User reviews

Yoshie (Aya Kiguchi) is the put upon younger sister of geisha Kikue (Hitomi Hasebe) and she accompanies her sibling to a job for rich young industrialist Hikaru (Takumi Saitô), who runs Kageno Steel Manufacturing. The company is a front for his sinister plans to control the world via a bomb he is making and his robot geisha army. The duo is kidnapped and transformed, but Yoshie finds herself thriving in the training and bypassing her sister's shadow. Soon she is the top assassin RoboGeisha, who kills Hikaru's enemies with ease. Of course, she has a change of heart when her latest target - a group of old folks searching for their kidnapped family members - tells her of Hikaru's sinister plans. I think I can only handle one of these deliberately campy, cute girl Japanese action pictures once every 5 years. This plays like a Troma film, but with a no nudity. It is pretty much a non-stop marathon of oddity. Director Noboru Iguchi previously did THE MACHINE GIRL (2008) and this carries on the tradition of showing wild, never-seen-before gags. You get bizarre stuff like breast milk that melts faces, a robot castle, chest guns, knee guns, shoulder guns, and AssSwords (exactly what you think it is). Unfortunately, if you saw the long trailer, it showed you pretty much all of these things.

Shy beauty Yoshie Kasuga (Aya Kiguchi) lives in the shadow of her older sister, renowned Geisha Kikue (Hitomi Hasebe), who undeservedly treats her sibling with disdain. While Kikue is entertaining businessman Hikaru Kageno (Takumi Saitô), a pair of Tengu spirits attack, forcing Yoshie to display her impressive fighting skills. Pleased with the young woman's performance against the Tengu, Hikaru, a megalomaniac intent on ruling the world, abducts Yoshie and forces her become one of his Geisha assassins; he also operates on Kikue, giving her machine-gun tits. On seeing her sister's awesome weaponry, Yoshie opts for an upgrade, getting herself equipped with Wig Napalm and armpit swords, and soon becomes a top assassin.

When Yoshie is sent to kill a group of people who are searching for their missing relatives—the other Geisha assassins in Hikaru's army—her conscience kicks in and she refuses her orders. Displeased, Hikaru has her blown up. Luckily for Yoshie, one of Hikaru's ex-employees is on hand to piece her back together, giving her a few extra modifications in the process, after which she seeks out Hikaru, who promptly transforms his headquarters into a giant castle robot and heads for Mount Fuji where he intends to detonate a massive nuclear bomb.

RoboGeisha is another massive helping of bonkers action from Noboru Iguchi, the director who gave us the amazingly entertaining splatter-fest Machine Girl. But where that movie delivered an excess of impressive practical gore FX along with the insanity, this one opts for much more cartoonish violence, most of which is achieved via rather cheap looking CGI, making it a bit of a disappointment for those expecting more of the same. Poorly rendered digital blood is never an acceptable substitute for genuine splatter.

Thankfully, the film's relentlessly silly plot, OTT visuals, and hot Japanese babes ensure that the film is consistently entertaining, regardless of the gore. With such unique sights as a psycho nurse being sprayed with acidic breast-milk, Yoshie turning into a tank, ass shuriken, a man blinded by shrimp, and office buildings that bleed, boredom is definitely not an option, and there's always a little more fun to be had from trying to guess what Hollywood movie soundtracks are being referenced (I heard music that sounded suspiciously like the themes from RoboCop, James Bond and possibly even Rocky).

"Who am I? Am I a robot? A geisha? Even I don't know the answer...either now or in the past."

This movie is insane. Even compared to similar Japanese movies, it's still in a class by itself. I understand that one wouldn't expect a movie called RoboGeisha to be a thoughtful, artsy mood-piece, but, wow. "Perversely imaginative" is a good descriptive phrase that comes to mind. 

That weirdness doesn't deliver a good flick, though. A lot of those campy, ridiculous Japanese movies are a blast to watch, but Robo-Geisha is basically a constant stream of randomness and gore, with little real entertainment factor. You'll go WTF and chuckle at some of the oddities that are thrown at you (like the giant castle/robot doing "the robot"), but a lot of things that are intended to be awesome or campy, instead come off as just dumb. Beyond the appeal of seeing what absurdity will show up on screen next, there's not a lot to recommend about this one. Watch Machine Girl instead.

The first thing that comes to mind when sitting down and watching "Robo-Geisha" is probably: only in Japan! At least that is what rang true for me. This particular genre of movies is something that usually only rears its head from the bowels of Japan.

And it takes a certain kind of mindset to be able to fully appreciate these particular types of movies. I enjoy them for the campy, cheesy over-the-top entertainment that they are. Don't put too much into them, because they are not really meant to be taken seriously.

The story is about two sisters, one being a Geisha and the other living in the shadow of her Geisha sister. When they are both recruited by the Kageno steel company, a rivalry develops between the sisters in order to prove to be the better Geisha warrior/assassin. The Geisha women are trained to be deadly killers and are enhanced with robotic parts. But there is a sinister secret stirring beneath the surface of the Kageno company.

Yes, it is bizarre and odd, but still fun and entertaining for the campy movie that it is. Sure, this is somewhat of an acquired taste, and as such the movie will not prove appealing to every viewer. Mind you that this is not Shakespearian thespian acting in the least bit. You know what you get here, and "Robo-Geisha" delivers exactly on that account.

The acting in "Robo-Geisha" is as to be expected for a movie such as this. Personally, then I found it to actually be adequate acting for the genre. So that was a good thing.

However, the overall movie experience is a mediocre one. The movie fails to really impress in comparison to many others of this particular odd genre. And as such, then the movie failed to rise above the mediocre waterline. I am rating "Robo-Geisha" a mere five out of ten stars.

There are far better choices to pick from if you enjoy this particular genre of Japanese movies.

Not a good film, i am not going lie, this Movie is just lacking, Special effects is just weak,acting just awful, Worst than Meatball Machine 2005, so give it a 5/10,

Ah, geisha. Beautiful. Alluring. Mysterious. Robotic. Yoshie is the archetypal younger sister, overshadowed in all ways by her elder sibling. Sis is confident. Yoshie is not. Sis is climbing through the ranks of a local geisha house. Yoshie scrubs the walls and performs menial tasks. Sis is in love with the young head of a local steel outfit. Yoshie ... wait a minute ... Yoshie is the one that he actually prefers! This is a recipe for conflict ... The latest effort from the crew behind cult titles Machine Girl, Sukeban Boy, Tokyo Gore Police and Vampire Girl Versus Frankenstein Girl, you pretty much have to know going in exactly what you're going to get with RoboGeisha - a violent, unrepentantly silly b-film loaded with wildly over the top set pieces hatched from the fevered mind of perpetual adolescent Iguchi. A self- professed ass-man Iguchi was asked by producers to tone the violence down a touch for this one and so he did before compensating more than amply for the reduced amount of blood by inserting a wide variety of weapons into his female stars' posteriors. Simultaneously a parody of bad melodrama and an explosion of cult excess, RoboGeisha takes a (very) basic sisters-competing-for-affection storyline and lifts it out of the standard domestic setting and replaces it with extreme body modification and a clan of geisha-assassins. The girls glare and stomp their feet at each other, then they go and replace their breasts with machine guns. Just when you think Iguchi and Nishimura must have run out of bizarre scenarios and weapons after producing so many of these films they come up with something truly bizarre. Bizarre like bleeding buildings, castle robots, throwing stars and katana's bursting from women's asses.

In 2008, Noburu Iguchi delivered one of the greatest gore-flicks of the century....The Machine Girl, when i heard that Noburu Iguchi was involved in the direction of Robo-geisha, i was excited, finally i could see something cool and gory like The Machine Girl....again !

The trailer looked spectacular and weird, there was no doubt: Robo-geisha would be epic like The Machine Girl, unfortunately, the actual movie is a whole different story.

Unfortunately, there is not much gore and most of it is CGI (and in one scene, someone gets shot and the "blood" looks like a bunch of red dots added with a computer), as the story progress, the movie gets boring than ever.

The movie also features the worst use of repeated stock-footage (in the "Geisha-truck" scene), it's even worse than Godzilla Vs Megalon ! The

only thing good about this movie ? Asami (the red-headed chick from The Machine Girl), returns as one of the girls with the Tengu mask (the big nosed mask).

To enjoy this you have to take it for what it is, a movie made for fun with a low budget and no pretensions to be anything other then a campy B movie.

If you enjoyed the 70s-80s Japanese monster and robot movies with the rubber costumes you will enjoy this. I don't think the producers intended this movie to be taken seriously. It had robot geishas with swords from their bums, automatic weapons from their head gears, breast gatling guns and acid squirter's, giant robot castles, gun toting grannies etc.

Story wise its not bad either; mad scientist intending to blow up japan creates killer geishas with the top geishas turn into killer robot geishas. There isn't a lot of gore....unless you count the buildings that gushes blood when the robot smashes them. I think they must have had fun writing this movie.

Good movie. I liked it.

I picked up Robo-Geisha not knowing what it was, I love B movie so i decided to give it a try. I must say, this movie was a thrill to watch!

The plot is simple. It narrated by a Robo-Geisha named Yoshie. Yoshie tells the story on how she became a Robo-Geisha and why she became a robo-geisha / what they were used for. Bam! There you go the plot!

If you enjoy obviously fake special effect, incredible stupid weapons, and all that jazz. You'd enjoy this movie, however, there some negatives. Some of the things they say are stupid and a bit confusing. The ending was OK, i just had a couple question left unanswered. Other then that i liked it.

If you liked it go check out "Machine Girl" it's from the same people who made this movie!

Sigh, another Japanese film about half robot / half human assassins that shoot throwing stars from their various body parts and have sword fights in school uniforms. That must be the third one this week! I'm for any excuse that gets hot young nubile chicks in school uniforms killing people in over the top ridiculous ways; but this all seems so calculated and forced.

Quirky for quirky's sake if you will.

There was a scene in True Lies where Arnold Schwarzenegger's character had to translate the demands of terrorists to Jamie Lee Curtis's character. He started with the 'We'll rain down fire upon a new city each day' and as the soapbox preaching grew a little 'samey' he mumbled 'we're tough, we're badasses, blah, blah, blah, blah, blahhh'.

Robogeisha's speech would go 'We Japanese can be a crazy filmmaking breed, get ready for young chicks doing outlandish stuff with unique and wacky plot developments you'll never see coming! We're quirky, we're zany, blah, blah, blah, blah, blahhh.' What they truly meant would be: 'You know, the usual crackpot Japanese style that was momentarily popular overseas when it was new, but damn are we milking it for all it's worth with increasingly lazy and uninspired look at us techniques'.

Final Rating – 4.5 / 10. If the title is enough reason to watch then by all means check this out. Just know that by me saying this is no 'Big Tits Zombie' isn't necessarily a compliment to BTZ.

The crazyness is a token from this guy, so I can't give my approval just for that. Why the hell he thought that a talkative rendition of a soap-opera The Bold and the Beautiful style was a good idea in this kind of movies, in which the relationships between the characters even when they're well written generally don't involve that kind of crap, I will never understand. I guess the increase of budget from Machine Girl to this had to result in something...bad. I'll happily re-watch the latter and Mutant Girls Squad over this anytime.

The picture quality is amble, it looks very digital. Shot in a reminiscent way to Crank (2006) and this is effective in hiding a smaller budget and creating excitement. The sound design was a little odd but effective and dynamic which pleased me. This is just taking a simple idea to the maximum insanity. Occasionally the pace slowed down and became a little boring but mostly pressed forward with crazy visuals, mad situations and breast-guns. Just my kind of film. Fast pace and lots of insanity. Also blood everywhere. This is a production of the time, where nonsensical over-the-top insanity was popular.

Noboru Iguchi's films have a reputation. You know people are going to die in them, but you are never entirely sure who will be next. Or what the weapon will be. Or from what orifice the weapon protrudes from. Robogeisha carries on this fine tradition, but as a teensy-weensy spoiler, there's more use of CGI blood this time around. I guess it saves on the cleaning bills.

So two sisters, one a geisha, the other the attendant, get invited to perform at a dinner for the big bad guy, and end up being recruited into his army of highly-trained female killers masquerading as more geisha. Oh and there's a few cybernetic upgrades on the way as well.

I can't really say much more to this movie that you can't already tell from the trailer. So I'll just say that I, and practically everyone else in a tiny cinema in the backstreets of Shibuya, was in fits of giggles throughout this movie as we were regularly surprised at what Iguchi's imagination would throw at us. Think of Wacky Racers with cast-iron Shimadas, comedy instead of splatter and only a slight feeling of disappointment when some of the set pieces are cut too short then there's still laughs to be had. Anyone for fried shrimp?

They shoot deadly shuriken stars out of their butts ! What else can one say ? Watch this movie if you think that is as good as it gets. I cannot say much more than that. You get treated to the most excellent movie ever where They shoot deadly shuriken stars out of their butts ! Come on, that is a reason to make a movie. just seeing the deadly stars shooting out of cute Japanese babes cute behinds. Any and ALL movies that feature shooting stars, shooting friggin stars out of their bottoms. man, I'm in love. I am now going to make a hundred movies where beautiful killers all shoot deadly shuriken stars out of their butts ! Did I say that they shoot deadly shuriken stars out of their butts ? How many movies have you seen where they shoot deadly shuriken stars out of their butts ? ..OK enough said.

Yes the movie has other plot points like a story which has the love and struggle between two sisters. the most important thing for me was, well you know.

Let me start I AM FEMALE: usually boys only like this type of flick, but if you're that chick (as I am), HOLY FUN FUN FUN!!!

What I signed up for, and GOT:

Awesome (and incredibly, um, "inventive") fighting, chicks who kick butt, lame Godzilla-type monsters you laugh at (the rubber-suit), good tension between woman relationships, and--I hate this watching some Japanese--no rape scenes. One scene kinda off a bit and hit a nerve, but not as bad as most. Most things a feminist (I am) would scream at are them making fun of their own culture, and a total HOOT!

And pink good pick: US would have done black... LA-aaaME!!!

If you're into this style of flick (it's a flick, not film: get over it), it's everything you want, nothing you don't!!! I sat with jaw dropped clear to ground on edge of seat for most the flick--I couldn't guess what was next, and it kept breaking my expectation for the ABSOLUTE ABSURD...

"I have one too!" Nearly missed this fabulous scene, laughing SO hard!

It's a Japanese future "Dead Alive": a worthy cult classic nomination. Why doesn't the Academy Awards do that category?

I work in progressive politics: the portrayal of the elders who fight for their children couldn't make me laugh harder. It's all teasing fun; it's all too true, thus genuinely FUNNY.

Two points off some scenes could have been better, and the near-rape. I hate that stuff.

Now this is what the Sushi Typhoon company is all about.

Ass swords, robogeisha, chicks with dick masks strapped to their boobs. Tanks, amusing one liners and a giant robot battle.

There's pretty girls scantily clad - kicking ass and taking no names. In this sort of movie, you don't need to worry about things like names.

Does our protagonist wish to join the goblin squad and become a body mod'd assassin? Or will she take a stand against corruption and fight the injustice.

And yes ass-swords the embarrassment required to wield them is all part and parcel of this movie's inherent charm and unsophistication.

Do you go to the movies to be entertained with bizarre feats or special effects and nonsensical plot lines? If so watch this movie.

I genuinely marvel at the unbound creativity of Iguchi's zestfully eccentric, majestically mutable, freakishly fabulous, deliciously demented, skull-splittingly sensational'RoboGeisha'! This gloriously gonzo, gore-giddy chunkblower features some insanely inventive mecha-Geisha perpetrated carnage by VFX genius, Tsuyoshi Kazuno! Some of Kazuno's more outlandishly designed, gloriously gaudy prosthetics are truly wondrous to behold! Bullet-paced,plasma packed, and with nary a static moment, 'RoboGeisha' remains a surrealistic, hyperbolically violent, monstrously fun exercise in unexpurgated, logic-defying escapist lunacy! I've never quite understood why someone would favour a tired old slasher over something infinitely more vivid like, Noboru Iguchi's almost absurdly hyperactive, kaleidoscopically kooky, deliriously dismembering, Cyber-Sexy Sci-fi bloodbath 'RoboGeisha'.