Bloody Fun

I was looking for a Halloween movie to see. And I finally found one.

But it did take some doing as I needed to order it online due to the local retail stores not carrying copies.

Why would anyone want to carry the Asian movie that has the title, “Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl”? The title alone would make a person scratch his or her head. But it is a classic title. That alone should have the reason for mainstream shelves to get a hold of a copy.

But I did see it.

And liked it a lot.

More than that, I think it’s one of the best films of the year simply because it’s just whacky fun. I can’t imagine anyone with a weak stomach struggling through it. But those who like exaggerated gore high spun into a kinetic craziness that’ll make your head spin, this is for you.

And heads do spin in this film. Roll and explode in some cases.

The gore fest jacked up to the Nth degree comes from the warped minds who gave us the Asian classics “Machine Gun Girl” and “Toyko Gore Police” which parodies the alarming amounts of blood in horror movies. Times a hundred. There’s enough blood that you can jump into a swimming pool of it. Buckets of blood.

There is one scene where the vampire girl takes a bite out of a man trying to take advantage of her. The roles are reversed here where the man is usually the dominate. But here the girl is swift as a knife and has the bite of death. Literally. You’ll see the stump of his head is spraying oodles of red in a very colorful scenery. It is like watching the film scene of “Singing in the Rain”… except it’s raining blood here.

However, the story revolves one thing: love.

It is a love story. But the strangest one. Based on a Japanese manga by Shungiku Uchida.

It’s a love triangle which invokes a lot of bizarre twists and turns throughout the film which only lasts 85 minutes. It's the right length for such a film.

There is a high school transfer student/teenage vampire named Monami, forever youthful, who wants a colleague named Mizushima who she thinks is a hunk. You can’t really seen why. He’s a dork. But I like the fact that the story is told through his point of view.

But he’s already taken. He belongs to the abusive antics of the vice-principal/science professor's daughter Keiko. Mizushima isn’t sure which way he’s going. He’s confused as a lame duck and has no idea who he wants.

One of the interesting traditions in the film is the girl offering a chocolate to the boy as an expression of love. I didn’t go into the research of this. But it’s certainly a different approach to dating.

Push comes to shove. And soon the boy falls into the middle of a struggle between the two girls. This is where things go nuts.

It becomes a cat-fight between the girls over one man.

I love the visual effects of the film… there isn’t many. They're well done when there's a need. And the film is still done cheaply. But it’s clever stuff. There are some nice scenes where you see how a vampire "sees"… people become blueprints of blood vessels as they walk around.

Naturally, this film comes from a different culture. The Japanese always had an interesting take on violence. There are many themes of violence in the film. Much of it is over-the-top, which is the norm for the Japanese approach. They involve knifes, punctures and decapitations, not necessarily in that order.

I’m not surprised at seeing their twisted sense of humor going into the fast lane. I don’t mind it at all. But some people may not like seeing young women having a huge fetish for slitting their wrists here… another well-known Japanese trend. In fact, there was a contest in the film where the girl who cuts her arm the fastest and deepest wins.

But you have to understand their sense of humor or otherwise you’ll find yourself scurrying away from this film. But I didn’t. I'm proud of myself.

The music? It's great pop stuff. Suitable for a film like this. You'll see why.

Yukie Kawamura is one of the prettiest girls I’ve seen in Asian cinema. She started her career out as a Japanese gravure idol.

She plays the vampire girl with a flair of doll-like fragility while putting on a cute pose. She has a picture perfect smile and a soft demure about her that portrays a clumsy charm. I would be interested in seeing her career as it should do very well… she is able to handle comedy and horror very well in one setting such as this.

One of the interesting things about this vampire is her ability to create swords out of her blood if she cuts her wrists. It’s very bizarre. But it works very nice here.

Eri Otoguro is an equally attractive woman who plays the Frankenstien Girl who is completely crazy here. She plays an obsessed and strong girl trying to steal someone's boyfriend.

The nice thing about the film is that you learn about the vampire girl character. You feel sorry for her as she lives a long life of loneliness. You don’t know her age. But then again, you never ask a girl her age. That would be rude. Someone tries to wiggle out an answer from here, and she simply says she lost count.

But it is the end when you finally learn the ulterior motive of the vampire girl. She may have seemed like the good girl type. After the ending, you begin to wonder about her. I won’t tell you any more as it’ll ruin the story. But it is a very nice surprise. It adds an extra zing to the love story which is the center of the film.

The film isn’t as gory as its predecessors are. But it is still stomach churning in good portion of the film. I found “Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl” is more interested in telling the story and putting the blood and guts down a notch. So it seems much more tame.

However, the film is still worthy of seeing for its breezy direction and the fun parodies of known horror themes… I don’t think there are many other films that’ll be like this. The Japanese remains the crowning king of gore festivals, make no mistake. They know how to make a good horror film and still make you laugh at the same time. It’s a very rare combo.

Is this a kind of movie you should take your date to because it’s about a romance? I’ll let you decide on that.