Yes, There Will Be Blood! Lots of it!
Tokyo Gore Police is so graphic in so many ways that I at first edited my original review in order to make it decent for the general public. But then, after careful (or perhaps careless) consideration and unnecessary honesty, I decided to restore the edited material to its original place, right here where it belongs. No. It’s nothing terrible; it won’t set any records for graphic reviews. It’s mostly just the use of words like penis, whore, grotesque genitalia, and bloody naked corpse, all within the context of violent, over-the-top sci-fi/horror. (Got your imagination running already?) Most of the time I also choose to avoid graphic details that some even call “spoilers”; but, this time, I said, “What the hell?” This time I threw caution and reader cares to the wind. “Why?” you ask. Just describing more details in Tokyo Gore Police will likely make readers look for the movie, sooner than later. Yes, it’s weird how that works, but it does. Just don’t tell anyone, and you’ll be fine. It’ll be our secret.
If you think this is gratuitous, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
“Enough apologies, general details, and swearing to secrecy” you say. “Get on with the plot and gratuitous teasers of this likely abomination of cinema.” Okay, sure. In the not-too-distant-future,“engineers” and their genetically-altered spawn are able to generate mutated bio-weapon appendages from their wounds. The Tokyo police have become privatized for “the good of society,” as their motto goes, and specifically to eliminate the “engineers” and their bio-engineered spawn. Claiming to be a better, more effective instrument for civil control, the Tokyo Police Corporation, as it’s called, also ironically carries out summary executions of anyone, for the largest to the smallest of crimes. This is all done in the name of justice, efficiency, and eliminating “engineers.” In one scene, for example, a man’s hands are cut off for copping a feel on a crowded subway. In another scene, a call-girl madam is dismembered and impaled, through the mouth, with the wooden handle of a garden tool. Does retribution really get much better than that? I doubt it.
Does revenge get any better for a call-girl madame? I doubt it!
Oh, yes! There’s also the main character Ruku played by the gorgeous Eihi Shiina! (What would a movie like this be without such a babe?) She’s a crack, bad-girl engineer-hunter, motivated for revenge, after seeing her father killed by an engineer, as a child. Ruku is serious eye candy, gracefully kicking butt in all her perils, and always looking good enough to turn heads on or off a body. She even looks good with half her face blown off, a mutated eye, and a claw-like, genetically-altered arm appendage! Yes, trust me, this woman cannot look bad!
Yes, our beautiful heroine and star of TGP is Eihi Shiina. The butt-kicking babe we know as Ruku started as a fashion model from Fukuoka, Japan; she got her first big break in 1995, working for Benetton. After that, she represented Japan at the global Elite Model Look ’95. More magazine work followed, and, of course, a career as an actress was soon to follow. Shiina has since starred in such noteable Hong Kong features as Audition (1999) and Helldriver (2010). Thank goodness for her fate as an actress as well! What a wonderful life-saving addition she is to the numerous movies she’s in–and Tokyo Gore Police is no exception. Without her as the star, I doubt I’d even have written this review of TGP! 😀
Ruku (Eihi Shiina) ready to beautifully kick some Engineer ass in Tokyo Gore Police!
Writing this review, I was challenged to find something intelligent and deeper in an otherwise superficial, check-your-brain-at-the-door, but oh-so-entertaining flick. Did I find it? Yes, I think so. Most unchecked forms of government have corruption at their core, and Tokyo Gore Police has just that as its central message; TGP is an over-the-top statement about the worst that government can become, when it’s left to do as it always does. Beyond that, there’s not much else mental about it. However, that’s not a bad thing here at all. Anyone who watches a movie titled Tokyo Gore Police wants one thing for sure—gore, gore, and more gore!
Yes, this movie will certainly NOT disappoint in the gore department. As the title implies, there is, indeed, gore aplenty. From the first seconds of the movie, the viewer is soaked in scenes of blood, carnage, and gratuitous violence. In the opening scene, the naked corpse of a woman is dismembered and mutilated with a chainsaw! (This scene will have you ducking and dodging, or looking for your raincoat, even as a viewer.) In another scene, a man is beheaded by the Tokyo Police, after harassing a group of children; his head is then used as a football by the children he offended. Elsewhere a man’s penis is bitten off by a surgically-mutilated whore. The man regenerates an oversized and mutated member which fires deadly biological bullets. The whore sprouts gaping claw-like appendages where legs once were and attempts to seduce the very man she castrated. “How does she do that?” you ask. Of course, with a grotesque but effective display of genitalia! What else? (And I’m sure you’re not surprised at this point; there’s actually a glimpse of it in the trailer below.) There’s also a sado-masochistic relationship between the master engineer and his slave which makes any other such relationship seem normal. Yes, it’s really all that weird and more…but, somehow…it all works anyway!
Ruku (Eihi Shiina) is serious eye candy, gracefully kicking butt in all her perils, looking good no matter what.
The violence and gore in this movie are excessive throughout. There are numerous decapitations, dissections, dismemberments, disembowelments, and heads split in half. In every scene, blood sprays from wounds like water from a hose, for periods far longer than anything remotely possible. Yes, this movie is far from realistic, but no less effective as a result. The excessive blood, violence, and gore, along with over-the-top personalities and plots, give this movie more of a live-action comic book look. Ironically, the pulp effects also help to tone the movie down to some arguably reasonable level. Anything more realistic in a movie this gory would be impossible to market as entertainment, by any stretch.
Cause of Death – Impalement!
Of course, there is the inevitable and necessary heroine/villain showdown in this movie. No other end could make it complete or worthy of viewing after a point, anyway. The bad guy and the good gal go at it to the bitter end with results I won’t spoil here. However, as I said, the good gal Ruku still looks good anyway. So, who cares?
Imagine looking into this monster’s mouth!
Again, this movie is clearly NOT for everyone. It does, however, satisfy a serious gore fan’s niche for the more extreme in violent, over-the-top cinema. If you’re one of the lucky lover’s of copious carnage and blood, then, by all means, dial 911 for the Tokyo Gore Police today!
An alternate TGP movie poster
A bonus shot of Eihi Shiina having fun off the set, as herself
Rocket Rating – 7
For a description of Rocket Rating 7, click on the Rocket Meter above!
