good back-story, and good acting

A lot of fun.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

I'm unashamedly fond of this genre of over-the-top, ultra-gory, and often hilarious Japanese movies. When done right, they're endlessly entertaining. Samurai Princess is not one of the finer examples that I've seen. The story is a revenge tale about a girl who becomes a Mecha (super-powered humans modified with the body parts and souls of the dead). She's searching for a group of men and two other Mechas who are responsible for the assault and dismemberment of a group of her friends. The plot is not presented in such a straightforward way, though, and there's a revolving door of random characters that pop up spout some back-story, get in a fight or two, and then die or disappear. The action scenes are weak, the attempts at humor come off as just weird, and not much of anything really makes sense. Samurai Princess is definitely a low-budget affair, with most of the money seemingly going renting the various warehouses it was filmed in. The only real entertainment to be found is from wondering what inexplicable thing is going to happen next. Watch if for that, or don't bother with it, at all. 9/10 on the WTF scale, 4/10 as a movie. And please don't ask what the title has to do with the actual movie, because I've yet to figure that out.

First off, if you're looking for a movie with a serious plot avoid this one at all costs.The plot revolves around a young girl who's eleven friends, who just happened to be hanging out in the woods for some reason, are all raped and murdered. So the young girl is turned into some sort of android called a "Mecca", possessed by her friends souls, and now she wants to avenge her friends deaths. This movie was actually pretty fun to watch because it was so bad that it was funny. The English dubbing was terrible, the amount of gore was ridiculous, and it looked like it was filmed on a budget of fifteen dollars. The characters in the movie are pretty funny. So all in all this movie is good for a laugh.

In case you didn't know, Japanese Horror has changed since the earlier parts of the last decade. Sure, there were films like "Ichi The Killer" and the ongoing wave of Japanese Zombie flicks, but in much of the last decade, the country was largely known for it's supernatural creepfests with long haired ghost girls and mounting dread. While that was fun for a while, it eventually went the way of many fads/sub-genres of horror-yesterday's news. You can only see a pale supernatural force so much until you get bored.So what's the new-wave of Japanese Horror at the moment? Splatter Comedy flicks. Movies that owe largely to the likes of old Troma movies, Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers" and the like than they do old Japanese Urban Legends and haunted TV's or whatever. Flicks such as "The Machine Girl", "Tokyo Gore Police" and the upcoming "Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl" have defined this new era, and Kengo Kaji's "Samurai Princess" is one of the latest in this new trend.The plot takes place in an alternate universe Japan, in which a our titular heroine (adult film actress Aino Kishi) was one a normal girl. That is, until a group of rapists had their way with her friends and left her for dead. Oh, and a mad scientist has fused the souls of her dead friends, implanted them into her, and turned her into a vengeful cyborg. Wackiness and arterial spray ensues.From the get go, "Samurai Princess" is utterly bug-f#@k insane. It has chainsaw legs, wacky villainous sidekicks (the mad scientist has a gaggle of fan girl types following him wherever he goes-it's actually a lot funnier than it sounds), evil monsters, a pair of breasts that double as grenades (yes, you read that right), a man wielding a guitar that doubles as a sword and a chainsaw, and so much more. It's also shockingly funny as times, with some amusing gags thrown in, as well as the non-stop insanity making sure that you never grow bored. It also helps that the gore never wears out it's welcome-quite the contrary in fact, as each set piece is bonkers and all around entertaining.Yet, the whole thing ends up feeling kind of like the sum of it's parts. One major flaw is the production values. While I normally don't complain about poor production values in genre fair, the Shot on Video style left me feeling a little let down, as it would have benefited from better editing, camera work and whatnot. Also, the performances are really hit and miss, with Aino Kishi being a bit bland as our heroine (though the fact that she's willing to disrobe doesn't hurt the least). The biggest flaw though, is the poor fight choreography. Films like this need fight scenes that can hold up with the movie, and here they just can't.In the end, it's a flawed movie, but for rainy weekend fair, "Samurai Princess" makes for a fun time. If Troma made a "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" episode, it would probably resemble this.

If you liked Tokyo Gore Police, which was written by Kengo Kaji, the writer and director of this film, then you will probably enjoy this blend of sci-fi and horror.There is more gore in the opening than most movies have in their entirety. It doesn't quit, but keeps getting stronger. Stacks of bloody body parts appear throughout.You just have to give up trying to make sense of this movie, and enjoy the ride. It will amaze you with special effects, weird weapons, and buckets of gore.Don;t know about that ending.