Robo-geisha

Yoshie (Aya Kiguchi) is the put upon younger sister of geisha Kikue (Hitomi Hasebe) and she accompanies her sibling to a job for rich young industrialist Hikaru (Takumi Saitô), who runs Kageno Steel Manufacturing. The company is a front for his sinister plans to control the world via a bomb he is making and his robot geisha army. The duo is kidnapped and transformed, but Yoshie finds herself thriving in the training and bypassing her sister's shadow. Soon she is the top assassin RoboGeisha, who kills Hikaru's enemies with ease. Of course, she has a change of heart when her latest target - a group of old folks searching for their kidnapped family members - tells her of Hikaru's sinister plans. I think I can only handle one of these deliberately campy, cute girl Japanese action pictures once every 5 years. This plays like a Troma film, but with a no nudity. It is pretty much a non-stop marathon of oddity. Director Noboru Iguchi previously did THE MACHINE GIRL (2008) and this carries on the tradition of showing wild, never-seen-before gags. You get bizarre stuff like breast milk that melts faces, a robot castle, chest guns, knee guns, shoulder guns, and AssSwords (exactly what you think it is). Unfortunately, if you saw the long trailer, it showed you pretty much all of these things.

I picked up Robo-Geisha not knowing what it was, I love B movie so i decided to give it a try. I must say, this movie was a thrill to watch!

The plot is simple. It narrated by a Robo-Geisha named Yoshie. Yoshie tells the story on how she became a Robo-Geisha and why she became a robo-geisha / what they were used for. Bam! There you go the plot!

If you enjoy obviously fake special effect, incredible stupid weapons, and all that jazz. You'd enjoy this movie, however, there some negatives. Some of the things they say are stupid and a bit confusing. The ending was OK, i just had a couple question left unanswered. Other then that i liked it.

If you liked it go check out "Machine Girl" it's from the same people who made this movie!

The picture quality is amble, it looks very digital. Shot in a reminiscent way to Crank (2006) and this is effective in hiding a smaller budget and creating excitement. The sound design was a little odd but effective and dynamic which pleased me. This is just taking a simple idea to the maximum insanity. Occasionally the pace slowed down and became a little boring but mostly pressed forward with crazy visuals, mad situations and breast-guns. Just my kind of film. Fast pace and lots of insanity. Also blood everywhere. This is a production of the time, where nonsensical over-the-top insanity was popular.

To enjoy this you have to take it for what it is, a movie made for fun with a low budget and no pretensions to be anything other then a campy B movie.

If you enjoyed the 70s-80s Japanese monster and robot movies with the rubber costumes you will enjoy this. I don't think the producers intended this movie to be taken seriously. It had robot geishas with swords from their bums, automatic weapons from their head gears, breast gatling guns and acid squirter's, giant robot castles, gun toting grannies etc.

Story wise its not bad either; mad scientist intending to blow up japan creates killer geishas with the top geishas turn into killer robot geishas. There isn't a lot of gore....unless you count the buildings that gushes blood when the robot smashes them. I think they must have had fun writing this movie.

Good movie. I liked it.

The first thing that comes to mind when sitting down and watching "Robo-Geisha" is probably: only in Japan! At least that is what rang true for me. This particular genre of movies is something that usually only rears its head from the bowels of Japan.

And it takes a certain kind of mindset to be able to fully appreciate these particular types of movies. I enjoy them for the campy, cheesy over-the-top entertainment that they are. Don't put too much into them, because they are not really meant to be taken seriously.

The story is about two sisters, one being a Geisha and the other living in the shadow of her Geisha sister. When they are both recruited by the Kageno steel company, a rivalry develops between the sisters in order to prove to be the better Geisha warrior/assassin. The Geisha women are trained to be deadly killers and are enhanced with robotic parts. But there is a sinister secret stirring beneath the surface of the Kageno company.

Yes, it is bizarre and odd, but still fun and entertaining for the campy movie that it is. Sure, this is somewhat of an acquired taste, and as such the movie will not prove appealing to every viewer. Mind you that this is not Shakespearian thespian acting in the least bit. You know what you get here, and "Robo-Geisha" delivers exactly on that account.

The acting in "Robo-Geisha" is as to be expected for a movie such as this. Personally, then I found it to actually be adequate acting for the genre. So that was a good thing.

However, the overall movie experience is a mediocre one. The movie fails to really impress in comparison to many others of this particular odd genre. And as such, then the movie failed to rise above the mediocre waterline. I am rating "Robo-Geisha" a mere five out of ten stars.

There are far better choices to pick from if you enjoy this particular genre of Japanese movies.