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Albert Lanier Inspects TOKYO GORE POLICE And LET THE RIGHT ONE IN!
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WHO ARE YOU GONNA CALL? TOKYO GORE POLICE by Albert Lanier Ruka is a female police officer working in a specialized unit of the Tokyo Police Department. Unlike most Japanese police officers, she wears not a simple blue uniform but a black jacket, black top and shorts. Ruka also carries a Katana or sword with which she dispatches criminals. Ruka's father was a cop. A nice man who was killed in the line of duty. Unfortunately his head was blown off. Literally. I'm not joking -his head was blasted like a bloody balloon or some prematurely hit pinata. Afterward, Ruka was adopted by a cop and became a police officer. She works in a division that deals with human beings who have altered their bodies so they can mutate into some organic/artificial weapon. They are known as "engineers" and Ruka's job is to engineer their demise. That is mostly all you need to know in order to watch the blood and guts fest that is TOKYO GORE POLICE which was screened as a late night entry at this year's Hawaii International Film Festival. I like reviewing films like this. You know why? Because I don't have to research a time period or read about the filmmakers or read the source material it was based on. None of that. I can just sit back and ponder whether it provides gory goodness to its audience, whether the script wasn't entirely written by a retarded person or whether the production values and special effects are a cut above a film school project. First of all, TOKYO GORE POLICE does deliver. You will see Tokyo and you will see gore. For some, that is all they require and I hope when they see this film that they will be happy and satisfied. Secondly, the film holds together dramatically largely due to the performance of Ehi Shiina as Ruka. Fans of perverse Japanese cinema may remember her from the disturbing soon-to-be-classic AUDITION which I had the misfortune to watch late at night at an arthouse theater a few years ago. Shiina's face is a mask of determination as she rigidly carries out her duties as an officer of the law in killing as many of hideous mutant freaks as possible. Third, the freaks and humanoid monsters that abound in this film are certainly worth checking out. The image that has stayed in my mind is of a lovely young lady with stitches covering her nipples and who's bottom part of her body is a vicious monstrous mouth loaded with huge fangs and sharp teeth. TOKYO GORE POLICE is co-written and directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura, a filmmaker who has previously worked in the Japanese film industry doing makeup on films like MEATBALL EXPRESS and doing special effects on films like the brilliant MACHINE GIRL. Nishimura has taken liberally from films such as ROBOCOP and STARSHIP TROOPERS in crafting TOKYO GORE POLICE. Nishimura seems to be looking at law enforcement as essentially fascistic and in league with big business (corporations privatize the Tokyo Police Department here just as they did the Detroit PD in ROBOCOP). Is this a good film? Yes, it is. TOKYO GORE POLICE provides a reliable enough story and plot and the blood and gore to keep one interested. In the end, that is all requires from such a film. For some people, this film will seem like a criminal offense but for others I suspect TOKYO GORE POLICE will be an arresting experience.
CAN I COME IN FOR A QUICK BITE? LET THE RIGHT ONE IN by Albert Lanier We seem to live in child-obsessed age. Products have to be child-proof, medicines and pill bottles have to have child caps, television shows and video games have to carry ratings in case kids watch them and even jungle gyms and playground equipment have soft surfaces beneath just in case some falls down and hurts himself. It's a new world for me. When I was kid growing up in the 1970s and fell from the top of a jungle gym once during recess, I merely let my teacher know, brushed it off and went back to adding up how many hostages Jimmy Carter couldn't get released. I don't recall seeing any rating boxes when I watched THREE'S COMPANY and ALL IN THE FAMILY on tv as a young boy and the only way a product was child-proof was if I couldn't pry it open with a butter knife. Another thing I find amusing is the belief amongst a number of adults in the wider world that many kids are innocent. Even with all the post-modern influences of the internet, video game playstations and cable tv, children are still seen as vessels of purity that can be corrupted by such pernicious influences. Some filmmakers know otherwise. That's why you have had films like THE BAD SEED and THE OMEN released over the years. Mere entertainment? Bullshit. These films understand children are not pure, not innocent, not noble of spirit. Children experience the world and make up their own minds and conclusions. I don't care who their parents are, kids will do what they are moved to do and what they feel like doing. The Swedish film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN understands this as well for it is a film about children but grounds its characters not in some sunny suburb where soda, candy and X-boxes are plentiful but in a bleak apartment complex where the only plentiful thing is snow. The film major protagonist is Oskar, a blonde-haired 12 year old boy who is persistently picked on by a handful of boys so much that it soon becomes sort of a rote, structured occurance. One night, Oskar meets Eli, a dark haired young girl. She is standing on a jungle gym hovering over Oskar when they first interact and it is clear from Eli's body language and her stance that there is something disturbingly different about her. Eli's eyes give the indication of having seen more than she will ever speak about and the way she talks implies she knows more about you than you would like anyone else to know. Eli is a vampire. She essentially admits to this in a round about way when she tells Oskar that "I am not a girl." Yet, what is partly so moving about LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is how Eli insists that she has no choice but to sever arteries with her teeth and drink in the life sustaining liquid, the crimson cocktail that is blood. In fact, Eli seems to act more like a drug addict than a vampire. With her vacant eyes, unappealing wardrobe and generally passive personality, Eli looks like she should be in rehab (but of course, who would force to turn herself in?). Oskar is also not quite normal. He has an obsession with violence that goes beyond merely getting even with childhood thugs. In one scene, Oskar is being whacked in the legs with a riding crop by his tormentors and when the crop suddenly hits his face and causes a cut, Oskar's eyes are closed as if he is in some orgiastic reverie, his facial expression indicating he is in an almost sexual state of rapture and in communion with the violence perpetrated against him. There are so many scenes I could go into detail about-how the victim of a Eli's bite combusts in a powerful ball of fire that rises like a phoenix of flames to the top of her hospital room, how Elia and Oskar lie together as if their growing attraction is more important than the outside world and how Eli deals with Oskar's bullies in what has to be the film's most brutal scene-but filmgoers should experience this film for themselves. Experience-that's an important word to note because LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is an experience I will not soon forget. Directed by Tomas Alfredson and written by John Ajvide Lindquist, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is a film that has been pegged as a horror film but in reality is a coming-of-age picture, a powerful childhood drama and a unforgettable romance all rolled into one. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is not really a horror film. Although some may argue that all films are manipulative, Horror movies are structured to draw fear from an audience like a hyperdermic needle taking blood from a patient's arm. Such films are the quintessence of manipulation, crude variations on the perennial themes of madness, misery and mayhem doused with buckets of blood. Alfredson-who comes largely from a television background-directs this story with great restraint, timing his excursions into blood letting so that they will rightly stun an audience. He realizes implicitly that- unlike horror films- LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is about the souls of its characters not the progression of plot points paying off in gory spectacle. He gleans fine performances from his leads Kare Hedebrandt as Oskar and Lina Leandersson as Eli. Hedebrandt is especially good as Oskar in a role that requires him to walk the narrow between engendering sympathy and stirring up contempt. Leandersson provides the needed mystery and subtle energy to power this part and keep an audience intrigued. Lindquist's script grounds the story in a rather unappealing reality that forces an audience to pay attention to the main characters and their lives instead of porviding the usual sexed-up settings and character archetypes that normally appear in vampire films. Lindquist treats his characters as if they are people not go pebbles moved around on a board as part of an overall cinematic pattern of bloody encounters and incidents. The result is a powerful film that transcends the label of vampire film to become a nuanced, thoughtful and touching drama. I could tell this film was really something when the audience I recently saw the film with at the Hawaii International Film Festival burst into applause as the credits started rolling. Hawaii audiences are not known for enjoying well-written, literate, intelligent, sophisticated films but this was an exception. Without a doubt, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is a masterpiece. For this is a film in which there is no sugar, no spice or anything nice.
