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Yoshihiro Nishimura
A next-generation Screaming Mad George (who was also Japanese), creating a wide variety of madcap special effects for many Japanese movies, covering anything from over-the-top splatter, b-movie grindhouse special effect madness, or just handling the gore effects for more conventional horror movies. A recurring trademark is wild, illogical body modifications and mutations, turning body parts into weapons. Many of these movies are not directed by him, but are here for his unmistakable and distinctive special effects and bizarre gore. See also Yûdai Yamaguchi and Noboru Iguchi. Now this is more like it. This is another insane J-Splatter flick produced under the banner of the Sushi Typhoon label, an offshoot of Nikkatsu. But it thankfully avoids the silly fanboy approach of girls in skimpy outfits fighting monsters computer-game style, and replaces it with insane splatter humor and even touches of satire, which is probably why it got lower ratings. Once again, zombies prove they are a never-ending source of entertaining and satirical horror, no matter how silly it gets. A cannibalistic couple are the cause of this outbreak, after the mother is attacked by a meteor, literally steals her daughter's heart, creates some contagious dust that turns the population into zombies with little antlers that are a source for drugs, and then turns into their queen zombie. No, that sentence did not make much sense. The daughter gets an engine as a heart replacement that runs a really cool katana chainsaw. Are you starting to understand how insane this is? It gets crazier: A zombie with little hands in its face holding a knife and fork, katana limbs, a zombie-baby weapon attached to an umbilical cord, a zombie-car, pickup-truck-karate, a zombie bar that serves nipples, and much more. All this, while the population divides on whether the zombies should be treated humanely or not, while others poach them for drugs. Definitely the best this Japanese trend has to offer so far.
ABCs of Death, The
See Extreme Movies.
ABCs of Death 2, The
See Extreme Movies.
Nishimura's debut is a 1 hour Tetsuo clone with similar cyberpunk hyper-violence, weirdness and gore, except it already features Nishimura's fetish for mutant body part weapons. It takes place in the world of Tokyo Gore Police (albeit without the crazy splatter): a world of overpopulation, a privatized police force, and bizarre, mutating engineers that run around killing random people while the newscasters cheer on. A stressed out man is chased by an engineer and is converted into one, running over pedestrians for points, his arm and face mutating into weapons for a gory showdown with the cops. This early movie served as the basis for Tokyo Gore Police.
Cold Fish
See Sion Sono.
See Yûdai Yamaguchi.
Dead Sushi
See Noboru Iguchi.
Gothic Lolita Battle Bear
See Noboru Iguchi.
Once again, a different Japanese director hops on the campy-splatter-with-kick-ass-chicks bandwagon (AKA 'bubble-gum splatter'), with Nishimura at the special effects helm, making this movie feel just like all the rest. Except this is one of the more entertaining examples I've seen. The plot involving a goth girl avenging the murder of her mother is barebones and nonsense, and is just an excuse to stage outrageous fight scenes. Her main weapon is an umbrella used as a spear or gun, with several surprise uses, most of which result in a splatter fountain. Her enemies include a girl that runs an extreme entertainment club and who likes to decapitate annoying guests, a flying, psychic, perverted and extremely silly school-teacher, a truly annoying but killer teenage girl that also uses her guns as cellphones in the middle of a showdown, a 'kamikaze' gang of acrobatic fighters, and a sadistic psycho. The splatter is relatively restrained for Nishimura, but that's not saying much at all as it is still over-the-top and insane, the fights are nicely choreographed for a change, and there are some supernatural surprises at the climax. Brainless fun, but call me when you mature past the teenage fanboy approach. More like a stylish violent Kitamura action movie, but Nishimura's effects rear their heads with over-the-top splatter madness, especially at the climax. The plot is simple: A girl whose family was brutally burned and killed is out for revenge, sporting some special weapons and talents. Half of this 45 minute movie sets up the scenario as she prepares for her battle, then we get the battle, which includes leg shotguns, blood geysers, some pretty creative fight choreography, lots of over-the-top sword fighting with near-immortal fighters, and an insane, gory surprise. This sequel is more like a real movie with a plot. Milly is now pursued by many people in a world gone nihilistic since the violent gangs took over. She adopts another girl hell-bent on revenge while a vicious gay warrior with secret body-weapons of his own sets out to destroy her. The fight scenes are a combination of cool but over-the-top choreography, and ridiculously implausible moves, with surprise projectile limbs and internal guns that usually raise the question: why didn't they use that before? In other words, better than Nishimura's usual splatter camp, but still only for fans of action comics and computer games. Of course, the kills involve big blood geysers or things like huge bloody holes and a head that explodes and gets decapitated at the same time.
Karate-Robo Zaborgar
See Noboru Iguchi.
Love Exposure
See Sion Sono.
Machine Girl, The
See Noboru Iguchi.
See Yûdai Yamaguchi. Twelve years later, Nishimura himself makes a sequel to the movie that started it all, except this time he directs (among his many other jobs). It re-uses all of the original elements: The great idea of having an inverse Mecha-movie, where alien parasites convert 'meatball' humans into fighting machines, as opposed to humans climbing into robot fighting machines. It has extended fighting scenes with mutating body parts and various found objects attached to the flesh and used as bizarre weapons, as well as touching human drama amidst the complete chaos, with emotions, personalities and memories either enhancing or impeding the fights. There's also a plot device which is a rip-off of Stephen King's Dome. A movie about human flesh and limbs used as bizarre weapons is practically Nishimura's trademark and home, and here he goes all-out into even more insane madness than before, with a seemingly limitless stream of eye-popping, warped and entertainingly demented splatter effects. And that's saying a lot when it comes to Nishimura. Just describing a single scene of mutating limbs and fight-moves would take a page. Amongst other things, there is a human-car-buzz-saw mutant, stripper-breast blood-flood and machine gun, phallic-corpse weapon, tentacle-entrails, a Jackie-Chan look-alike doing a Drunken Master impersonation, sliced half-bodies having sex, and a topless woman riding a mutant using her bra. The fight scenes are so endless they eventually get tiresome, and it's too silly and over-the-top to be anything but popcorn exploitation, but it's definitely entertaining.
Mutant Girls Squad
See Noboru Iguchi.
Nishimura does a cheesy ninja fantasy-action movie by way of madness. He forgoes his usual over-the-top splatter, but keeps his other side: The inventively bonkers fight-scenes that make use of crazy special-effects and guaranteed one-of-a-kind, impossible weapons. A retired master ninja lives in rural peace with his ninja wife and kid, until his cruel ninja ex-mistress kidnaps his boy in order to force him on a difficult mission: To retrieve a secret scroll from a cult run by a bizarre rodent-headgear-wearing guru, her insane henchman, an eyeball-creature, and a quintet of singing lady-heads stuck in tiny containers. Fights include coffin-covers used as surfboards over pavements, twirling joined ninjas, a wall that becomes a pachinko battle arena, deadly thighs, a low-tech ninja version of Iron Man, and more. In between, for no particular reason, a silly Asian 'European' narrator explains to us ninja lore and techniques with the help of shadow puppets. And just for good measure, there's one scene of a decapitation geyser that literally covers the landscape. Japanese supernatural police action movie with brutal and constantly surprising violence, courtesy of Nishimura. There's a killer that crunches live people down until they fit into suitcases, a super-fighting lone-wolf cop that may be corrupt, a gentler younger cop that falls for a young girl involved in a case, and lots and lots of fight scenes with people who may or may not be monsters. There's wire-fu, vicious bone-breaking, decapitation and tongue-slicing often when you least expect it. It's actually pretty cool and fun in a cult-campy kind of way, although nobody is going to call this a classic or give it points for originality.
RoboGeisha
See Noboru Iguchi.
Rubber's Lover
See Shozin Fukui.
This early film by Nishimura is actually, surprisingly, a really weird children's film, if not for the ending episode with a scary sushi chef, his knives and an eyeball sushi. Speakerman is an odd creature with a siren for a head that used to be really useful to the coal-miners and one friend in particular. But now that the miners have gone, he is lonely and looking for something to do. The episodic structure includes an adventure with a tram in space, a battle with a flying volcano that shoots diamonds, an encounter with a drumming girl, his attempt at working as a burglar alarm, and an evil sushi chef.
Strange Circus
See Sion Sono.
Suicide Club
See Sion Sono.
Tag
See Sion Sono.
Nishimura continues down the road of goofy comedy he started in 'Welcome to Japan' on themes of Japanese society and culture revolving around Japanese cuisine, except this time he offers a more complete screenplay and story by way of a silly Yakuza musical comedy. The older, rougher Yakuza generation clashes with the bonkers, insatiable, colorful youth in this one. A Yakuza with an animated supernatural Buddhist tattoo on his back is released from prison into the new world, and decides to turn to a life of... ramen. His soulful food makes many converts, but they have to constantly please difficult and strange young customers, including a sensitive girl and a spiritual islander with a magical crystal ball, who soon break out into song. Rival Yakuza brothers open a competitive store across the street combating soul food with huge portions. This soon attracts a bright pink & orange internet influencer dressed like a Tiktok alien from hell, an insatiable youngster from another planet who can eat unlimited amount of mountains of food. But then comes a strange young man with a third eye on his forehead and a gang of eyeball-mask wearing hoods with ambitions to turn the country into commercial hotels, starting a war with cooking utensils. Will Ramen bridge the gaps between generations and bring happiness to the world? From the special-effects man behind Meatball Machine comes this splatterfest that rivals Braindead in its truckloads of gore. In a world where a gore-happy police-force wearing ancient Japanese warrior armor is going private, and a plague of mutating 'Engineers' are on killing sprees, a tough but suicidal female cop with a murdered-father trauma has to survive. 'Engineers' are Cronenberg-esque humans that are turned into freaks using a piece of flesh in the shape of a key, and whenever they are wounded, their wounds mutate into bizarre weapons. This results in endless insane effects by Nishimura including vagina-crocodile, bazooka-penis, acid-boobs and chainsaw-arm, and any small wound results in ridiculous geysers of blood to the point one freak turns his geyser into a propellant. Add to this random scenes of a maggot-eating punk, a silly dismembered-hands bazooka weapon, a depraved whorehouse featuring mutated women and body parts for sexual services, and several blackly humorous Robocop-style advertisements for hara-kiri, cute wrist-slasher blades for girls, and a remote-control execution by katana joystick. The mostly bland heroine dresses in a mini-skirt and somehow manages to kill engineers better than trained policemen even though she doesn't look physically competent, thus appealing only to fanboys. So, in summary, this is an awkward mix of serious drama, silly exploitation, ridiculously over-the-top splatter, nasty grindhouse horror, black humor, and twisted perversions that often conflict and cause an unsatisfying and confusing watching experience. Almost great, but a bit too schizophrenic, too chaotic, too reliant on repetitive tiresome blood geysers, too nonsensical and the characters are too one-dimensional.
Tomie: Unlimited
See Noboru Iguchi.
Underwater Love
See Extreme Movies.
Utsushimi
See Sion Sono.
Although credited as producer, the wacky make-up effects and gore have Nishimura's fingerprints all over them. This nifty little horror movie is somewhere in between creepy and silly, with a unique monster-creature in the form of evil vampire-possessive clay. Students of a small village art-class find some strange clay, and when they build things with it with an extra drop of accidental blood, it comes alive and starts taking over their bodies in imaginative and scary ways. Flesh turns to clay, limbs and heads mutate and get scraped, squashed and re-molded into new shapes, and there's even some over-the-top splatter as real humans get caught in the unstoppable evil mud. Co-directed with Naoyuki Tomomatsu. This is more of the extremely over-the-top b-movie splatter madness the Japanese have been churning out lately, and I'm already starting to get sick of it. It's so brainless, illogical and silly that there's nothing to get out of this except bottom of the rung b-movie grindhouse entertainment. This particular movie also feels like a splatter movie for 15 year old girls. Where are the balls that this genre used to have? The story involves a vampire girl who fights some aggressive co-students for a boy's affections, while a mad Kabuki scientist experiments with body parts and builds a Frankenstein girl out of the tough limbs of a 'wrist-cutter' girl, a big girl in black makeup who wants to be black, and others. Everyone and their freaky assistants get into creative fights with transforming body parts, massive blood geysers, and various weird mutated weapons and powers. Entertainingly insane stupidity, kinda.
Woman Of The Photographs
See Borderline Extreme.
See Yûdai Yamaguchi. Oh those wacky Japanese. A series of skits, shorts, goofy exploitation scenes, and musical numbers with zombies, some of them involving splatter. There's a pink zombie celebrity, her fans hoping she will bite them. There are a couple of virgin survivors of a zombie apocalypse who get so desperate they are willing to do anything for zombie boobs and butt. There are goofy zombie aerobics, a reality TV following a zombie on a shopping spree, a splattery wrestling match involving zombies, and a very gory how-to for zombies that want to have sex with each other. A scared, sad working girl finds happiness in becoming a half-zombie, there are zombie-makeup modeling photo-shoots, short zombie spoofs of popular movies, and several musical numbers. Entertaining silliness.
All Night Long 6
See Katsuya Matsumura.
Blind Beast vs. Dwarf
See Teruo Ishii.
Colonel Panics
See Extreme Movies.
Live
See Noboru Iguchi.
OK, now this genre of insane Japanese splatter has succeeded in boring me. The manga-like story involves mad scientists converting body parts into warrior mechas, evil insane villains that derive pleasure from artfully slicing up people's body parts with various weapons after allowing their henchmen to rape them, an albino Buddhist female that can put souls into mechas, some law-enforcement people after illegal mechas, and a Samurai Princess mecha out for revenge. This is all obviously just a setup to film one fight scene after another with insane special effects, including a breast grenade, leg-chainsaws, an intestine weapon with maggots, gory brain-probes, big piles, or statues, of bloody body parts, killer electric guitars, and much more. But the silly incoherent campy approach never delivers any wit, and the cutesy style makes me feel this is splatter for teenage girls. Who would have thought that splatter movies could lack balls.
Sukeban Boy
See Noboru Iguchi.
Ten Nights of Dream
See Extreme Movies.
This is just Nishimura goofing off and feels like a few throwaway silly shorts strung together. There's a young female musician who is really into food and who uses her food utensils as killing weapons. She is determined to kill a bunch of random criminals and foreigners, and has a link to a very bizarre "Japan National Isolation Temple" with a cult leader who is a strange giant bobbing woman's head floating on top of a pillar. There are many mildly amusing tidbits of information regarding Japanese culture, as narrated in Engrish by a very naked woman in cling film and bizarre outfits, including Japanese etiquette when eating ramen, many food facts, how smoking is forbidden in the street, adults dating high-school girls, etc. There's a very scarred and rude female 'American' assassin who wields a baseball-bat-cum-chainsaw. There is a music video, lots of appearances of the Japanese flag motif on random places including a woman's face, lots of exploitation of nudity, sloppy amateur fight scenes, and a couple of splatter scenes with eyeballs gushing geysers of blood and heads exploding. Sloppy random silliness that doesn't add up to much. A sequel that seemed to have used Nishimura only for the over-the-top splattery opening scene and then fired him. The first exploitation movie featured a silly girl-gang in lingerie, hunting Yakuzas with any weapon available and CGI blood sprays. This one starts with a chainsaw dismemberment and a nasty crotch chainsaw attack that Nishimura probably does in his sleep by now, and then inexplicably turns into a goreless, dull, cliched, kung-fu-western flick where she makes friends, gets some of them killed, gets trained by her master to fight the super-villain, then goes on a revenge spree. In other words, these two movies are for horny fanboys only.
Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead
See Noboru Iguchi.
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