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In the not too far future, the selling of body parts is a lucrative business; and none are as successful as the Dharma Company. Led by Aoyama Dharma (Negishi), the company runs a business that leaves many without limbs or organs. These souls find themselves ostracized by the world at large so form a town for the victims of Dharma. Living as best as they can, two sisters Ami (Tsukimiya) and Yoshie (Hanakage) make a living as idols/entertainers who fight with weapons on their missing appendages. When Dharma makes a move to eliminate the town, the two sisters must team up with a mysterious hitman (Sakaguchi) to stop the carnage and take down the evil Aoyama.
A sequel nearly fifteen years after the first film, Rise of the Machine Girls offers just as much as you’d expect if you have seen the previous entry. Not necessarily a sequel in the truest sense, it stands alone despite taking many cues from that original. Filled with tons of splatter and with what looks to be a lot of passion, the film is honestly a good bit of fun. It never takes itself too seriously, how can you with a premise and script such as this? Regardless, the film does attempt comedy but unfortunately stumbles more often than not; some great sight gags do shine but the absurdity of the script doesn’t win it any points. Of course though, that isn’t really why we’re here yeah?
As mentioned before, the film is filled with outlandish choreography that goes hand in hand with the props and imaginative weaponry on display. From guns, to swords, to the wild science-fictiony bits, there’s a surprise around every corner. The actual physical choreography is simplified a bit to accommodate for the manga-esque fight direction but still shows exemplary work from a solid team of stunt performers. One element that is a shame is a long take fight sequence that uses sped up editing to hide some misses and highlight a fight punctuation. This scene unfortunately hides the hard work by the team but that’s an unfortunate side effect all too common in that part of the industry. Thankfully the uncut sequence is available on the recently released Blu-ray disc from Media Blasters.
In the end, Rise of the Machine Girls is a crazy, over the top action/horror/comedy that succeeds in exactly what it sets out to accomplish. It’s not a particularly well made film and the performances are hammy, but that truly isn’t the point. It’s an unabashed fun ride that shows a lot of the passion that goes in the making of the film clearly on the screen. If you can’t take a bit of absurdity skip this one, but if you can, you will find something to love in the film’s breezy seventy-five minute runtime.
As of this article, you can rent, purchase or stream Rise Of The Machine Girls for free on Vudu, and you can also find the film included with English dub on Tubi.
