User reviews

"Meatball Machine"

Have you ever wanted to see a film based solely on the positives you created in your own head? Completely ignoring any cinematic standards or any reviews written on the film? Because, of course, your going to believe what you want to believe anyway. This way of thinking is very true in my case and for my latest film review for the Japanese shock film "Meatball Machine"

'Meatball Machine" is another film among the ranks of the Tokyo Gore- splatter film genres, with a pinch of Sci-Fi. I was curiously drawn to the film solely on genre, but more specifically because Japanese Effects Director Yoshihiro Nishimura helms the ever so, not so easily forgotten style of excessive blood, mutations of grandeur and everything perverse his big brain can throw at you. In this case the film is a complete success for it's costumes and effects. I've come to the realization that the best way to judge Nishimura's FX work is to base it strictly on a physiological basis. If you feel a little queasy or your stomach mildly turns, then the film is usually pretty good. If you experience any worse symptoms then the aforementioned, you better settle in and expect a wild ride.

As for the remainder of the film.... I'll get to that a bit later...after the jump!

"Meatball Machine" pits a young machine worker "Yoji" ( Issei Takahashi) as a lonely member of society. He's not great with the ladies and frequents adult theaters only to receive advancements from a transvestite. When a friend attempts to cheer him up and brings him to a brothel to de-virginize him, he walks out before anything happens.

On a daily basis he longs across a field at the affection of his desire, a young women, a co-worker whom he cannot muster enough courage to share his feelings.

This sub-plot plays second fiddle to the meat of the story that explodingly connects a bit later in the film.

Japan has become infested with parasitic alien creatures that inhabit and take control of human hosts, and when one of the host bodies are met face to face with another, a fight to the death ensues...oh and the winner rips out the alien parasite and eats it upon victory (yeah. not a real family friendly film). One of the more eventful scenes in the film is when a alien is found by "Yoji" outside the porn theatre. He brings it home and puts it in his closet. When he invites his affection home with him, it rears it's ugly head, and horrible scorpion tail, that it inserts inside her vagina, spewing the alien parasite inside her to take control of her. I swear, maybe it was just me, but it looked like she actually took pleasure when that elephants trunk stinger penetrated her Hoo Hoo....eww! This sequence sets off a chain of events that is "Meatball Machine"

Co-Directors Yudai Yamaguchi and Jan'ichi Yamamoto create this concoction based on earlier work written, produced and directed by Yamamoto in 1999. Their science experiment Circa 2005 starts very well- with elements of horrific, excessive gore, violence and welcomed extremism. My first thoughts were " I'm in for gory, gory, goodness".

Like this head split in two!!!!!( Not the best Photo)

Overall the direction was moderately constructed-Costume and Effects were pleasantly expected. The Writing at times, I felt lacked in originality and direction, at times becoming loose, making the pace and energy of the film misplaced. The love story, sub-plot was refreshingly agreeable for sheer ironic purposes. In conclusion the film is a success for any fan of the Japanese bloody madness genre. A little too weird in subject matter for my taste, but it is worth watching....once!

BruceVain

For fans of Troma or the Cyberpunk genre mixed with a little blood shed then this film for you! There is a good amount of blood shed within the confines of this film, also the effects can be impressionable and awesome. The plot is ridiculous and refreshing, not being chained down to what we as audiences are expectant of from films these days.

Also notable are the little aliens, who I found cute. All in all, it's a good film for fans of the genre. Also recommended are films such as Tetsuo:The Iron Man and Versus for that weird Japanese film approach, filled with wonderful obscurity and bloodshed. Of course, seeing this film you should already have knowledge of the two.

Directed by the duo Yudai Yamaguchi (Battlefield Baseball) and Jun'ichi Yamamoto "Meatball Machine" is apparently a remake of Yamamoto's 1999 movie with the same name. I doubt I'll ever get a chance to see the original so I'll just stick commenting on this one. First of what is "Meatball Machine" ? A simple in noway pretentious low budget industrial splatter flick packed with great make up effects and gore. It's not something you'll end up writing books about but it's nevertheless entertaining if you dig this type of cinema.

"Meatball Machine" follows the well known plot. Boy loves girl but is too afraid to ask her on a date. Boy finally meets girl. Girl gets infected by a parasitic alien creature that turns her into a homicidal cyborg. Boy, in turn does also transform into said thing, and goes on a quest to save his love. Will he succeed? Who gives a damn, as long as there is carnage and death I'm satisfied.

The plot is simple, relatively clichéd but it does it's job well enough setting the movie's course straight forward into a bloody confrontation between the two leading characters. There is a subplot focusing on how the parasite that infected the girl came into to their lives. And yes it too luckily shows more violence. I'm happy. Acting is what you would expect from a no budget splatter film. It's not exactly painful for the ears but it's not exactly good either.

The movie's main attraction besides the violence and gore (like I haven't mentioned that enough already) are the cyborg designs. Done by Keita Amemiya who's work in creating outlandish creatures and costumes for both movies and video-games is well known. The necroborgs as they are called in "Meatball Machine" look stunningly detailed. Without the usage of CGI Amemiya's designs are a breathtaking fusion of flesh and metal, painfully awesome in their appearance. Able to transforms various parts of the body into cool weaponry such as saws, rocket launchers, blood-firing shotguns and so on and so on. Though you can easily recognize the cheapness of the film, necroborgs are A-movie class.

"Meatball Machine" is "Tetsuo The Iron Man" mixed up with "Alien" all done in low budget and extra ketchup mode. It's an immensely entertaining film that disregards modern special effects and proves that the splatter genre is still alive and kicking.

Wow baby, this is indeed some fine Asian horror/gore, and a crazy outlandish movie. This is a Japanese splatterfest that reminded me a little of Tetsuo, except in this case with all the blood and guts, there is a bizarre love story. It's hard to imagine how they even dreamed up this visually stunning movie, with some unique alien creatures that infect humans as parasites, turning them into part machine or I guess cyborgs. The only thing wrong with these creatures after they take over a human, is they need to kill each other and eat the other. hmmm, yum yum. This would probably be called industrial splatter or something like that, with a superb soundtrack to add to all the fun. The movie also borrows a little from Carpenter's "The Thing" in creature design and effects. I would put this in the must-have category for gorehounds, as there is non-stop carnage and some very fine gore. And a must-have for stoners, because you don't even need to read the sub-titles, the visual images alone are enough of a mind trip. The design of the little creatures that inhabit the human body like a fetus reminded me a little of Frank Henenlotter's movies, which is another homage to some excellent gore films with a sense of humour. "Meatball Machine" is great fun for gorehounds, there is no doubt about it, and I simply loved it.

Alien parasites infect humans, trigger the growth of massive bio-cyber weapons, and then use the grotesquely mutated hosts in death-matches that cumulate with the victorious host tearing out and devouring the losing parasite. Nothing makes much sense, and the entire premise seems to be an excuse for trippy-drippy special effects, monstrous prosthetics, and preposterous geysers of slime and blood. Unlike the equally nasty 'Tetsuo: The Iron Man' (1989), this is not an artsy experimental film but rather a typical gruesome, exploitive splatter-fest. If that's what spins your propellor, 'Meatball Machine' delivers, if not, you won't last the first couple of minutes. The final scene (and sequel setup) is existentially amusing. Watched on Tubi with English subtitles.

"Meatball Machine" has got to be one of the most complex ridiculous, awful and over-exaggerated sci-fi horror films that I have ever came across. It is about good against evil and a coming-of-age tale, with the aim of to entertain with bloody, sleazy and humorous context. Because of that the violence isn't particularly gruesome and it doesn't make you squirm, but the gratuitous bloodletting and nudity does run freely. The performances by Issei Takahashi and Toru Tezuka is the worst i have seen, if that was not enough it is also directed by an unheard of director called Yudai Yamaguchi. This movie just have it all, it is bad to the bone!, A must see for every b-movie freak!!!... Simply: an enjoying and rare gem.

This film plays like a full-length, color Tetsuo the Iron Man. As with that film, I suspect that viewers who are not Japanese (like me) are missing some important cultural resonance.

What I, the gaijin, saw was a somewhat entertaining gore/splatter film with some uniquely Japanese body horror elements. (Japanese body horror often seems to involve growing massive new parts that may be made of non-organic materials).

I wasn't, like, on the edge of my seat or anything, but the fight scenes are pretty great.

It's free on Amazon right now, which is about what you'd want to pay for it.

I love bad movies and from the title alone I was waiting for a great bad movie but this is just boring pile of trash. Special effects remind me of GWAR's cheap ass movies from 90's but even those are at least somewhat fun.

All the acting is horrible and the creepy romance between two main characters is one of the worst things in this picture.

This movie is like The Amazing Bulk. It's funny for first few minutes but after that you just want it to end, but it just keeps on going.

I would give this movie 1/10 but it gets one point from the child murder scene. Don't watch this movie.

Such a Disappointment, unlike Tokyo Gore Police, Tetsuo The iron man, Machine Girl and Robo Geisha, This is Just a little Dispointing, 5/10.

To be honest,the gore is a More gory, but Story is just meh,

Meatball Machine is an amazing splatter film, it has an original plot with young love, buckets of blood, and weird alien creatures that mutate people into freakish robotic war machines.

Now the film isn't for everyone, people who love splatter films or the movie Tetsuo: the Iron Man will applaud it.

The special effects can be cheesy at some points of the film, but your not exactly suppose to take the film very seriously.

Yet, all in all it's a lot of fun, well if you find budding romantics infested with slimy tumor like gobbles who seek to destroy each other in bloody alien oozing battles.

Unfortunately, the movie was bad, it had extraordinarily bad dialogues and was boring for me, the bloody scenes were not gripping enough and not what I expected, there wasn't enough blood and it wasn't showing in some scenes and it was just full of action, unfortunately, I couldn't like the movie at all, better things could have come out of the Japanese splatter, the plot started from the beginning of the movie. There was a disconnect and they couldn't work it into the script, I think it would have been more consistent if they had included action scenes, and there are Tetsuo influences. Tetsuo had a different surreal atmosphere, I don't know if it would suit splatter movies, I guess I didn't like it that much because it didn't fit, watch it but I don't recommend it.

Some may feel that the rating i have just given is a bit generous, but for what this film is i think the directors have done a good job with that they had available to them, this is also a film a film of an acquired taste!

my immediate thought was the direct connection to the classic cult film 'The Thing' i.e the parasitical aliens from outta space, infesting human host to then reek havoc wherever possible!

You can see how this film pays homage to such a film and others of the horror/gore genre, however cleverly maintains its own originality, well these things fight each other for one and then continue to eat then fallen rival! Only killing and picking a human when it needs a new host! To then pick another fight with another infected host! And this film even throws in a love story but i wont say no more otherwise it gives too much away.

GREAT! But like i said of an acquired taste, so don't be surprised if you don't like the film. It is low budget and yes it is blood thirsty, with the creatures/aliens/things morphing their limbs into crude looking weapons, i.e saws, drills, blades and even the odd gun to all but decimate there opponent. I found myself cringing at what i was being shown but at the same time glued to the screen wondering what was going to happen next!

So if you like gore, you like aliens, you like fighting and even maybe a little bit of love thrown in somewhere, then i must recommend this film as a must see. I just wish i came across this earlier then i did!

Why aren't more films (especially American) more like Meatball Machine?

This is my first official on-line review and I am charged with "electrical ecstasy" after having chosen "Meatball Machine" as my first endeavor. This is a review, so I'll try to stick to mere reflection and gut emotion.

I mean, this is one creative piece of work even though it is clearly inspired by the now classic TETSUO! So what if it's not all original? I own both of these films and though Tetsuo is one strange son of a bitch, Meatball Machine is far superior and can be sat through without the strong desire to indulge in a dose of mind altering drugs to clarify film significance. Meatball Machine is as elaborate in it's story as it is in its high influx of blood and gore. Thank you Jesus for Japanese Cinema!

Simply put, the last time my dreams were overrun by visions of horror happened after watching Nightmare on Elm Street when I was 7 or so. I could picture in my dreams a tongue coming out of a telephone for weeks on end. This time (at 31) my dreams were pleasantly awe inspiring.

In this film human bodies are host to Aliens whose sole purpose is to try and fulfill their never ending quench for human flesh and blood. Humans become flesh eating cyborgs!!! There's more!!! Fight scenes!! Great Music!! Great point-of-view shots! Decent acting by the woman Cyborg (at least better than her male counterpart). The fight seen in the end is worth watching ten or twenty times.

Oh, and did I forget to mention it's a Love story! Wow, I hate love stories but this takes the cake!

I can't wait to have friends over to watch this film once more just to see the reaction on their faces. Sadly, I took time to write this review because I'm afraid most friends and family wont understand Meatball Machine. The truth is America as a whole is not prepared for Meatball Machine.

Lastly, My wife walked in while I was watching the climactic fight scene at the end and she was speechless. Normally she says something like "why are you watching that junk?" This time she had nothing to say. I was glad!

This is not junk. This isn't just SPLATTER (splatter for the sake of splatter is also great). This is Art my friends. Art.

CHACHO

Directors and writers Yudai Yamaguchi who also wrote another classic flick versus 2000 and Jun'ichi Yamamoto have created a gem in Meatball Machine.

Starring Issei Takahashi who was also in other classic flicks, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 2003 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 2004.

Also starring Aoba Kawai.

I enjoyed the special effects.

If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out other classic alien creature flicks, Alien 1979, Aliens 1986, Alien: Resurrection 1997, Peacemaker 1990, Alien Raiders 2008, AVP: Alien vs. Predator 2004, Altered 2006, Avatar 2009, Bad Taste 1987, Battle Los Angeles 2011, The Blob 1988, Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977, Cloverfield 2008, Dark City 1998, The Day of the Triffids 1962, District 9 2009, Doom 2005, The Faculty 1998, Feast 2005, Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds 2008, The Hidden 1987, Dark Angel 1990, Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978, The Mist 2007, Night of the Creeps 1986, Phantoms 1998, Predator 1987, Predator 2 1990, Predators 2010, Progeny 1998, Signs 2002, Skyline 2010, Society 1989, Splinter 2008, The Thing 1982, This Island Earth 1955, Dark Breed 1996, Dark Skies 2013, Honeymoon 2014, The Thing 2011, Super 8 2011, A Quiet Place 2018, Attack the Block 2011, Brightburn 2019, Prey 2022 and War of the Worlds 1953.

Oh, what a world of difference practical effects make compared to rapidly arging digital falsehood. What a difference it makes for a concept, no matter how outrageous or unserious, to be approached with mature and earnest intent rather than juvenile oafishness. My expectations for 'Meatball machine' were mixed after I first found myself watching Yamaguchi Yudai's 'Deadball,' which was marked with the worst of the latter qualities, but the filmmaker, co-director Yamamoto Jun'ichi, and indeed screenwriter Kato Junya put their best feet forward in making this ultra-bloody, ultra-gory, fun-loving, low-grade splatterfest, and it shows. With modern effects maestro Nishimura Yoshihiro managing the lion's share of the gnarly visuals, and further contributions from underappreciated Amemiya Keita ('Mirai ninja' and 'Zeiram' were pure delights), the blend of machine, flesh, and "by the gods, what is that?" is pretty astonishing right from the get-go. Plenty of esteemed U. S. filmmakers and effects artists would be proud of these creature designs, and they should be; from alien somethings to far-flung costume design that draws upon Tsukamoto Shinya, let alone stunts, other effects, and special makeup, the tangible creations in these ninety minutes are a ghastly wonderland, and it's hard not to deeply appreciate the flick in some measure right away.

It's safe to say that the extreme violence and grimly fanciful visions are the core of the feature, and one may be inclined to believe that the rest doesn't matter so much. Thankfully the minds behind this sordid tableau didn't think the same way. It's not that the whole is roundly superb or remarkable, or special, or something that's perfect or which stands out, but there was discernible care put into making these a piece that could to some small degree stand on its own legs beyond the most insidious elements. With that said, the otherwise quality is variable. Strains of puerile boorishness rear their head here, and male entitlement; one unnecessary scene plainly reflects transphobic bigotry. A content warning is necessary for sexual violence that makes similar scenes in other genre fare seem palatable by comparison; when, at around the one-third mark, the picture takes its most grotesque predilections to the next level, the result is genuinely hard to watch, and almost outright nauseating. More generally, not every idea here is fleshed out as equally as some others, and both in writing and execution this is uneven. Still, though criticism and disclaimers are warranted, this only wanted to be a horrid horror romp, and there's not much arguing that it achieves that goal, and with more obvious skill and intelligence than other examples claim.

When you get down to it the story is rather straightforward, but there are terrific notions on hand, and the narrative is interesting and compelling just as it is, with viciously vibrant scene writing every step of the way. Some moments are particularly brilliant, truthfully, in one way or another. The cast give spirited performances that meet the demands of the material, an especial credit to Kawai Aoba and Takahashi Issei, among others. While the joint direction of Yamaguchi and Yamamoto seems to lack confidence and experience, the unrefined capability is there. Meanwhile the music is a bombastic panoply that ably keeps up with the proceedings, and in its own way the editing; cinematographers Kugimiya Shinji and Momose Shuji demonstrate keen eyes to capture every terrible detail, no matter how minute. The production design and art direction are undeniably filled with such detail, illustrating splendid creativity - to say nothing of the endless bounty of excellent, disturbing sights (and sounds) that represent the foremost vitality of this sordid saga. It can't be overstated what incredible work Nishimura, Amemiya, and their collaborators turned in: they let their imaginations run wild, building off of prior influences to bring something new and vexing into the world, and the outcome speaks for itself. And the fact that all these are practical effects, odds and ends that we could touch for ourselves, with only very sparing post-production embellishment, only makes the affair all the richer and more gratifying.

It's dark, an obscene lark of pure entertainment. It's downright gross. It has faults, further including a climax and an ending that are overly long, and strictly speaking the writing is light. But the movie knows exactly what it is, and never pretends to be anything it's not. Most horror films get by just fine without being smart, thought-provoking, deeply impactful, or intensely impactful. So it is here, and that it happens to be much more well made than too many other instances is just a bonus. I see the hard work that all involved poured into 'Meatball machine,' and for as viscerally troubling as it is, I kind of love it. "Recommend" might be too strong a word, for the graphic, explicit, unyielding violence makes this something that will appeal to viewers on a limited case by case basis. Still, if one is receptive to works of this nature, all in all the sum total is quite fantastic. Don't necessarily go out of your way for 'Meatball machine,' but if you do have the chance to watch, steel your nerves and get ready for one of the most sickening extravaganzas you're every likely to see.

This must be the first in my life I've ever seen relatable and fragile characters as the protagonists of this type of movie, usually relegated to kickass one-liners spewing macho men or women a là Doom Guy or Ellen Ripley (funny, considered this movie was clearly influenced by Alien and Invasion of the Body Snatchers). For that alone, this movie gets 1000% my approval. Hollywood and America please take notes...once again.