Mutant Girls Squad Premiere and Sushi Typhoon party @ Japan Society

The other night, myself and a few friends; artist Hakumei Kusanagi (artwork here), Mad Man John, and the Geisha of Gore (read her column on the Cinema Knife Fight site), went to the Japan Society event thinking we were only going to see Mutant Girls Squad as part of the NY Asian Film Fest. I was unaware that two of the movies' three directors were to be in attendance, and the Geisha of Gore greeted me at the door with her copy of the promo poster for Mutant Girls Squad signed by both of them, as well as her DVD insert for Tokyo Gore Police signed by Yoshihiro Nishimura (which was his directorial debut). Her grin split her face in half as if she was Ichi the Killer. I knew it would be a good night.

I thought it would be prudent to use the rest room before the action started, and I got sidetracked in the Japan Society's ladies room. Each stall had it's own device (see photo below) with many bidet settings - including an underseat dryer! I could have taken in all the selections, but wanted to take in everything that was going on outside of the bathroom, so ran back out to the action, the presentation was about to begin! 

Yoshihiro Nishimura and Noboru Iguchi introduced the film with an interpreter, and Subway Cinema's Marc Walcow; the presentation was fun and whimsical; the two directors seemed genuinely thrilled to be there in  a demented childlike way. They gave out prizes to the crowd and a bit of background on the film: "He likes asses; you'll see a lot of asses and a lot of things coming out of them", and of course the deep meaning in the meeting of the 3 directors minds "we all got together and got drunk and wrote the movie"... Also on the scene was Masanori Mimoto of Alien vs Ninja, screened earlier that day.

On to the main feature - Mutant Girls Squad is frenzied, funny, FULL of blood in all different types of delivery - fountains, cakes, detonation; inflicted by mutants in creative ways, all making the audience scream as if they were on a roller coaster. It was an action packed "coming of age" movie, so to speak; take the best of Cronenberg and John Waters--put them in a blender run by the X-Men, dress them up as weapon wielding teenage female ninja mutants, and there you have it - sort of. Youtube's got a trailer for the movie here- without English translation, but you can see that, it's not exactly intended to be a "deep" movie.

After the movie ended, the Q&A session was even more enjoyable. The directors came out dressed in fundoshi, traditional japanese underwear, walked through rows of the unsuspecting audience (I just kept on thinking of Bugs Bunny cartoon "HARE-DO": "Pardon me, scuse me, pardon me, scuse me, pardon me...") Two actresses from the Mutant Girls Squad also were present at the Q & A. They proceeded to punch the directors butts with darts multiple times, and all answered many questions with slapstick responses. Kudos go to the interpreter, who took audience questions and translated to the directors, and then delivered the answers to the audience. She didn't react to the answers before she gave them, and most were outlandish- what a test of will! A couple of shots here don't fully convey the atmosphere, but it's a cute peek nevertheless. After the session was over, we were all treated to a reception with Sapporo beer, catered sushi and appetizers. This was also the official launch party of Sushi Typhoon, a new distribution label concentrating on North American distribution of Japanese action, horror, splatter, comedy and thriller films. Good luck to them, thanks for the food, and you, dear reader -need to check out Mutant Girls Squad if you enjoy splatter, comedy and sci-fi films!

Comments

[K.]

Sounds like the Coney Island side show acts back in the day...

[Kascollies]

I spoke with Colleen the day after, and she was walking on air..still ! This sounds like it was a lot of fun, and an awesome night for fans ! I will be attending next year with Colleen for sure !

[may]

Definitely they highlight of my July 4th weekend!!! Do you know where party photos are? Thanks! "Giant Head"-May =)