Review for Tokyo Gore Police

Director: Yoshihiro Nishimura

Released: 2008
Genre: Tokyo Shock

Director Martin Scorsese was once asked why he shot the notoriously violent work Raging Bull in black and white. His reason for doing so was this: he did not want to show so much blood in a color picture. This response came from the man who directed films such as Taxi Driver and Mean Streets, which are two extremely violent features set in the gritty underbelly of pre-Guilani New York City. So, even if you have not seen Raging Bull (which I highly recommend you do at some point in your life), I am sure you can understand how incredibly graphic it is, based on such a reactionary decision from Scorsese himself- after all, it is about boxing and stars Robert De Niro, how can it not be violent?

I mention this because I wonder what Scorsese would think of Tokyo Gore Police. Probably nothing positive. Why? Because this movie easily shows ten times the blood featured in Raging Bull (or, for that instance, even Sweeney Todd), and for no reason but to shock. Tokyo Gore Police is far and away the most detestably gory, over the top movie I have ever seen. In dozens of scenes, gallons of blood are sprayed from from the appendages of average people, police officers, and their genetically mutated assailants. And when I say appendages, I mean all five appendages. I am pretty sure the body parts of those killed in the film could form a pile that dwarves Mount Fuji.

Tokyo Gore Police takes place in the near future, in a city that has privatized its entire police force. Depicted is a war occurring between law enforcement and modified criminals known as "engineers." Engineers can only be killed by destroying a small, key shaped tumor situated deep within their body. All other injuries they sustain will only enhance their combative capabilities. Obviously, this premise automatically negates the possibility of creating a family film, but even I was put off by the absurd level of distinctly Japanese violence and perversion- and I enjoyed Tetsuo: The Iron Man. (I will review that latter movie some time in the coming months.)

I understand that Tokyo Gore Police intends to satirize the current political and social situation in Japan (read: less than optimal). For instance, the entirety of Tokyo's police force eventually declares war on all engineers, vowing to slay anyone who looks the slightest bit suspicious to them- an obvious attack on the repressive homogeneity of Japanese society. The baseless assault on Chinese immigrants, however, does nothing but reinforce the nation's suppressed element of racism- I say this because the film's protagonist mercilessly kills a pair of caricatured Chinese criminals, something I see not as biting satire but genuine animosity.

Tokyo Gore Police could have been a derivative but clever horror movie, were it not for the gross stylistic excesses. It basically plays like a two hour episode of Power Rangers, if said episode was directed by Quentin Tarantino during a week long bender. Literally, there is so much blood, I would not be surprised to learn that fire hoses were used on set. I love movies that are too outrageous to be taken seriously, but Tokyo Gore Police goes too far; it is too repulsive to be enjoyed.

1.00/4.00