I am a fan of all flavors of horror films, from the gory genius of the Saw films to the campy classics like the Evil Dead films to the nostalgia of the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Now I can add the wonderful weirdness that I found in the live-action Japanese film Meatball Machine: Kodoku to the list of flavors that I like.
Meatball Machine: Kodoku is labeled as an action, comedy, horror film and it delivers all of those. The movie opens with our soon-to-be-hero Yuji Tanaka, a debt collector who is not very good at collecting and who has a crush on bookstore clerk Kaoru. Before the title card even shows itself, we see Yuji failing at his job, being taken advantage of, and diagnosed with cancer. What would you do if you found out you had only weeks to live? Yuji tries to start living under the cancerous cloud of impending doom, but that is when the Necroborgs attack. We learn about them as Yuji does: technological beings who take over a human’s body. The thing that is killing Yuji is the exact thing that helps him retain his humanity as he fights the Necroborgs and tries to find Kaoru to save her.
One of the interesting bits to me, besides the bizarreness of it all, was the fact that the Necroborgs took what each human was obsessed with and turned it into a weapon. This led to some interesting and ridiculous fight scenes. The film is a bloody mess in a gory and entertaining way. If you are a hemophobic or have a weak stomach, you may want to skip this film. The storyline is there if you squint and are able to see past all the action and absurdities.
For me, there was nothing that I did not like about this film. However, there is a lot of topless action (as in topless fight scenes and the sexy kind of scenes) that some may not approve of watching. And if you are not a fan of subtitled movies, you might want to skip this one, but I think it’s worth trying. There are not a lot of subtitles once the action gets going. The most disappointing thing to me was that I did not realize this was a sequel until after I had viewed it. Now I must find the first one!
I had started my evening looking for something different to watch when I came across Meatball Machine: Kodoku. At first glance a movie about aliens invading Tokyo sounded too simple, but the fact that it was a Japanese film drew me in enough to give it a chance. Not only did I get to practice my Japanese listening skills, I have now found another flavor of horror films that I like. So add to this your watchlist and don’t forget the popcorn!
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