The film is based on the manga series “Chimamire Sukeban Chainsaw.” by Rei Mikamoto and, in general, Yamaguchi manages to retain the preposterous aesthetics of the original medium.
In that fashion, the film does not delay a moment to highlight its bloody, slapstick and fan service nature as Giko Nokomura, the protagonist, immediately gets into a fight with a bunch of ex-classmates, who have been transformed into killer androids by her archrival Nero. Cheerleaders that shoot bullets from their heads and rockets from their bottoms, mechanical mouths, transgender ninjas, a head on metallic spider legs, and Giko herself, who uses a huge chainsaw to rip all of them to pieces comprise a setting that has obviously jumped out of the pages of a manga. Add to that the fact that Giko insists on giving exams in order to pass the class amidst all this chaos, and her quest to find why Nero hates her so much, which is presented through flashbacks, and you have the general setting of the film.
The slapstick humor and the mockery of the school “tribes” (delinquents, nerds, jocks, and teachers) also move in the same direction. A great sample of the film’s humor is presented in a flashback scene, when a teacher asks Giko why she has brought her chainsaw with her again, only to let her pass a while later.
Evidently, Yoko Matsuda and Kazuhide Shimohata in the makeup department, Yuta Okuyama, Soichi Umezawa and Adam Nishida on the special effects, and Mami Ito in the costume department have done wonders into portraying all this bloody preposterousness on screen, and the result is truly impressive. This trait finds its apogee in the ending sequence, where the two rivals fight with their chainsaws, and all the main characters of the film make an appearance.
Since this is a splatter film, violence is everywhere, but the colorful setting and the slapstick humor tone down the grotesqueness (in comparison for example with “MAI CHAN’s Daily life“) and make the movie a bit easier to the eye.
Gorgeous Rio Uchida makes a great Giko, as she roams around in her too-short mini skirt and geta, killing her opponents with her chainsaw, and Mari Yamachi is an impressive sociopathic villain as Nero. For the genre, I would say the acting is on a quite good level.
“Bloody Chainshaw Girl” is an impressive manga-splatter, a film that all fans of the genre will definitely enjoy.
The film will be available from Midori Implus in May.
The Japanese are nothing if not consistent with their obsessions.