Although we reviewed the crazy horror comedy Vampire Girl Vs Frankenstein Girl when it screened at last summer’s New York Asian Film Festival, we’re re-presenting it as the film will be screening tomorrow at the New York Comic Con.

If you felt that director Sam Raimi was too restrained with the gallons of fake blood he splashed through his classic horror comedy Evil Dead 2, you may find Vampire Girl Vs Frankenstein Girl to be more to your liking. As goofy as its camp title suggests, directors Yoshihiro Nishimura and Naoyuki Tomomatsu’s film is a manic and blood-drenched satire on school-girl crushes and high school cliques. But within the over-the-top excess, they still manage to surprise with a couple of well executed scares and a couple of moments that make you cringe. Sure it’s low budget, but that doesn’t mean it cheaps out on fun.

Mizushima is just an average student at Tokyo High, who catches the eye of new girl Monami. This does not go over well with Mizushima’s somewhat pushy girlfriend Keiko, who really sees red when Monami gives Mizushima a box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day. Mizushima also sees red, but it’s because the chocolates are filled with blood. Specifically, Monami’s blood. And since she is a vampire, Mizushima starts to fall under her thrall after eating one of the chocolates. Keiko isn’t going to take this lying down and turns to her mad-scientist father for help, who promptly turns her into a fighting machine to get her boyfriend back using the body parts of various classmates. Keiko and Monami clash in a battle for the ages that ranges from the school gym to the sides of Tokyo Tower.

Think of this as Twilight filtered through a crazed, splatter punk filter without all the moping.

A majority of the film’s effect work may not be completely convincing, but that really isn’t the point here. The over-the-topness is what it is all about, laughter evoked from the audacity of it all. This is definitely the type of film you want to watch with a group of friends, possibly with a few choice liquid stimulants to help lubricate the experience.

A note about Ganguro Girls – When the Japanese embrace an aspect of pop culture, they do so with an almost aggressive whole-heartedness that can appear obsessive to westerners, and Gangura Girls are an example of this. Fans of US hip-hop, they not only dress like the rap artists they see in music videos, they actually apply makeup to darken their skin. Nishimura and Tomomatsu satirize this trend by exaggerating these girls’ mimicry to include lip implants and ear jewelry. To US viewers, though, it makes decoding these characters a little tougher. Anyone familiar with the racial implications of blackface entertainers from the days of vaudeville would be tempted to read this as Nishimura and Tomomatsu commenting that Gangura Girls are actually cluelessly racist for showing their love for hip-hop in this manner. But I don’t think so. I think Nishimura and Tomomatsu are just mocking them by taking their actions to an exaggerated extreme. Given the comedy through extremism that is pervasive throughout the film, I don’t think that the directors have any deeper intention beyond pointing a finger and laughing at something they regard as silly.

One of the most popular programming track at the Philadelphia Film Festival has been the genre-specific Danger After Dark. This year, it has been spun-off into its own mini-festival. We’ll be presenting reviews from some its offerings over the next few days.

Sisters Yoshie (Kiguchi Aya) and Kikuei (Hasabe Hitomi) are recruited by the handsome Hikaru (Takumi Saito) away from Kikuei’s training as a Geisha to join his ranks of female assassins. Although Kikuei was always the favored of the two growing up, Yoshie is suddenly the one who excels at the training they receive. Jealous at the turn of attention away from her, Kikuei volunteers to have weapons surgically implanted in her body. Not to be outdone, Yoshie also gets a weaponized upgrade and the two are soon set out on mission to assassinate targets selected by Hikaru and his insane father, business tycoon Kageno Taro (Shigaki Taro). But then Yoshie has an encounter that makes her question Hikaru and Taro’s plans and brings her into direct combat with her sister.

RoboGeisha is another entry in that off beat Japanese mashup of action, horror and comedy films and it shares some creative DNA with some of the best the genre has to offer. Director Noboru Iguchi has The Machine Girl, probably one of the best of the lot, on his resume, while special effects director Yoshihiro Nishimura served the same function on Tokyo Gore Police. Unfortunately, while diverting, RoboGeisha never comes close to the level of entertainment that the best of these movies have to offer.

This is frustrating as all the proper elements for a fun film seem to be in place. There are beautiful women, weird villains and characters undergoing strange transformations, usually by having weapons surgically attached to their bodies. There are crazy and inventive action scenes and copious amounts of fake blood being splashed about. No idea is considered to gonzo to use. In fact, the more gonzo the better, such as the evil henchwomen who shoot acid lactation (“Breast Milk From Hell!”) from their bikini tops or the Japanese feudal castle that transforms in to a giant walking robot. But for all the energy put into the film, these elements never really gel together.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that even by the standards of the genre, RoboGeisha feels exceptionally low budget, with corners cut wherever possible. This wouldn’t be a detraction if the filmmakers coped to the fact and maybe even acknowledged it in some way. Disappointingly, much of the blood splatter from the sword and gun play is achieved through CGI and badly at that.

There are lots of things in the film’s screenplay that don’t hold up to a modicum of scrutiny. While the villain’s plan for using beautiful women to eliminate his enemies would probably feel at home in the heyday of the Bond franchise, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in his grander scheme. Why go through the trouble of individual murders when your big plan is to destroy (and presumably in the process kill all the residents of) Japan? But even in the best of these films script logic doesn’t factor into these things too much, though if the on-screen craziness isn’t enough to distract you from making these realizations while watching the film, something is wrong.

Although it has been going strong for a couple of years now, this wave of indie action/horror/comedy filmmaking still has some inventive life in it. There are a number of good examples out there for people new to the genre to try, but RoboGeisha is probably for diehard fans only.

If you felt that director Sam Raimi was too restrained with the gallons of fake blood he splashed through his classic horror comedy Evil Dead 2, you may find Vampire Girl Vs Frankenstein Girl to be more to your liking. As goofy as its camp title suggests, directors Yoshihiro Nishimura and Naoyuki Tomomatsu’s film is a manic and blood-drenched satire on school-girl crushes and high school cliques. But within the over-the-top excess, they still manage to surprise with a couple of well executed scares and a couple of moments that make you cringe. Sure it’s low budget, but that doesn’t mean it cheaps out on fun.

Mizushima is just an average student at Tokyo High, who catches the eye of new girl Monami. This does not go over well with Mizushima’s somewhat pushy girlfriend Keiko, who really sees red when Monami gives Mizushima a box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day. Mizushima also sees red, but it’s because the chocolates are filled with blood. Specifically, Monami’s blood. And since she is a vampire, Mizushima starts to fall under her thrall after eating one of the chocolates. Keiko isn’t going to take this lying down and turns to her mad-scientist father for help, who promptly turns her into a fighting machine to get her boyfriend back using the body parts of various classmates. Keiko and Monami clash in a battle for the ages that ranges from the school gym to the sides of Tokyo Tower.

Think of this as Twilight filtered through a crazed, splatter punk filter without all the moping.

A majority of the film’s effect work may not be completely convincing, but that really isn’t the point here. The over-the-topness is what it is all about, laughter evoked from the audacity of it all. This is definitely the type of film you want to watch with a group of friends, possibly with a few choice liquid stimulants to help lubricate the experience.

A note about Ganguro Girls – When the Japanese embrace an aspect of pop culture, they do so with an almost aggressive whole-heartedness that can appear obsessive to westerners, and Gangura Girls are an example of this. Fans of US hip-hop, they not only dress like the rap artists they see in music videos, they actually apply makeup to darken their skin. Nishimura and Tomomatsu satirize this trend by exaggerating these girls’ mimicry to include lip implants and ear jewelry. To US viewers, though, it makes decoding these characters a little tougher. Anyone familiar with the racial implications of blackface entertainers from the days of vaudeville would be tempted to read this as Nishimura and Tomomatsu commenting that Gangura Girls are actually cluelessly racist for showing their love for hip-hop in this manner. But I don’t think so. I think Nishimura and Tomomatsu are just mocking them by taking their actions to an exaggerated extreme. Given the comedy through extremism that is pervasive throughout the film, I don’t think that the directors have any deeper intention beyond pointing a finger and laughing at something they regard as silly.