Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl

"Frankenstein Girl vs. Vampire Girl" was scheduled at the Belgian International Festival of Fantastic Films on a Saturday night at 2 o'clock in the morning, in other words when the horror crowd is at its most numerous and wildly enthusiastic to see bloodshed, dementia and extreme sickness. And what an excellent choice it was! The people went berserk along with the absurd and totally eccentric characters in this 200% bonkers movie from the creators of "Tokyo Gore Police" and "The One-Armed Machine Girl". The emphasis more than obviously lies on the splatter orgies and nefarious sense of humor, but there's actually also a decent storyline hidden underneath all the mayhem, with interesting lead characters and the craziest bunch of sub plots you've ever witnessed. Monami, the beautiful new girl in school, falls in love with the shy school stud Jyugon and immediately makes him hers by offering a Valentine's Day chocolate with her own blood as filling. For you see, Monami is a vampire girl and pretty much demands Jyugon to happily live with her for all eternity. Jyugon is already the boyfriend of schoolgirl gang leader Keiko, but she obviously cannot compete with the vampire powers of Monami. That is to say, until Keiko dies and her deranged principal father transforms her body into Frankenstein girl; composed of bits and parts of other students. The best and most entertaining things about "Frankenstein Girl vs. Vampire Girl" are the extended introduction of the supportive characters. We have a gang of Japanese girls that desperately want to be black ghetto girls, the girls preparing for the annual wrist-cutting tournament, the creepily hunchbacked janitor and a nymphomaniac school nurse. The first half of the film is non-stop outrageous, but naturally the tempo and level of viewer's engagement drops down a little after that simply because you're adapting to the weirdness. The climatic battle – fought out on top of the school's very own imitated Eiffel Tower – is sublimely over the top again. The gore and splatter effects are extreme and brutal, but simultaneously very campy and light-headed. It's not exactly the type of movie that is out to shock or offend people, merely just to entertain them in the most tasteless, pulpy and brainless fashion.

I didn't find this crazy little film quite as good as many have and I think it was probably, what I would call the MTV sequences, that seemed to distract from the story and exaggerate the silliness. For the most part this is a well put together, extremely OTT film where everything is taken to extremes and the blood spurts and flows more than I have ever seen before. There are some innovative special effects, hand with a head, 'living' screws and various limbs used for extraordinary and imaginative uses. The interaction between the various school kids and others is good and a welcome relief from the madness, its just that every now and again the soundtrack seems to go all J-pop and we get a continuation of the effects without dialogue. Having said all that, this film is certainly engaging, different and very violent without being too distressing, more like a cartoon, in fact. I suppose, I'm saying this is very good without being as brilliant as it might have been.

Two teenage girls—pretty vampire Monami (yummy Yukie Kawamura) and spoilt brat Keiko (Eri Otoguro)—vie for the affection of schoolboy Mizushima (Takumi Saito). As the tug-of-love escalates, Keiko is accidentally killed, but resurrected by her mad-scientist father and his sexy psycho assistant, school nurse Midori. The scene is now set for a final battle between the cute bloodsucker and the reanimated, modified Keiko, with Mizushima as the prize.

Coming from the people who gave us the OTT splatter-fest Tokyo Gore Police, I fully expected Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl to be a tad demented, but I doubt anything could have adequately prepared me for the madcap concoction of zany humour, grotesque gore, outrageous satire, and downright weirdness that has just assaulted my eyeballs. The film certainly doesn't disappoint in terms of sheer insanity.

Unfortunately, although this sucker certainly delivers in terms of wild comic-book excess, it isn't without its shortcomings: the hit and miss comedy takes precedence over the action and horror; certain aspects of the film feel rather forced, as though directors Yoshihiro Nishimura and Naoyuki Tomomatsu felt compelled to 'up the ante' in terms of bizarreness (this time, the satirical stabs at Japanese teen culture are nothing short of padding specifically designed to give the film extra cult appeal); many of the special effects are simply too cartoonish in their execution to be wholly satisfying (plus there is an over-reliance on CGI blood—UGH!); and after the gradual build up, not nearly enough time or effort is dedicated to a decent climactic showdown.

Still, the one accusation that can never be hurled at Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl is that it is boring. Take a look if you love the manic style of Tokyo Gore Police, or the relentless splat-stick of Peter Jackson's Braindead or Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II, but don't expect to be blown away.

6.5 out of 10, but not quite good enough for me to round my rating up to 7.

'Only in Japan' comes to mind when you watch "Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl" ("Kyûketsu Shôjo tai Shôjo Furanken"). It is one of those outrageous Japanese blood-fest movies. It is so over-the-top that it is bizarrely entertaining.

The story is odd and bizarre, yes, as they tend to be in this particular genre of Japanese gore movies. And it is something that has to be seen in order to be believed. As such, I will not even attempt at a synopsis that does the movie Justice.

The effects were as to be expected from a movie like this, and the blood was abundant by the gallons. If you enjoy state of the art effects and CGI, then you should not be watching the Japanese gore movies. The effects do serve their purpose well enough, in my opinion, and will often have you laughing.

It was a real treat to see Eihi Shiina in this movie, despite it being a small role. Lead actress Yukie Kawamura really carried the movie quite well.

All in all an entertaining movie and well-worth a watch if you enjoy this genre of Japanese gore.

Not knowing anything about the manga or this adaptation, the only thing I could say about the flick as I sat to watch was that the name and fundamental premise sounded like fun. For better or for worse, this also kindly informs just what we're getting into with the opening scene alone: abject low-grade cartoonishness that technically fulfills the promise of a splatter "horror-comedy" while not specifically being either horrifying or funny, and practical effects including proliferate blood and gore that are shamelessly augmented with the mid-2000s computer-generated imagery that has emphatically aged poorly. Brought to bear within even just the next couple scenes, there is also a significant parodying element here that would probably be more meaningful to someone who lives in Japan rather than anyone who lives anywhere outside the archipelago - not least as the notions being parodied include youth fashion that is questionable (Lolita) or outright objectionable (the ganguro style that at its most extreme is simply blackface taken to a deeply offensive new level). Moreover, between the bare-faced production values, the obvious CGI, Nishimura Yoshihiro and Tomomatsu Naoyuki's brashly forthright and immoderate direction, and in turn the pointedly unsubtle acting, cinematography, and editing, the nearest comparisons one may drum up are the Z-grade dreck of The Asylum, or the most outrageous, "devil may care" flippancy of the far reaches of amateur horror. 'Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl' sure is a thing.

None of this definitively precludes the possibility of the film being enjoyable. After all, as Nishimura adapts the source material, there are plenty of good, ridiculous ideas in the narrative itself. The core characters of Monami, Keiko, and Mizushima are all minor joys, not to mention Keiko's "vice principal but also mad scientist" father. The sheer irreverent ludicrousness of the characters, and of the scene writing and plot they feed into, are ripe for absurdist or even surrealist entertainment in line with exploitation flicks of the 70s and the "video nasties" of the 80s. I appreciate the absolute gusto that everyone contributed in their individual capacities, whether that means that blood and gore, the overwrought and ham-handed music, the downright garish costume design, hair, makeup, and production design and art direction - and, sure, even the editing, the cinematography, the acting, the direction, and maybe even that CGI. I don't believe all such inclusions, guided to the ends that they were, represented the best choices, but all involved clearly knew what the assignment was and they unreservedly embraced the preposterous tenor. With that said, I do think some aspects are perfectly unnecessary. Chiefly, those cultural tidbits that get parodied serve no purpose whatsoever in the storytelling, least of all the racist ganguro club. They are present with no importance to speak of, and the gratuitous inclusion instead does nothing more than to diminish the potential of whatever it is that this feature could have ideally been.

And, well, as to the rest - the reality of the utmost boorishness, juvenility, kitsch, chutzpah, bombast, and intemperance? The oversexed school nurse and her secret role, the pure bluster of that mad scientist, the buckets of blood and gore that are sometimes plainly senseless even relative to the likes of Peter Jackson's 'Dead-alive,' the very tongue-in-cheek and over the top music, the almost pointless fragments of more distinctly earnest and careful storytelling, and so on? There really are great ideas in these eighty-five minutes. And ultimately, if Nishimura and Tomomatsu had reined in the excess and self-indulgence just a smidgen, and had approached the concept and its realization with more genuine, mindful care, then maybe 'Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl' would have earnestly been better. For all the possibilities of the premise, for all the good cheer of the splatter flick ideations, for as much as all involved were very apparently enjoying themselves, and for what wild, wacky fun the picture does have to offer, there would be more lasting value here if equal skill and intelligence had been applied uniformly throughout the runtime. As it is, the result comes off far too much not as the wholly frivolous but merry B-grade romp that it could and should have been, but as a dodgy, dubious, low-born creation that wasn't shaped with enough of the discerning eye that would have allowed its best imagination, creativity, and hard work to flourish. I actually do like this, but because its profligacy wasn't modulated, my favor is.

For what the title does well, I want to like it more than I do. For what the title declined to have conjured or executed with more thought or judicious consideration, maybe I'm being too generous in my assessment. We get what we came for and 'Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl' never pretends to be anything that it's not. I just also see how it could have been readily improved: probably by more fully leaning into the unmistakable inspiration and predilection for tangible creations that we see from Jackson (in his early years), Brian Yuzna, or especially Stuart Gordon; possibly by giving it treatment not as a "live-action" movie, but instead as a gnarly anime in which anything and everything would have been more feasible; but almost certainly not by mixing the bottom-dollar CGI, green screen artificiality, and production values with the extravagant practical effects and special makeup, and with the unfettered cartoonishness that so much of the endeavor represents. It's okay, when all is said and done, but overbearing, and the problem is that it could have been fantastic. Alas. Don't go out of your way for this, and be well aware of the nature of what you're getting into, but if nothing I've noted has set off your alarm bells, then maybe 'Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl' is just the lark you want for a lazy day.