Gosurori shokeinin

Her beloved mother murdered by a vicious gang of assassins, young Yuki (2007 Best Buttocks Award-winner Akiyama) transforms herself into a Gothic lolita killing machine, wielding a lethal umbrella that can blast, slice, and chop her enemies into oblivion.

I have no idea what the "Best Buttocks Award" is, but Last Chance Lance of Rue Morgue sums up the film as "the perfect combo of glam and gore that'll please perverts and gorehounds alike." That is pretty close to the truth. Not sure about the "glam" (though the fashions are a nice throwback to the best of the 1990s). The gore is there, and with a weapon that puts the Penguin to shame.

And the filming style. Maybe I just have not seen enough Japanese films, but this felt like all the best parts of "Kill Bill" rolled up into a fun little package.

Sometimes you're in the mood for a high quality film, and sometimes you're in the mood for a genre romp. True, these can be surprisingly good, too, but compelling storytelling and solid film-making run secondary to just having a good time - or more generally, doing whatever you want and just running with it. So the opening scenes gives us a self-proclaimed gambling den where anything goes in terms of recreation and entertainment, from group dancing to murder; hyper-stylized and outrageous set pieces, props, weapons, blood and viscera, cinematography, editing, sound effects, music, writing, direction, and acting; and our first peek at our protagonist, a young woman who dresses like, well, a psycho gothic Lolita and and wields a weaponized umbrella (see also: The Penguin, a mainstay of Batman's rogues gallery). The action sequences are wild, the scene writing is forthright and emphatic, and the dialogue and characters all but cartoonish as writer Kuroki Hisakatsu and director Ohara Go take their cues from the most outlandish, impulsive, self-indulgenet excess of Quentin Tarantino, Zack Snyder, Miike Takashi, Tsukamoto Shinya, live-action manga adaptations, U. S. comic books, exploitation flicks, and sci-fi, action, and/or horror B-movies from the 90s onward. I'm not saying that any of the contributions that comprise the whole that is 'Psycho gothic Lolita' are not well done such as they are; I am saying that this is unyielding extravagant, immoderate bluster, rounded out with no small amount of juvenile puerility, that is an exercise in purely intemperate wish fulfillment, an often fatuous assault on the senses, and a test of our will as viewers.

The cast gleefully overact - star Akiyama Rina least of all, incredibly - but one can't say that they aren't committed to the bit. The practical effects are commonly even more overcooked than the computer-generated imagery, but the stunts, effects, and choreography do indeed look surprisingly good such as they are (including the inevitable geysers of blood). The editing and cinematography are grossly overzealous as they kind of flail about, chop up scenes, and employ raucous energy and rampant flair in place of ideal visualization of Ye Olde Ultraviolence, but this is what Ohara and Ito Nobuhisa intended, and they do it quite capably. The music compares with the melodramatic themes of the average anime and videogame, but it's duly tasteful complement. The sets, costume design, and hair and makeup, like the scene writing and narrative, are inspired by the unfocused, immature imaginations of twelve-year old comic book nerds, but fine work went into the visual elements in and of themselves, and as writer Kuroki and filmmaker Ohara's obvious intent was unabashed giddy schlock, well, these aspects serve their purpose. Same goes for the plot, straightforward and unsophisticated as it may be. Childish, simple-minded intended humor and frivolity fall terribly flat in this blast of action-horror, but they do accentuate the nature of the feature in its fun-loving flippancy And so on, and so on - 'Psycho gothic Lolita' may be overdone, tiresome, and even obnoxious, some creative decisions may be questionable, and it may struggle to provide any but a baseline level of entertainment, but it's not poorly made.

We can make all these judgments within even the opening scene, by the way, and as the minutes tick by, those judgments continue to hold true. Even when a moment is superficially quieter, or seemingly offers a smidgen of respite from the ruckus, there is not actually any sense of dynamics by which the most emotive or meaningful beats, scenes, or instances of acting might flourish. Likewise, the near-constant violence and prioritization of style never have the opportunity to particularly make a mark. It's pretty much go, go, go as soon as this picture begins, and we can either strap ourselves in for the ride, or just decline to get on board in the first place. Now, in fairness, there are some odds and ends that represent a little spark of brilliance beyond the core nonsense that tends to evoke a sadly even-keeled non-reaction. The character of Lady Elle leans even more heavily into the unmitigated bombast, a psychopathic killer written and designed from the ground up to be both endearingly kawaii and altogether absurd, and it's a real credit to Momose Misaki that she so enthusiastically embraces that tenor. In turn, the scenes with Momose and Lady Elle are genuinely funny in some measure, and as far as I'm concerned a definite highlight of these ninety minutes. Filling the lead role of Yuki, Akiyama has some chance to demonstrate earnest acting abilities amidst all the ridiculousness, and I think she does so. (And, okay, likewise for her co-stars, every now and then.) There are some nice little touches here and there, however preposterous, that are satisfying on some visceral level, such as during the showdown between Yuki and her final target. And I can't say I didn't enjoy myself as the runtime flies by: the title knows exactly what it is, to the point that it doesn't especially bother with explanations of this or that, and to some extent one has to admire the gumption that it took to make something so brazenly, flagrantly over the top.

I guess I just wish that the same care had been applied more evenly throughout the length, for I'm fully of the mind that 'Psycho gothic Lolita' is at its best in the latter half - when Lady Elle is introduced, and final villain Masato. I recognize the skill, intelligence, and hard work that went into this, and what it needed above all was for someone to just tell Kuroki and Ohara "no" every once in a while. If the extreme decadence and dizzying exorbitance were reined in just a tad the end result would surely have been stronger, with more lasting value. Case in point, when within about the last ten minutes we do learn more about Yuki, and the individuals she is eliminating, the story is honestly enriched and made more engaging. Would that the accompanying special makeup, costume design, digital wizardry, and otherwise execution of the beat weren't as wholly, inordinately wacky as all else herein, if not even more so. Ultimately I do like this film, and if it's a total lark one wants, that's just what you'll get; it's just that I would like it more had some greater degree of mindful restraint and judicious application been demonstrated in any capacity.

Fun, but not mindblowing. The only really noteworthy villain of all is Elle, very tongue-in-cheek parody of anime girls/J-Pop idol culture which will make you laugh a lot. The ending is interesting too, with an unexpected twist with potentials in regards to its development. Other than that, the gore is very restricted and the fight scenes are at 50% of capacity of what you would expect from the aforementioned directors, especially Iguchi. That said, I don't get those that made connections with Kill Bill in the reviews. Only because of the Eyepatch of Elle? Really? Complete and utter nonsense. This has nothing to do with Kill Bill in the slightest. This is your typical revenge manga/anime thing with the protagonist fighting her way through different bosses, there's not an inch of Kill Bill here. Without mentioning Kill Bill was "inspired" by Japanese revenge flicks in the first place...

Not bad for a low budget movie. The best fight scene is the umbrella machine gun vs the duel-wield schoolgirl.

If you are looking for a film that has a lot of plot development, develops characters really well and has a story that makes you think then please skip this film. It does none of these things, what it does do is move by quickly from one fight to the next with a bit of back story here and there to fill in the blanks a bit. Not entirely as I was still clueless about a couple of things at the end of this one. The story is simple, a girl whose mother was killed by a strange quintet of people clad in black robes is out for revenge against said individuals. The thing that sets her apart from the normal revenge seeking girl is her choice of attire and weapon. She dresses in a Gothic Lolita outfit and uses various parasols as her weaponry. You get to see her do her thing right off the bat as she raids a gambling den and proceeds to really decimate all of those within seeking the strange mistress of the place. I was thinking at this point that we would get this scene then have a whole lot of flashbacks detailing her change to this psycho goth, but we only get a small picture and then she is off to a school to take care of her next target. Good action, I enjoyed the fight scenes better in this one than in other films of this type such as Vampire Girl versus Frankenstein Girl, Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police. The gore is about the same as those films, I still give the edge to this one cause it moved by so quickly was not crammed with a bunch of back story on her transformation and it did not have those strange bits of humor such as wrist cutting. While it does poke fun at things, the odd humor does not get placed front and center. My main complaints is that you really do not get enough of an idea why the girl's mother was killed in the first place. Also, while her outfit was cute I was hoping to see more outfits than just the one. Overall, I found it to be a nice bloody and fast moving revenge action/horror film.