“RoboGeisha” is a movie about sisters bonding… or about murderous cyborg geishas. If you enjoyed ““Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl””, “RoboGeisha” is for you!
Images courtesy of © 2010 FUNimation Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: RoboGeisha (
FILM RELEASE DATE: 2009
DURATION: 100 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: 16:9, Dolby Digital, Japanese Stereo, English 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound, English Subtitles
COMPANY: T.O Entertainment, Inc./FUNimation Entertainment
RATED: TV MA
RELEASE DATE: November 16, 2010
Written and Directed by Noboru Iguchi
Executive Producers: Satoshi Arashi, Manabu Harada, Takeichi Honda, Hirofumi Ogoshi
Producer: Naobumi Ashi, Akira Fujita, Kazunari Okuma, Yui Shibata
Co-Producer: Masayuki Kaneko, Sen Katayama, Hiroshi Kogure, Akira Yamaguchi
Music by Yasuhiko Fukuda
Director of Photography: Yasutaka Nagano
Production Design by Gen Ito, Aya Suzuki
Special Effects Director: Yoshihiro Nishimura
Visual Effects Director: Tsuyoshi Kazuno
Starring:
Aya Kiguchi as Yoshie Kasuga
Yoshihiro Nishimura as Yakuza Boss
Naoto Takenaka as Kanai
Asami as Onna Tengu 1
Takumi Saito as Hikaru Kageno
Cay Izumi as Onna Tengu 2
Suzuki Matsuo as Tetsuma Gotokuji
Shoko Nakahara as Hideko
Hitomi Hasebe as Kikue Kasuga
Kentaro Shimazu as Kogure
Yuya Ishikawa as Suzuki
Demo Tanaka as Hachiro
Kikuke is a geisha known for her glamour and grace. Yoshie is her abused sister, banished to the shadows. When a mysterious corporation transforms their soft bodies into murderous machines, the rival vixens rush toward an ultra-violent final confrontation.
Yoshie Kasuga (Aya Kiguchi) was always treated terribly by her older sister, the renowned geisha Kikue Kasuga (Hitomi Hasebe). One of Kikue’s clients, Hikaru Kageno (Takumi Saitoh) discovers something about Yoshie that no one had ever noticed before. Soon Yoshie and Kikue are kidnapped by Hikaru’s company, Kageno Steel Manufacturing and they are forced to become a part of a secret plan to create murderous cyborgs.
The tables turn for Yoshie and she finds that she’s quite good at this and soon finds herself in the higher ranks of the secret army. However after being sent on a couple of missions, she starts to wonder if what she’s doing is morally right or not, especially after she is sent on a mission to kill a group of older people who just want their kidnapped family members back from Kageno Steel Manufacturing.
Will Yoshie choose to help Kageno Steel Manufacturing take over Japan or will she help the group of family members get their kidnapped loved ones back?
VIDEO:
“RoboGeisha” is presented in 16:9.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“RoboGeisha” is presented in Dolby Digital. The English dub is presented in 5.1 Dolby Surround while the Japanese track is presented in Japanese stereo.
Subtitles are in English.
The English dubbing decent… they got the popular American anime voice actors to do the dubbing and it sounds okay but the dubbing doesn’t always match the lips moving. But overall, it’s pretty well done. The voices don’t seem out of place and match the characters.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“RoboGeisha” comes with the following special features:
- GeishaCop: Fearsome Geisha Corps – Go To Hell– (16:50) A short film spin-off of RoboGeisha…
- Original Trailer– (2:02) The original trailer for “RoboGeisha”.
- Coming Soon– Trailers of other FUNimation live-action releases.
“RoboGeisha” follows the story of Yoshie Kasuga and her rise from lowly geisha servant to a powerful cyborg assassin geisha. Think that sounds insane? But wait, there’s more! How about an evil organization with castle robots with a plan to kill politicians with cyborg geisha assassins so they can take over Japan? How about booby machine guns and booty swords? Sounds good to you? Then you’ll love this movie.
This movie is totally ridiculous. The best way to describe this movie is that it is a dark comedy B movie. It is not to be taken seriously, at all. I think a good comparison for this film would be all the ridiculous movie spoof movies in the US like “Scary Movie”, “Dance Flick”, etc. However this film doesn’t really spoof a specific movie… But it still has that kind of a feel. Maybe a slight reference to the Super Sentai series with the big castle robot in this movie… Anyways.
One thing that surprised me about this film is that it wasn’t nearly as bloody as I thought it would be (I am totally not complaining) considering this film featured some of the same people involved with “Tokyo Gore Police” and “Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl” (Nishimura had a hand in all three films) which were extremely bloody.
However, the cheesy B movie special effects that give these movie their… Uniqueness was definitely present in “RoboGeisha” as well. There isn’t really any nudity… Just some torsos and well, there are booby machine guns, booty swords, and tengu bras which I’m sure some people would find inappropriate. However, I sadly thought one of the funniest parts of the movie was when there was a duel with the booty swords and all either of the girls could do was face their swords at each other and repeat “…Hazukashii” (I’m embarrassed) over and over.
I don’t mean to say that this movie totally lacks a plot, but it’s very minimal. I guess you can say that deep down this is a movie about the bond between sisters… But that would be under layers upon layers of violence, cheesy effects, and just sheer ridiculousness. I’m also not saying that movies always need a strong plot however if that’s what you look for in a movie, you may want to skip this one. Despite how I actually feel about this movie, I know people will enjoy it. For example, if you enjoyed “Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl”, you’ll probably enjoy this too.
Speaking of “Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl” a familiar face from that movie shows up. Takumi Saitoh plays the villain in this movie, Hikaru Kageno. The acting in the movie itself isn’t too terrible… It just is about as good as you’d expect in a B movie.
However, there are some big names in this movie like Naoto Takenaka (probably most recognized from the original “Shall We Dance” in the US) and Etsuko Ikuta. Some may be surprised that well known actors may appear in a movie like this but Takenaka has made some rather strange movies himself and gas played some very weird roles in the past so I wasn’t very surprised to see him in this movie. Not to mention his role in the movie is absolutely hilarious.
So, if you’re looking for a movie rich in plot, great characters, action.., you won’t really find that in this film. If you like watching B movies or ridiculous and offensive comedies full of WTF moments, you’ll enjoy this movie. If you do like any of the latter, check this movie out.
