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DVDfever.co.uk – The Machine Girl Blu-ray review Dom Robinson reviews
Showbox Media Group Ltd DVD: 
- Cert:
- Running time: 97 minutes
- Year: 2008
- Released: May 2009
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 23
- Sound: DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: Japanese
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.78:1 (16:9)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: BD25
- Price: £19.99 (Blu-ray); £15.99 (DVD)
- Extras: Behind The Scenes, Trailers, Trailers for additional films
- Vote and comment on this film: View Comments
Director:
- Noboru Iguchi
(Cat-Eyed Boy, The Hajirai Machine Girl, The Machine Girl, Manji, Robo-geisha, Subekan Boy)
Producer:
- Chihiro Kameyama
Screenplay:
- Noboru Iguchi
Music:
- Takashi Nakagawa
Cast :
- Ami Hyuga: Minase Yashiro
Miki: Asami
Ryûji Kimura/Kimura gang boss: Kentarô Shimazu
Violet Kimura: Honoka
Sho Kimura: Nobuhiro Nishihara
Suguru Sugihara: Yûya Ishikawa
Yu Hyuga: Ryôsuke Kawamura
Hot Japanese schoolgirl blows away the baddies by having a machine gun for an arm? That premise works for me!
Thus begins, The Machine Girl which does more for promoting disabled causes than any government campaign, since this girl only has one regular arm, the other for which she attaches her kablammo appendage!
As the film begins we see Ami (Minase Yashiro, right) offing some school bullies early on as they’re tormenting another lad, and also one of them was directly responsible for the death of her brother, Yu, and his friend Takeshi. Then, we go back six months in time and, while there are a few slow bits early on, we get to learn how her brother came to lose his life and the fate of those who pissed Ami off in the process, but from 30 mins in, there’s a great bloody rampage as she exacts revenge on them as well as showing how she lost her arm.
Along the way, Ami befriends Takeshi’s parents, not easy to manage especially after his Mum, Miki (Asami, below-right with Minase Yashiro), hates her for believing the allegation that her parents were murderers. However, in the end it’ll be them against the parents of the little bastards responsible for it all.
The Machine Girl is all a bit too daft and comical for what I was expecting, and the basic story is a bit lame to throughly engage you inbetween violent deaths, but I did enjoy those. It’s also probably one of the grossest films I’ve ever seen, and certainly one of the goriest.
The film is presented in a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen ratio and the picture on this Blu-ray disc is a bit on the grainy side in some scenes and a bit flickery in others, depending on the style of the scene. Either way, it’s certainly not as perfect as it could be. The sound is loud and proud in DTS 5.1 for when the action kicks in, often with, as the title suggests, the machine gun in place of an arm.
The disc is short on extras. Firstly, there’s a Behind the Scenes (10:05) feature which shows our heroine training and being interviewed while on set as she takes to the acting reins for the first time ever, followed by interview snippets with other cast members and a brief look at some of the key implements in the film.
On the plus side, the film is well chaptered with 23 in total and subtitles come in English only. The main menu contains music from the film along with stills from some of the characters.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.