Movies
What Yamaguchi lacks in budget he makes up in inventiveness and creativity. The result is a highly entertaining film that contains plenty of treats to keep you interested throughout.
Yamaguchi's Wonogawa feels like the Hellevator sequel I never knew I needed. A low-budget, ultra creative mix of dystopian sci-fi and light fantasy elements that comes with its own unique lore. While a film like this is tough to make on a shoestring budget, Yamaguchi gives it his all and ends up with a pretty nifty and satisfying film.
Bloody Chainsaw Girl Returns: Giko Awakens
Yamaguchi continues his Bloody Chainsaw Girl franchise with another shorter entry. While these films are good fun, they aren't up there with the best in the genre, nor with the best in Yamaguchi's oeuvre, so unless he's doing it to stay afloat (and relevant), I hope he'll abandon this series in the near future. Giko Awakens offers a nice mix of splatter and comedy. The budget is low, but Yamaguchi counters well with some zany ideas and absurd twists. If you like the Japanese splatter films you'll have a good time with this one, I just wish Yamaguchi would honor his true potential, as he's really capable of doing better than this.Read all
Bloody Chainsaw Girl Returns: Revenge of Nero
Yamaguchi continues his Bloody Chainsaw Girl franchise. The first one was decent enough entertainment, though nowhere close to the now decade-old Sushi Typhoon films. Revenge of Nero is a short and sweet sequel that combines gore and absurd comedy to deliver some prime fun. Outrageous gore, odd characters, absurd narrative twists and some random jokes make this a pretty easy film to enjoy. That is, if you can look past some lesser performances and low-budget, functional CG. This isn't a future classic, but it's easy and fun filler, with a promise that there is more to come in the future.Read all
A project with some history. The film is based on a song by Hatsune Miku (the Japanese VR idol), which was later turned into an illustrated novel. It explains the overly poppy approach to this film, which is by far the weakest part of it. The rest was actually pretty intriguing though. The setup is different and there are some nifty ideas in here, even though it feels like a mix of borrowed premises. The performances are subpar though and even though the film tries to give a bit of extra flair to the styling, these attempts aren't entirely successful. Still, if you love an original fantasy film, it's worth a shot.Read all
