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Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: January 26, 2010.
Director: Takanori Tsujimoto
Cast: Miki Mizuno, Hiroshi Oguchi, Tetsuya Nakamura, Saaya Hirotsugu
Year: 2008/2009
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The Movie:
Miki Mizuno ought to look familiar to fans of Japanese cinema. She's popped up in low budget horror films like Slit Mouthed Woman but also shared the screen with Gamera and appeared in Takashi Miike's live action adaptation Salaryman Kintaro. Writer/director Takanori Tsujimoto apparently sees her as some sort of muse, however, casting her as the titular lead in his two (so far) Hard Revenge Milly v-cinema efforts.
The first film introduces us to the character of Milly. Set in a post apocalyptic Japan, we meet her as she's trying to get her blades sharpened. We learn that her family was murdered by 'The Jack Brothers' and that she now roams what's left of the country in search of revenge. Hard revenge. That's why she's called Hard Revenge Milly, get it? At any rate, a kindly old retired weapons expert decides to help her out. He sharpens up her blades and gives her a few shotgun shells and sends her on her merry way.
Of course, this wouldn't be much of a revenge movie, let alone a hard revenge movie, if our heroine didn't catch up with the bad guys, right? That's just what she does, and once they realize what she's after, all the gloves are off. Heads are sliced up, arterial spray douses the camera, and Milly's surprise boobie claw weapons are put to good use as she attempts to quench her thirst for vengeance.
Evidently Hard Revenge Milly did well enough in Japan to spawn a sequel made a year later in 2009 with pretty little Miki Mizuno resuming the lead role and this time expanding the first film's forty-five minute running time to a feature length hour and a half. When the sequel begins, Milly is trying to settle down and enjoy some semblance of a normal life but this all changes when she's approached by a young woman named Haru (Nao Nagsawa) who wants to hire Milly to avenge the death of her boyfriend. Milly initially walks away, uninterested in the money and wanting her peace and quiet, but soon has her mind changed after this new girl proves herself in a surprise attack.
It seems that a gay mob boss, Ikki (Kazuki Tsujimoto), and his brother, Hyuma (Rei Fujita) are out to get Milly back for what she did to the Jack Brothers in the first film, which means that if she wants any hope of ever living a normal life, she'll have to bring her surprise boobie claw weapons out of retirement once more. Lots of people get cut up, there's more arterial spray, and the gay mob boss rapes a dude up the ass before it's all over and done with.
Both films are played for laughs at times, with most of the characters grossly exaggerated to the point of parody. The pictures move at a good pace though and feature some genuinely impressive fight choreography, particularly in the hand to hand combat scenes in which dainty little Miki Mizuno really holds her own. The effects in the film are handled by Yoshihiro Nishimura, the man behind Tokyo Gore Police and Machine Girl, and they have the same strange mix of CGI and old school rubber work that have made his other films as interesting as they are. While both pictures were obviously made on lower budgets, Takanori Tsujimoto frames his films well and while it's obvious that most of the action has been staged indoors to keep from having to use (presumably expensive) effects work to relay the whole 'post apocalyptic' vibe, on a visual level the movies look pretty good. The trailer for the first film touts that it has the 'best ever soundtrack' for a Japanese film but strangely enough the background music that all of the chaos and carnage swings to is actually a weaker link, but regardless, as far as goofy low budget Japanese gore/action pictures go, these two efforts are pretty amusing.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, interlaced, is a bit of a mixed bag. A lot of the movie, which was shot on video, has had the contrast and brightness boosted (you'll really notice this in the scenes that take place outdoors, this is probably to give it a 'post apocalyptic' look) and when these scenes are on screen a lot of the detail is sucked out of the picture. This was almost assuredly done on purpose to give the film a certain look so you can't really fault the transfer, rather it's an issue with the source. When the image isn't in uber-bright mode, the colors look good, the reds in particular and there aren't any edge enhancement issues to note but the image looks a bit (intentionally) quirky to say the least. Some mild compression artifacts are there if you want to look for them but they're not really overbearing.
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound tracks are offered in the film's original Japanese language or in a dubbed English option, with subtitles available in English only. The Japanese track is definitely preferable as some of the dubbing feels out of place but it's there for those who prefer it. There's some good surround activity here during some of the fight scenes with some well placed effects helping out here and there. Dialogue is always pretty easy to follow and the levels are well balanced. The white subtitles are easy to read and free of any obvious typos.
There are two making of featurettes included on the disc, the first one (which covers the first movie) is about forty-five minutes long and it features a load of behind the scenes footage as well as some interviews with the cast and crewmembers spliced in to give it all some context. It's actually a fairly interesting piece as it covers the origins of the series, the effects work, casting the film and more. The second featurette covers the making of the second movie and it's approximately fifteen minutes long (odd considering that the second film is so much longer than the first one) and while it's not quite as in-depth, it offers more of the same. Trailers for both features are included on the DVD, as are some spiffy menus, and a chapter selection option.
The Final Word:
Goofy, gory and done on the fast and cheap, the Hard Revenge Milly films might not be deep, but they're pretty entertaining and certainly not lacking in action or carnage. Well Go's DVD looks and sounds alright and contains a couple of decent extras on top of that.