Samurai Princess Blu-ray features poor video and decent audio, but overall it's a disappointing Blu-ray release
When 11 of her friends are raped and murdered, leaving the Samurai Princess (adult video star Aino Kishi) the only survivor, she becomes infused with her comrades' souls. Transformed into an android, she sets out to avenge their deaths. Dai Mizuno co-stars as the princess's human partner in this Kengo Kaji-directed gore fest that features breast grenades, detachable chainsaw limbs, deadly guitar riffs and more.
As a longtime fan of Japanese anime, I'm accustomed to some of the more outlandish elements that crop up in Japanese entertainment. As a result, I've been exposed to a growing number of live-action Japanese films over the past several years, which often demonstrate a propensity for extreme violence and gore. These films often acquire a shallow cult following among western audiences, since they require a strong stomach to weather the gruesome subject matter. Such is the case with Well Go's release of Samurai Princess--a film many unsuspecting viewers will latch onto at their local Blu-ray retailer, only to find out the cover art is the coolest aspect of the film. I'm not entirely against the gore trend in Japanese cinema, but I struggle to endorse a film that incorporates buckets of intestinal remains and violent acts against women to generate the primary source of entertainment value. I mean no offense to those with a differing opinion, but I can't picture many viewers walking away feeling satisfied after dedicating 83 minutes of their life to something this shallow.
When the make-up effects incorporate temporary tattoos, you know you're in trouble.
Enjoying a warm summer afternoon near a secluded stream, twelve young schoolgirls are cornered by three male rapists who violate and dispatch ten of the girls in the most violent fashion possible. Running off into the woods, two of the girls nearly make their escape, but eventually stumble onto a deformed pair of killers that artistically arrange severed limbs to create a flesh factory. As we soon learn, this demented duo underwent "mecha" enhancements that provide bio-metal weaponry for appendages. They use these appendages to brutally murder the remaining two schoolgirls, leaving their bodies scattered with the limbs of their classmates killed during the earlier rape-fest. This pile is soon discovered by a mad scientist living within the forest, who specializes in piecing together mecha-enhanced monsters with various creative attributes. While fumbling through the dismembered body parts for his newest Frankenstein creation, an old Buddhist priestess happens upon the scene and discovers one of the girls clinging to life in the middle of the gruesome mess. After pulling her to safety, the girl expresses her desire to be made into a mecha-enhanced warrior in order to exact revenge on the five individuals responsible for the murder of her friends. The mad scientist quickly abliges, and the priestess attaches the souls of the eleven dead girls to the body of this newly created "Samurai Princess". Teaming up with a rogue mecha-hunter who possesses his own agenda, the Samurai Princess sets out on a quest for vengeance.
In case you're still with me after reading that bewildering synopsis, I'll attempt to paint a more extensive picture. In essence, we're looking at 83 minutes of arterial spray, piles of limbs stacked five feet tall, and some of the worst production values I've witnessed in the past year. Forget about a cohesive plotline, competent acting, or realistic special effects—this is a film made solely for the purpose of showing off gratuitous gore and violence in a blatant attempt to shock the audience. Those of you with any familiarity with the genre will no-doubt recognize similarities to superior films such as Tokyo Gore Police or Machine Girl, which held the distinction of at least maintaining a watchable level of interest. Samurai Princess is quite simply a boring rendition of those films, leaving any shred of substance replaced by yet another scene of blood-soaked intestines.
Those who enjoy films in this genre often watch them primarily for the comedy found within the outrageously over-the-top gore elements. In certain situations I can agree that these elements are worthy of a good giggle or two, but Samurai Princess owns the distinction of being surprisingly unfunny. Aside from the eyebrow-raising emergence of several weird mecha enhancements (a breast grenade, penis parasite extension, scissor foot, chainsaw leg, and an intestinal whip with a blade on the end of it). The gore remains fairly juvenile, lacking any moments of truly clever humor.
Presented in 1080i utilizing the AVC codec (at an average bitrate of 25Mbps), Samurai Princess sports a weak visual presentation that struggles to find consistency. Fine object detail is the most noticeable victim in this affair, wavering wildly between moments of superb detail and dreary stretches of hazy nonsense. As a result, we're left with resolution gains that demonstrate a marginal upgrade over a standard definition offering, but remain hampered by the shoddy nature of the source material. A large portion of the blame should fall on the cinematography by Kengo Kaji, who lacks the polish of a sure-handed director and demonstrates an almost careless attitude toward the final product. Budgetary limitations certainly play a role, as the majority of the film appears to be shot using a cheap HD-camera, that reveals the competency of a home video recording rather than a professional piece of cinema. I wish I could say the underwhelming clarity is the only area of concern, but there are plenty of other problems worth noting throughout. First off, the coloring of the film is significantly subdued in many shots, despite the colorful outfits worn by the primary characters and the woodland setting. It appears the filtering used for much of the film was applied far too heavily, robbing the customary sense of richness often found in the upgrade to Blu-ray. This weakness also extends into marginal black level depth and contrast that struggles to differentiate between dark objects in the background. Add in a heavy grain field, several instances of aliasing on the rocky beach, as well as a dash of mild edge-enhancement, and this is far from what I'd consider eye-candy. I doubt this will come as much of a surprise to those of you familiar with Japanese productions in the gore genre, but anyone unfamiliar with the likes of Tokyo Gore Police or Machine Girl will find the entire visual presentation a bit off-putting.
Since emerging on the Blu-ray landscape, Well Go hasn't been completely consistent with their inclusion of lossless audio tracks on catalog titles. Thankfully, Samurai Princess has been given the royal treatment through the inclusion of two lossless tracks, allowing viewers the choice between the native Japanese mix or the English dubbed presentation. As usual, I elected the native language mix for the majority of my viewing session, and merely sampled the stereo English dub to allow for comparison. The end result is a bit of a mixed bag, since I didn't notice a profound difference in spatial separation between the 5.1 Japanese mix and the 2.0 dubbed track, meaning the "surround sound" mix is almost as front-heavy as its counterpart. Clarity is still quite good on both, and I didn't notice any instances of volume imbalance, but those looking for a robust sense of immersion would be advised to look elsewhere.
Behind the Scenes (480p, LPCM 2.0, 22:07 min): Presented in the native language of Japanese with optional English subtitles, this is your typical making-of featurette, showing on the set footage of gore make-up effects, fight choreography, and other elements. In between the on-set clips, we're treated to interviews with the cast and crew, as they discuss their experiences while working on the film.
Rounding out the extras we have a high definition trailer for Samurai Princess, and three standard definition trailers for other releases from Well Go (Geisha Assassin, Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge, and Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battle).
Let me make this abundantly clear—Samurai Princess is the type of film that will only appeal to a very limited segment of the population. Even if you count yourself among that group, there are far better examples of the gore-drenched genre that deserve to be discovered. If you want my advice, wait for Tokyo Gore Police and Machine Girl to hit Blu-ray (which we all know is inevitable), and don't waste your time with Samurai Princess.
All countries
