style gun arm, and a gun with a baby face. So embrace the ridiculousness of a squad of murdered ghosts coming together to get their revenge with Ghost Squad!
Rika (Anna Yanagi) is your normal teen girl with an abusive father (Iguchi regular Yûya Ishikawa) who also sees ghosts. She explains this to her scoffing boyfriend Yosuke while also observing a ghost named Keiko Furukawa (Sumire Ueno) who struggles to write a letter to her father while slipping between being aware and unaware that she is dead. Rika goes to work as a waitress, but Yosuke follows her to harass her. But he didn’t count on Keiko also following along, as well as another ghost named Akari (Minori Mikado), who soon spring to action just as Yosuke is slashing Rika’s wrist. They beat him down and give him a few extra holes due to impalements, but let him survive enough to be in the hospital later.
Rika awakens at home with her wrist bandaged, and soon learns from the ghosts that they can only interact with the physical world when she is close to death (she learns this as she tries to hang herself from depression and guilt!) She quickly makes friends with Keiko and Akari, and also a third ghost named Yoshie who at first is a story telling framing device but quickly joins the main story as a fellow ghost. The three ladies need to get revenge on the men who attacked them in order to pass on to Heaven. It’s the law, Ghost Law. As we see later when Naomi Ohishi (Asaka Nakamura) shows up, it actually is the law and there is a whole bureaucracy set up to make sure they get revenge on everyone. Biggest critique here seems to be only lady ghosts have to get revenge, as we see a male character murdered later who goes directly to Heaven. That is totally unfair, we need to reform our Ghost Laws!
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Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: Anna Yanagi, Asaka Nakamura, Japan, Minori Mikado, Noboru Iguchi, Sumire Ueno, Yuni Hong, Yuya Ishikawa
Noboru Iguchi returns with Live (ライヴ)
Noboru Iguchi is constantly pumping out new and weird films, and his latest Live (ライヴ or Raivu)looks to be another fun festival of lots of people dying in violent ways while goofy things happen. Naoto Tamura (Yuki Yamada) discovers his mother has been kidnapped, and he’s being forced to participate in a race called Live. He soon finds others who are also competing, all with a kidnapped loved one. They rulebook gives clues, but the biggest clue that something is wrong is all the people trying to kill them. As contestants fall, Naoto must figure out a way to save his mom, and possibly his friend and that hot girl who are also in the race.
Live is based on the book Live by Yusuke Yamada. It’s due in Japanese theaters on May 10th, and will presumably show up in American festivals soon enough. Yes, Asami Sugiura will be in it. I didn’t notice any of the other Iguchi regulars, but I’m betting they’ll pop up as well. Live also stars Ito Ono and Yuki Morinaga
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via Asianwiki
Categories: Movie News Tags: Asami Sugiura, Ito Ono, Japan, Noboru Iguchi, Yuki Morinaga, Yuki Yamada
Second trailer for Nuigulumar Z (ヌイグルマーZ) !
A second trailer for Nuigulumar Z (ヌイグルマーZ aka Gothic Lolita Battle Bear) has hit the net. It’s Noboru Iguchi’s latest, and stars a Teddy Bear that combines with it’s gothic lolita owner to transform into Rina Takeda to kick evil people in the face. Luckily, there are lots of evil people, and also zombies. The official release is January 25th, 2014!
Nuigulumar Z is based on an novel Hōsei Ningen Nuigurumā by Kenji Ohtsuki, which is based on a song by his band Tokusatsu called “Tatakae! Nuigulumar”.
Shoko Nakagawa will play Yumeko Ayukawa, nicknamed Dameko, a lolita-wearing girl who merges with her teddy bear Buusuke to form Nuigulumar. Rina Takeda will play the merged Nuigulumar, complete with pink bear costume. In addition, Takeda also will play a villain character named Kill Billy. Which means we might see Takeda battle herself! Who will win…
Categories: Movie News Tags: Japan, Noboru Iguchi, Nuigulumar Z, Rina Takeda, Shoko Nakagawa
Dead Sushi
Dead Sushi
aka デッド寿司 aka Deddo Sushi
2012
Written by Noboru Iguchi, Makiko Iguchi, and Jun Tsugita
Directed by Noboru Iguchi
Summing up Dead Sushi in one picture!
Dead Sushi combines two of my favorite things from low budget Japanese cinema – Rina Takeda and Noboru Iguchi! While I wish these two combined to make something amazing, Dead Sushi turns out to just be above average. While certainly a lot better than either of the prior Iguchi and Takeda films I have seen (Zombie Ass and Kunoichi), Dead Sushi suffers from trying to be too many things. Sure, it’s got zombies, killer sushi, and face kicking, but there is also a big lecture on the proper way to make, eat, and appreciate sushi. Dead Sushi takes as much from Jiro Dreams of Sushi as it does from Machine Girl or High-Kick Girl! Unfortunately, they drag the movie down to a more average range.
Finally a movie that isn’t afraid to spit the truth!
The two main attractions to Dead Sushi are the gore effects and the choreography. First – the gore effects are okay, but not so different from what we’ve seen before. The humor comes from the instigators of this gore, living sushi pieces that talk gibberish and fly through the air, skeletonizing people. After the gimmick wears off, Dead Sushi gives us zombies to allow for some actual fighting against something other than CGI and puppets. While zombies are overused and boring (despite these zombies spitting up rice!), the occasional fights against CGI sushi have their fun, and remind me of Birdemic.
Why you should never eat cheap take-out rice!
The choreography is less disappointing, and is what you should seek out Dead Sushi for. Rina Takeda’s Keiko is a sushi apprentice to her father, the sushi chef skills giving her karate skills because that’s just how it works. There is some kicking and punching of sushi pieces out of the air, and later some battles against ineffectual zombies. Dead Sushi then shakes things up with Kentaro Shimazu running around with a giant fish head and a gianter axe to battle Rina Takeda, while the one good piece of sushi – Eggy – does battle with a giant CGI sushi battleship. The fights keep you entertained, whoever the stunt guy for Kentaro Shimazu is matches well with Rina Takeda’s moves, giving us nice fighting to entertain the people. Bread and circuses. Or Sushi and Zombies.
Shaming the shameless
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Better than the movie Battleship!
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Nuigulumar Z (ヌイグルマーZ) with Rina Takeda as a fighting pink teddy bear hits trailer!
Gothic Lolita Battle Bear is the subtitle for Noboru Iguchi’s latest flick, Nuigulumar Z (ヌイグルマーZ), and that is accurate as the day is long. For that pink bear becomes Rina Takeda and faces will be kicked! Plus, it looks like the bear comes to life as a puppet, which means this could easily have been directed by Minoru Kawasaki!
Nuigulumar Z is based on an novel Hōsei Ningen Nuigurumā by Kenji Ohtsuki, which is based on a song by his band Tokusatsu called “Tatakae! Nuigulumar”.
Shoko Nakagawa will play Yumeko Ayukawa, nicknamed Dameko, a lolita-wearing girl who merges with her teddy bear Buusuke to form Nuigulumar. Rina Takeda will play the merged Nuigulumar, complete with pink bear costume. In addition, Takeda also will play a villain character named Kill Billy. Which means we might see Takeda battle herself! Who will win…
Categories: Movie News Tags: Japan, Noboru Iguchi, Nuigulumar Z, Rina Takeda, Shoko Nakagawa
Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead
Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead
aka ゾンビアス Zonbiasu
2011
Written by Noboru Iguchi, Ao Murata, and Jun Tsugita
Story by Tadayoshi Kubo
Directed by Noboru Iguchi
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The horrible secret of Bush’s Baked Beans…
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While normally a fan of the Japanese ultra-gore films and Noboru Iguchin in general, Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead ends up sucking ass! What is should be a bunch of fun and ridiculous scenes instead gets bogged down by far too much melodrama, and the replacement of poo for the blood splatter scenes. Which isn’t done in a creative way, and instead rely on the fact that there is lots of poo around for the laughs. Poo may be funny in concept, but in practice it gets boring really fast. While other films like Helldriver and Mutant Girls Squad mix their films with a greater theme, Zombie Ass fails to successfully do that, either. There is a vague theme of bullying that rarely comes in to play, and doesn’t parallel with the zombie tapeworm invasion tale going on. The obvious subtext of body image is barely addressed and would have resulted in a much better film. The ending battle with a flying girl versus a monster is nothing we haven’t seen before, either. It took four people to write something so bland!
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Funnily enough, this method of transportation has begun to catch on in crowded Tokyo
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Zombie Ass‘s few pluses include the design of the tapeworm parasites, they have a brain on them that make them look like the creatures from Fiend Without a Face. I do not know how intentional this homage is, but I hope it was very. I will also score a point for the final monster looking like a sock puppet Jar Jar Binks, because that effect is bad enough it became funny. But besides that, I do not need a heroine who is sad all the time because she didn’t bother to save her bullied sister, nor every other character either being horrible or dating someone horrible. Most of the cast are the type of people who die first or second in a movie, and it was annoying seeing them continue to live beyond their expiration date. I was rooting for the poo to drown them!
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Meesa mutant butt zombie, okeyday!
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Even the appearance by regulars Asami Sugiura, Demo Tanaka, Yuya Ishikawa, and gratuitous nudity don’t save Zombie Ass from going down the drain. You’re gonna want to flush this load as soon as it’s dropped off at the pool. This film doesn’t have much to go on, and this is no smear campaign. Zombie Ass could be more Charmin, and that’s the bottom line. Despite the brown-nosing, Zombie Ass is only a #2. You might want to log off now, these puns sure are on a roll!
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Okay, Star Wars Prequel Abomination, I got the cure!
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