Psycho Gothic Lolita

If you are looking for a film that has a lot of plot development, develops characters really well and has a story that makes you think then please skip this film. It does none of these things, what it does do is move by quickly from one fight to the next with a bit of back story here and there to fill in the blanks a bit. Not entirely as I was still clueless about a couple of things at the end of this one. The story is simple, a girl whose mother was killed by a strange quintet of people clad in black robes is out for revenge against said individuals. The thing that sets her apart from the normal revenge seeking girl is her choice of attire and weapon. She dresses in a Gothic Lolita outfit and uses various parasols as her weaponry. You get to see her do her thing right off the bat as she raids a gambling den and proceeds to really decimate all of those within seeking the strange mistress of the place. I was thinking at this point that we would get this scene then have a whole lot of flashbacks detailing her change to this psycho goth, but we only get a small picture and then she is off to a school to take care of her next target. Good action, I enjoyed the fight scenes better in this one than in other films of this type such as Vampire Girl versus Frankenstein Girl, Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police. The gore is about the same as those films, I still give the edge to this one cause it moved by so quickly was not crammed with a bunch of back story on her transformation and it did not have those strange bits of humor such as wrist cutting. While it does poke fun at things, the odd humor does not get placed front and center. My main complaints is that you really do not get enough of an idea why the girl's mother was killed in the first place. Also, while her outfit was cute I was hoping to see more outfits than just the one. Overall, I found it to be a nice bloody and fast moving revenge action/horror film.

What can I tell about this flick. It's a typical Japanese flick but in the new way. This one do has a story but there isn't that much going on except a few flash backs and a lot of fighting scenes. The credits on the sleeve did mention the new attraction Asami but she's maybe for 2 minutes in this flick. On the other hand they tease you with Rina Akiyama who has won the Best Buttocks Award 2007. Guess she asks to much to show it.

I found it an average flick with the last fight having something special. Suddenly the flick moves into some kind of possessed flick with devils and monsters. Still, it's full of sputtering wounds, Japanese style. No nudity whatsoever. I have seen so many of those kind of flicks the last months with humour and gore that I can't tell which one was different from the other one. Only for the lovers of the new Japanese horror but for me, old school was much better.

Gore 3/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

This movie is not logical. This movie is not challenging your intellect. This movie does not want you to think too much about it. This movie gives you exactly what the title offers, nothing more.

I think it "borrowed" a lot from Kill Bill, for example certain fighting moves or villain character traits. (Actually, my first thought was Tarantino had seen this movie and decided to make a western, a little more serious version. Then I noticed this was the more recent production.) The story seems a little similar too. I'm not saying that there IS much of a story here. In fact, I expected the story to be nonsense, but not to be that incomplete. Still, it was fun to watch, and had me constantly ask myself whether is was entertaining because it was so creative or just because of its plain stupidity.

It is one of those movies I'm not able to judge by the standards of "good" or "bad". If you like goth style and anime-like over-the-top action sequences, you will be entertained. (I was.) Just don't expect anything else.

Not bad for a low budget movie. The best fight scene is the umbrella machine gun vs the duel-wield schoolgirl.

Slight exaggeration there, but I thoroughly enjoyed Yuki's (Rina Akiyama) fight scenes and crazy gadgets her father builds for her (plus her boots are amazing), all in her hell-bent quest to bring down every person in the gang responsible for killing her mother.

Psycho Gothic Lolita is real light on plot (I've already covered it above, and I don't even think they explain why all these characters wanted her mother dead... though she was some sort of a demon?), but real heavy on style and entertainment value. There was a whole wave of these crazy female-led Japanese gore movies, and while there are certainly better ones out there (Noboru Iguchi is a genius), I would still recommend this one.

Only in Japan. The array of wacky characters, clever action, and oddball turns of events are a few of the things that make these movies great. The array of out-there characters she has to terminate, and the gory fights that ensue make for an entertaining evening. I think my favorite character was the psychic professor, whose sole ability is... to blow up young ladies' skirts. Which he also pulls on Lolita herself. Again, only in Japan! Another showdown is her against this whole bizarre "Kamikaze" gang, who choreograph their name(!), and she rescues this poor hapless beating victim... Only it turns out she chased off the gang to get revenge on that guy.

If your into revenge flicks, with a thoroughly badass female protagonist, and don't mind a complete lack of plot or character development, I would consider this movie a blast.