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Meatball Machine (2005)

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> Japanese Weirdness
Overall Rating 56%
Overall Rating
Ranked #7,120
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Connections: Meatball Machine

Capable of making bio-mechanical weapons out of human flesh, alien parasites grotesquely invade the Earth, turning their hosts into maniacal killers who seek and destroy each other to the bloody death! And yes, it s also a human love story, even though the budding romantics are infested with slimy, tumor-like globules. --TMDb
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Review by Tristan
Added: June 3, 2008
Meatball Machine. The name alone is quite intriguing. After watching The Machine Girl I was really in the mood for another Japanese splatterfest, and this one has been floating around my "to-do" pile for quite some time now. Newcomer Jun'ichi Yamamoto is back to co-direct a remake of his 1999 short film of the same name, this time with director Yûdai Yamaguchim, of Battlefield Baseball fame. It's a great Japanese cyberpunk film that relies heavily on body disfigurement and a bizarre storyline, as well as elements of horror and post-apocalypticism. Then of course you've got your blood and gore by the bucketload. All of these things combined are the perfect combination for an excellent movie.

Our film today is really comprised of two storylines that eventually mingle together to become the movie. The first story revolves around Yoji (Issei Takahashi), a loner who works in some industrial warehouse. He is harboring a secret attraction for Sachiko (Aoba Kawai) another lonely girl who lives near his place of employment. After being beaten up by a transvestite whose advances he turned down in a porn theatre, Yoji finds what can only be described as a golden turtle shell, that secretes what can only be described as golden turtle shell semen. Curious boy that he is, he takes it home and puts it in his closet. Shortly afterwards he stumbles across a co-worker attempting to rape Sachiko. After being beaten by a man in drag, I don't know if I'd be trying to take on a full grown man, even if he was by himself. Failing miserably but still causing the man to leave, Yoji is taken to his home by Sachiko, who tends to his wounds. To his horror, the semen secreting golden turtle shell attacks Sachiko and turns her into a kind of cyborg battle machine. The other storyline involves these parasitic creatures. There appears to be two separate groups, each side taking a number of hosts who are then forced to battle each other to the death. Not the most original idea, but when combined with the first story, it gives the film a bit of heart, and you find yourself torn between wanting more action and more gore, and also rooting for Yoji to save the woman he loves.

I think it's safe to say that this is one of the best cyberpunk movies I've seen. I've probably only watched 15 or so, but this was the most fun of the bunch. Even though Issei Takahashi and Aoba Kawai were the two "leads" in this film, they really didn't play as big a part as you'd think. They did an incredible job at portraying the pain, sadness and despair you would feel in a situation like this, but their roles were considerably smaller than a typical film. Part of this is because of the time spent as the creatures. The suits they had to wear were massive, and didn't allow for much acting to take place. It must have been pretty physically demanding mind you, especially during the fight scenes. The majority of the gore was in said fight scenes, and to my delight there was almost no CGI used whatsoever. I can't tell you how much this pleases me, to see filmmakers actually creating movie magic, rather than let some geek in a chair take care of it. I've seen some gory movies in my day, but this ranks up there as one of the better ones. There's just something about it that makes it graceful; almost playful. That sounds strange for a movie with head splitting, dismemberment, and an eyeball gouging scene that is almost on par with Fulci's Zombi 2. There is enough of the red stuff in here to satisfy the cravings of even the most fiendish gorehound, myself included.

If I were to look for flaws in this one, I'd only come up with one - the bizarre way in which the fight scenes were cut into the beginning of the movie. It was interesting to see the battles mixed in with the crowded and bustling city, but I think it could have been better if they saved them for later in the picture. I think they tipped their hand a little early, and didn't focus as much on the story as they did on the extreme gore and special effects. Don't get me wrong, I loved that part of it to no end, but I also love a good story and some character development. While a bit lacking in this department, it was still a fantastic movie. In case you haven't figured it out, I loved it to bits and would recommend it to fans of splatter films, Japanese cinema, cyberpunk, or just movie lovers in general. If this had been released this year, it would have made my top 10 list for sure.

9/10.
grain of sand #1: grain of sand - added June 3, 2008 at 2:51am
Eh, I really didn't enjoy this, for some reason I rented this among a bunch of drama movies and just picked this apart.. This really reminded me of an anime cartoon and really dislike anime.
Really enjoyed BB, dislikeds this, loved Machine Girl.
7/10
Cryptorchild #2: Cryptorchild - added June 3, 2008 at 8:50am
I had really high hopes for this film when I first heard about this film quite awhile back. I bought it the day it came out and watched it a little later. It just didn't live up to my expectations. And by no means is this a bad movie, no, not at all. It is a very strange movie and it is interesting to say the least. I was just expecting somethign a bit different. And I'll go with Grain of Sand's rating: 7/10.
Chad #3: Chad - added April 3, 2010 at 6:27am
"Meh" is about the best that I can come up with for this film. It had an interesting idea, it had some decent scenes, and it had a handful of memorable moments, but the entire affair seemed more like a GWAR concert (with the production values and the effects, minus the humor and the music) than an actual movie. Now, I love me some GWAR and I also love Japanese splatterfests, but the combination just didn't go together very well. 5/10 at the absolute most.
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