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Sento Shojo: Chi no Tekkamen Densetsu
Mutant Girls Squad
Japan 2010
produced by
Yoshinori Chiba, Toshiki Kimura, Gen Sato, Kazuo Kato (executive) for Toei
directed by Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Tak Sakaguchi
starring Yumi Sugimoto, Yuko Takayama, Suzuka Morita, Tak Sakaguchi, Maki Mizui, Kanji Tsuda, Naoto Takaneda, Kentaro Shimazu, Chiharu Kawai, Yuya Ishikawa, Demo Tanaka, Maiko Ito, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Cay Izumi, Noboru Iguchi, Asami, Erika Terajima, Yui Murata, Hikaru Shida, Arata Yamanaka, Miyu Wagawa, Rie Hayasaka, Naoi Nagano, Yumemi Kato
story by Noboru Iguchi, screenplay by Jun Tsugita, music by Kou Nakagawa, visual effects by Tsuyoshi Kazuno, special makeup effects by Yoshihiro Nishimura
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Rin (Yumi Sugimoto) is an outcast at her school and bullied on a
regular basis - but on her 16th birthday she all of a sudden feels
compelled to fight back, and out of nowhere she grows claws and uses them
to slaughter everyone in her way. Returning home all bloody, her parents
celebrate her birthday as if nothing at all had happened - and ah yeah,
they tell her she is a Hilko, a member of an ancient race with super
powers, just like her dad is. Then her parents are slaughtered by some
soldiers that wear gun-equipped nosepieces, and Rin can only just escape
... Eventually, Rin finds other Hilko who have banded together in a
paramilitary organisation led by Kisaragi (Tak Sakaguchi), an organisation
that at first seems to have grown only out of the necessity to defend its
own - but Kisaragi soon wants to take over the country, the world even,
and wants to slaughter all humans. At first, Rin becomes Kisaragi's
willing assassin, but when she refuses to kill innocents a rift between
her and Kisaragi becomes apparent - and Rin is more than shocked when her
friend Rei (Yuko Takayama) shows no hesitation killing the innocents in
her place. When Kisaragi plans an all-out attack on Tokyo, Rin and her
friend Yoshie (Suzuka Morita) defect, and eventually have to face the
wrath of Rei - but Rin manages to convince Rei that she is on the right
track, and even though they are not technically humans, there is enough
humanity left in them ... and it's about time, too, because due to the
success of his Tokyo terror attack, Kisaragi has spontaneously mutated
into a grotesque giant creature, and it takes all three girls to
ultimately take him down. In the end, it shows that the girls' victory
over Kisaragi resolves nothing for the Hilko, but that's a tale to tell
another day ... maybe (though better not). One thing's for
sure: This film was more than a little influenced by the long-running
American X-Men-comicbook.
But rather than being a mere rip-off or hommage, this film only takes a
few basic ideas from the series and spins its very own tale, a tale that
might not sound utterly original in writing, but it's the many grotesque
details that make this film work - like a girl growing a chainsaw out of
her butt or a mutant throwing his jet-propelled feet at his opponent
(really). Pluse, while the film is ultra-violent, there's always some
tongue-in-cheek approach to all the brutality. That all said, Mutant
Girls Squad is by no means perfect, it's direction at times tries too
hard to be flashy and trendy to really bring its point across, the comedy
a few times too often prefers bathroom humour over real humour, and a more
original, intelligent story wouldn't have hurt, either ... but that
said, the whole thing is the perfect party movie, best watched with a few
friends and a few beers, and not trying to think too hard doesn't hurt
either ...
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find Mutant Girls Squad at adultvideouniverse.com
