Tokyo Gore Police
Encyclopedia
is a 2008 Japanese gore film co-written, edited, and directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura
and stars Eihi Shiina
as Ruka, a vengeful police officer.
Tokyo Gore Police was released to several film festivals in North America. It received generally positive reviews, noting that Tokyo Gore Police lives up to the film's title, by being gory, perverse and bizarre.
. A mad scientist
known as "Key Man" has created a virus that mutates humans into monstrous creatures called "Engineers" that sprout bizarre weapons from any injury. The Tokyo Police Force has been privatized to deal with this new threat of engineers, so a special squad of officers called "Engineer Hunters" are created to deal with them. However, unlike the average police force, the Engineer Hunters are a private quasi-military
force that utilize violence, sadism, and streetside executions to maintain law and order.
Helping the police force is Ruka, an anti-social
, self-harming loner
, who is very skilled in dispatching the Engineers. Along with helping the police, she is looking for the killer of her father, an old-fashioned officer who was murdered in broad daylight by a mysterious assassin. Ruka soon receives a new case to hunt down Key Man, but once she encounters him, he infects her by inserting a key-shaped tumor
into her scar-riddled left forearm before disappearing. Meanwhile, after an infected police officer massacres the main precinct, the Tokyo police chief (Yukihide Benny) orders a city-wide crackdown on Engineers - indiscriminately executing anyone suspected of being one.
While continuing her investigation, Ruka visits Key Man's home, where he reveals the truth about their past. His father was a skilled police sniper who resigned after a sniping operation gone wrong. Desperate to keep his family out of poverty, he was paid to assassinate Ruka's father, who was leading a rally against the privatization of the police force. But shortly after gunning down Ruka's father before her eyes, he was murdered by the police chief - the real mastermind of the assassination - in front of Key Man. Swearing to avenge his father's death, he injected himself with the DNA
of several infamous criminals, mutating him into his present form. After realizing that she and Key Man are seeking vengeance on the same man, Ruka slices him in half with her katana
before heading back to the precinct. On her way, she witnesses the brutality of the police force on civilians accused of being Engineers. When her bar owner friend is drawn and quartered
, Ruka's left arm mutates into a grotesque alien-like head with razor-sharp claws before she beheads the officers behind the execution. During her rampage, she is shot in the right eye, but her body quickly replaces it with a cybernetic eye. She confronts the police chief, who admits to her father's assassination, but explains that he raised her to become the perfect Engineer Hunter as atonement. Following a grueling sword fight, Ruka decapitates the police chief - effectively bringing down his reign on the police force.
During the end credits, it is revealed that Key Man is still alive, having mended himself back into one piece with the help of one of his test subjects.
's The Machine Girl
, Yoshihiro Nishimura
was asked by Media Blasters
if he wanted to do another film. Nishimura decided to make Tokyo Gore Police, a remake
of an independent film
that he made many years before called Anatomia Extinction which received the Special Jury Award in the Off Theatre competition at the 1995 Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival
. Shot and completed in just two weeks, Tokyo Gore Police would be Nishumura's first commercial film.
The fight choreographer for the film was Taku Sakaguchi who Nishimura has worked with previously on the film Meatball Machine
. The comical yet satirical television commercial scenes in the film were filmed by Noboru Iguchi
and Yūdai Yamaguchi
. Yamaguchi suggested this to bring a different flavor to the film to balance out the rest of the film's more dark tone.
. The film had its North American
premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival
on June 21, 2008. The film premiered in Canada
at the Fantasia Festival
on July 12, 2008. The film has its Asia
n premiere at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival
in July 2008.
A Region 1 DVD
of the film was released on January 13, 2009. A Region 2 DVD of the film was released on April 13, 2009 by 4Digital Media.
A straight to video
prequel has been announced for release in Japan
.
reported a 100 "Fresh" rating and an average rating of 7.2 out of 10, based upon a sample of nine reviews. Brian Chen reviewed Police with a score of 3.5/5. He comments, "It's not a horrible film; it's not a great film; it's just everything it tries to be – perverse, grotesque, bizarre – and a little more." V.A. Musetto of the New York Post
gave the film three stars out of four calling the film "bloody good". Michael Esposito of the Chicago Tribune
gave the film three stars noting the film as "sick, twisted and gory, but surprisingly funny in an adolescent boy fantasy way – Beavis and Butt-Head
would love it."
Russel Edwards of Variety
claimed, "Like Tokyo Shock's recent "Machine Girl
," for which helmer provided gore effects, [the] pic[ture] will fleetingly exist in midnight sidebars at fests and much longer on fanboy ancillary." Edwards also said that Tokyo Gore Police had "occasionally witty moments, but the relentless catalog of mutilations lacks the emotional power of similar fare in pics by, say, fellow Japanese gorehound Shinya Tsukomoto
[sic] ."
HorrorNews.net acknowledged the film as one of the leading examples of "Asian "Tokyo Gore style"
Yoshihiro Nishimura
is a Japanese film director, special effects and makeup effects artist, and a screenwriter who has worked predominantly in the horror genre. Nishimura has been described as "a legendary director and effects artist" and "the Tom Savini of Japan" with "talent to burn"...
and stars Eihi Shiina
Eihi Shiina
Eihi Shiina is a fashion model and actress from Fukuoka, Japan. She got her first big break in 1995, working for Benetton, after which she represented Japan at the global Elite Model Look '95. More magazine work followed.Shiina made her film debut in 1999 with Dog-Food...
as Ruka, a vengeful police officer.
Tokyo Gore Police was released to several film festivals in North America. It received generally positive reviews, noting that Tokyo Gore Police lives up to the film's title, by being gory, perverse and bizarre.
Plot
The film is set in a near future chaotic JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. A mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
known as "Key Man" has created a virus that mutates humans into monstrous creatures called "Engineers" that sprout bizarre weapons from any injury. The Tokyo Police Force has been privatized to deal with this new threat of engineers, so a special squad of officers called "Engineer Hunters" are created to deal with them. However, unlike the average police force, the Engineer Hunters are a private quasi-military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
force that utilize violence, sadism, and streetside executions to maintain law and order.
Helping the police force is Ruka, an anti-social
Psychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
, self-harming loner
Loner
A loner is a person who avoids or does not actively seek human interaction or prefers to be alone. There are many reasons for solitude, intentional or otherwise, and "loner" implies no specific cause. Intentional reasons include spiritual and religious considerations or personal philosophies...
, who is very skilled in dispatching the Engineers. Along with helping the police, she is looking for the killer of her father, an old-fashioned officer who was murdered in broad daylight by a mysterious assassin. Ruka soon receives a new case to hunt down Key Man, but once she encounters him, he infects her by inserting a key-shaped tumor
Tumor
A tumor or tumour is commonly used as a synonym for a neoplasm that appears enlarged in size. Tumor is not synonymous with cancer...
into her scar-riddled left forearm before disappearing. Meanwhile, after an infected police officer massacres the main precinct, the Tokyo police chief (Yukihide Benny) orders a city-wide crackdown on Engineers - indiscriminately executing anyone suspected of being one.
While continuing her investigation, Ruka visits Key Man's home, where he reveals the truth about their past. His father was a skilled police sniper who resigned after a sniping operation gone wrong. Desperate to keep his family out of poverty, he was paid to assassinate Ruka's father, who was leading a rally against the privatization of the police force. But shortly after gunning down Ruka's father before her eyes, he was murdered by the police chief - the real mastermind of the assassination - in front of Key Man. Swearing to avenge his father's death, he injected himself with the DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
of several infamous criminals, mutating him into his present form. After realizing that she and Key Man are seeking vengeance on the same man, Ruka slices him in half with her katana
Katana
A Japanese sword, or , is one of the traditional bladed weapons of Japan. There are several types of Japanese swords, according to size, field of application and method of manufacture.-Description:...
before heading back to the precinct. On her way, she witnesses the brutality of the police force on civilians accused of being Engineers. When her bar owner friend is drawn and quartered
Hanged, drawn and quartered
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1351 a penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reigns of King Henry III and his successor, Edward I...
, Ruka's left arm mutates into a grotesque alien-like head with razor-sharp claws before she beheads the officers behind the execution. During her rampage, she is shot in the right eye, but her body quickly replaces it with a cybernetic eye. She confronts the police chief, who admits to her father's assassination, but explains that he raised her to become the perfect Engineer Hunter as atonement. Following a grueling sword fight, Ruka decapitates the police chief - effectively bringing down his reign on the police force.
During the end credits, it is revealed that Key Man is still alive, having mended himself back into one piece with the help of one of his test subjects.
Cast
- Eihi ShiinaEihi ShiinaEihi Shiina is a fashion model and actress from Fukuoka, Japan. She got her first big break in 1995, working for Benetton, after which she represented Japan at the global Elite Model Look '95. More magazine work followed.Shiina made her film debut in 1999 with Dog-Food...
as Ruka - Itsuji ItaoItsuji Itaois a Japanese comedian and actor. He is a member of the comedy duo 130R and former cast member of one of Downtown's previous shows. He usually appears in their batsu games.-Movies:*2001 Desert Moon ... Interviewer*2002 The Blessing Bell ... Prisoner...
as Key Man - Yukihide Benny as Tokyo Police Chief
- Ikuko Sawada as Independent Bar Owner
- Jiji Bū as Barabara-Man
- Tak SakaguchiTak Sakaguchiis a Japanese actor, director, fight choreorapher, and stuntman. He is best known for his lead role in Ryuhei Kitamura's cult film, Versus. Sakaguchi is a talented martial artist, and as such, stars in films featuring copious fight scenes and performs all of his own stunts. He is known to be...
- Keisuke Horibe as Ruka's Father
- Shun SugataShun Sugata' is a Japanese character actor from Yamanashi Prefecture. He is most known for portraying villainous characters.-Films:*Abunai Deka *Baka Yaro! 2: Shiawase ni naritai...
as Tokyo Police Commissioner - Cherry Kirishima
- Mame Yamada
- Marry Machida
- Maiko Asano
- Ayano Yamamoto
- Kai Izumi
- Tsugumi Nagasawa
- Moko Kinoshita
- Camille LaBry
- Shōko Nakahara
- Sayako Nakoshi
Production
While working on special effects for Noboru IguchiNoboru Iguchi
is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and actor. He has worked as a director in adult video as well as in the horror and gore genres.-Life and career:Iguchi was born on June 28, 1969...
's The Machine Girl
The Machine Girl
is a 2008 Japanese action shock/gore film written and directed by Noboru Iguchi with special effects by Yoshihiro Nishimura . The film stars Minase Yashiro in the lead role as Ami, Asami in the role of Miki, Kentarō Shimazu as the yakuza leader Ryūgi Kimura and Honoka as his wife, Mrs. Kimura...
, Yoshihiro Nishimura
Yoshihiro Nishimura
is a Japanese film director, special effects and makeup effects artist, and a screenwriter who has worked predominantly in the horror genre. Nishimura has been described as "a legendary director and effects artist" and "the Tom Savini of Japan" with "talent to burn"...
was asked by Media Blasters
Media Blasters
Media Blasters is an entertainment corporation founded by John Sirabella and Sam Liebowitz, based in New York City. They are in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American market manga compilations and anime and live-action movies and television series to home-video...
if he wanted to do another film. Nishimura decided to make Tokyo Gore Police, a remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of an independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
that he made many years before called Anatomia Extinction which received the Special Jury Award in the Off Theatre competition at the 1995 Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival
Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival
The , also sometimes called YIFFF, is held in a resort-like environment in the small town of Yūbari on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaidō. From 1990 to 1999, the festival was known as the Yubari International Fantastic Adventure Film Festival.-History:...
. Shot and completed in just two weeks, Tokyo Gore Police would be Nishumura's first commercial film.
The fight choreographer for the film was Taku Sakaguchi who Nishimura has worked with previously on the film Meatball Machine
Meatball Machine
is a 2005 Japanese science fiction horror and gore film directed by Yūdai Yamaguchi and Jun'ichi Yamamoto based on a film by Yamamoto from 1999. Special effects and makeup effects were by Yoshihiro Nishimura.-Plot:...
. The comical yet satirical television commercial scenes in the film were filmed by Noboru Iguchi
Noboru Iguchi
is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and actor. He has worked as a director in adult video as well as in the horror and gore genres.-Life and career:Iguchi was born on June 28, 1969...
and Yūdai Yamaguchi
Yūdai Yamaguchi
is a Japanese film director who has worked mainly in the comedy and horror genres. He has "made a name for himself by mixing goofy gore with manga-esque escapades and plain utter weirdness".-Life and career:...
. Yamaguchi suggested this to bring a different flavor to the film to balance out the rest of the film's more dark tone.
Release
Tokyo Gore Police premiered in several film festivals before being released in JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The film had its North American
North American
North American generally refers to an entity, people, group, or attribute of North America, especially of the United States and Canada together.-Culture:*North American English, a collective term used to describe American English and Canadian English...
premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival
New York Asian Film Festival
The New York Asian Film Festival was first held in 2002, growing out of the previous year's New York Korean Film Festival...
on June 21, 2008. The film premiered in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
at the Fantasia Festival
Fantasia Festival
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996...
on July 12, 2008. The film has its Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n premiere at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival
Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival
The Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival , or PiFan, is an international film festival held annually in July in Bucheon, South Korea...
in July 2008.
A Region 1 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
of the film was released on January 13, 2009. A Region 2 DVD of the film was released on April 13, 2009 by 4Digital Media.
A straight to video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
prequel has been announced for release in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Critical reception
Tokyo Gore Police was received well by American critics on its original release. The film ranking website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported a 100 "Fresh" rating and an average rating of 7.2 out of 10, based upon a sample of nine reviews. Brian Chen reviewed Police with a score of 3.5/5. He comments, "It's not a horrible film; it's not a great film; it's just everything it tries to be – perverse, grotesque, bizarre – and a little more." V.A. Musetto of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
gave the film three stars out of four calling the film "bloody good". Michael Esposito of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
gave the film three stars noting the film as "sick, twisted and gory, but surprisingly funny in an adolescent boy fantasy way – Beavis and Butt-Head
Beavis and Butt-Head
Beavis and Butt-head is an American animated television series created by Mike Judge. The series originated from Frog Baseball, a 1992 short film by Judge. After seeing the short, MTV signed Judge to develop the concept. Beavis and Butt-head originally aired from March 8, 1993 to November 28, 1997...
would love it."
Russel Edwards of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
claimed, "Like Tokyo Shock's recent "Machine Girl
The Machine Girl
is a 2008 Japanese action shock/gore film written and directed by Noboru Iguchi with special effects by Yoshihiro Nishimura . The film stars Minase Yashiro in the lead role as Ami, Asami in the role of Miki, Kentarō Shimazu as the yakuza leader Ryūgi Kimura and Honoka as his wife, Mrs. Kimura...
," for which helmer provided gore effects, [the] pic[ture] will fleetingly exist in midnight sidebars at fests and much longer on fanboy ancillary." Edwards also said that Tokyo Gore Police had "occasionally witty moments, but the relentless catalog of mutilations lacks the emotional power of similar fare in pics by, say, fellow Japanese gorehound Shinya Tsukomoto
Shinya Tsukamoto
is a Japanese film director and actor with a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad.-Biography:Tsukamoto started making movies at the age of 14, when his father gave him a Super 8 camera. He made a number of films, ranging...
HorrorNews.net acknowledged the film as one of the leading examples of "Asian "Tokyo Gore style"