The Machine Girl

As I walked the aisles of Wal-Mart's electronics section I stumbled across this film "The Machine Girl". What a diamond in the rough this is. Though it is an Asian film, it was made specially for the American audiences, never aired in Japan.

The story has a very common theme in Asian cinema...revenge. Ami is a normal school girl who has been taking care of her younger brother since her parent's committed suicide. Things seem to be going well in their lives until her brother, Yu, gets caught up with the Yakuza and gets himself killed.

Distraught, Ami decides to take vengeance upon the Yakuza family that killed her brother, the Hanzo family. Yes, that's right, Hitori Hanzo. Ami storms the families house and fights several henchmen before she is caught and tortured. The loss of her arm leaves her in pain and on the brink of death. Luckily she manages to stumble upon the doorstep of Yu's friend, who also died by the hands of the Hanzo.

After a little home suturing and some mechanical know-how, shes back to fighting, and now with a machine gun arm. She teams up with a mother of Yu's friend who was also killed by the Hanzo clan. After several ridiculous battles involving ninjas, and also an angry group of mourning parents, Ami and her partner descend on the Hanzo family temple with all the power that they have.

This film is riddled with excellent visuals, and very inventive weapons i.e. the drill bra, the flying guillotine, a suiroken sword, and also an arm that has been fried like tempura. It also is an homage to, I'm sure, some of the writer/director's favorite movies. Kill Bill, Army of Darkness, and Planet Terror to name a few.

I highly recommend this film to all.