Sure, I was excited about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  I was looking forward to Darren Aronofsky's newest heartfelt film The Wrestler.  Iron Man and The Dark Knight had me tingling.  However, if I was being honest - really, really honest - Tokyo Gore Police was my most anticipated film of 2008.  The 5 minute trailer hit the net sometime last summer and I could barely believe some of the things I was seeing.  As a fan of Japanese extreme cinema Tokyo Gore Police is an absolute bloody wet dream.  (Gross, I know.  Sorry.)

Tokyo Gore Police is set in a futuristic dystopian Tokyo, where the entire police for has been privatized, and turned into a militaristic brand of super cops.  The biggest source of crime in future Tokyo is a subculture of angry mutants called "engineers."  Anytime one of these mutants loses a leg, arm, or eyeball a lethal weapon instantly grows where the body part once was.  Arms turn into chainsaws.  Eye sockets turn into gun barrels.  Still with me?  The story focuses on Ruka, the baddest ass on the entire police force who enforces her brand of justice with a katana while wearing knee high boots.  Plot, schmot.  Tokyo Gore Police is all about the spectacle of blood fountains and mountains upon mountains of gore.

As an Asian horror nerd, this movie has more cult legends involved than just about any film I've seen, which had me waiting with bated breath.  Director and creature effects creator, Yoshihiro Nishimura, did the special effects for such cult films including Suicide Club and The Machine Girl.  Screenwriter, Kengo Kaji, helped pen the surreal horror film Uzamaki.  The movie's star Eihi Shiina, is most well known for her stomach churning and deliciously evil performance in Audition as the razor-wire-loving psychopath.  The talent involved is what made me excited more than anything and every single one of them delivers the best work possible.

The film has a great dark sense of humor that often helps you swallow some of the truly disturbing and disgusting things you'll witness while watching Tokyo Gore Police.  A number of fake commercials play throughout the film that include a police recruiting ad in which someone's head is used as a soccer ball.  My favorite commercial had to be one for a brand of cutesy pink razor blades marketed at tweens who cut themselves for emotional release.  This movie is a seriously fucked up satire, but if you don't take it seriously (I'm not sure how you could) you'll find yourself being swept up in a tidal wave of blood and brain matter that will have you covering your eyes and loving every second.

I should also mention that some of the creatures created for this film are pretty fantastic.  It is such a treat to see someone like Nishimura at work creating some bizarre and disturbing mutants.  There's a human chair, a snail woman and things I wouldn't dare spoil for you.  The engineer sex club was on par with the Monster marketplace in Hellboy 2, only much darker and nastier.  A lot of people will be turned off by the shit you'll see in this film, but I doubt even the most offended person will tell you this isn't an original and awe inspiring film.

I could sit here and tell you about some of the deeper messages that Tokyo Gore Police tries to comment on such as big brother, the privatization of the government, the desensitization of our youth, but that's not the reason you'll come back to this film over and over.  It's brutally inspired and I like to think if Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro) were to make a live action horror film, this would be it.  Tokyo Gore Police may not be for everyone, but it's definitely for me.

4/5

So say we all.