Hard Revenge Milly and Hard Revenge Milly, Bloody Battle
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:30 am
Double feature from Takanori Tsujimoto with Part II following directly from Part I--and with the most gruesome bloodletting from Part I shown under the credits for part II. Set in post apocalypse Yokohama, where criminal gangs roam the streets looking for families to slaughter and the police shoot to kill (but often miss) is is the story of Milly (Miki Mizuno) and her search for revenge. The Jack Brothers killed her husband and child while she watched and left her for dead--a mistake since they now have an all but indestructible and completely implacable foe who on their trail. The first movie runs only 45 minutes and is largely given over to carnage some of it quite well. The second movie runs half an hour longer and fills in a few gaps (which we didn't know existed) from the first. The most important one is how Milly was brought back from the edge of death by an unnamed mechanic/doctor who outfitted her with a gun in one knee, a sword in one elbow and a veritable Swiss Army knife in her other forearm. She also has a Cuisinart quality set of slicing and dicing blades implanted in her chest. The mechanic/doctor is weird, even for this movie--he says that he could never be the friend that Milly needs because he is too weird, a trait that is expressed by his too obvious enjoyment of the anesthetized naked bodies (which are never shown to the audience) of his patients.
Milly is an existential, anomic heroine who, after she has taken her revenge on the Jack Brothers, feels only emptiness and depression. She expresses this in a voice over at the end of the first part which is repeated in the second part. She needs to keep her eyes open and her skills sharp since another set of brothers and their gang, led by the Jack's gay lover, has been trying to kill her--and there is a complication in that an attractive young woman arrives asking Milly to train her so she can get revenge on those who killed her lover. Much of the second movie is set in a fenced and guarded compound know as "Land" where Milly retreats when she needs spare parts or money, getting cash by selling guns that she has taken from the corpses of those dumb enough to attack her. Land is a bit of dystopian home in the midst of the ravaged landscape dotted with crumbling buildings, one of which is Milly's lair and the setting for the final slaughter filled confrontations.
There are a few updates to the typical leg guns, chainsaw arms and chests with implanted drills that characterize Japanese body-modification revenge-themed head-exploding dramas. One of the villains, for example, has a ceramic head which serves him well--and is undetectable from a "normal" (an elastic term here) head until it is taken out by Milly's super-hardened fist which her weird mechanic/doctor buddy fixed up for her after her forearm was severed in an earlier fight.
The fight choreography ranges from excellent to execrable. Some terrific one on one fights occur without weapons in very close quarters, scenes in which it is clear that both combatants were trained--for this movie if not otherwise--in boxing and other hand strike martial arts.
While "Hard Revenge" won't make anyone forget "Ichi the Killer" it is a good entry in the gore sweepstakes.
Milly is an existential, anomic heroine who, after she has taken her revenge on the Jack Brothers, feels only emptiness and depression. She expresses this in a voice over at the end of the first part which is repeated in the second part. She needs to keep her eyes open and her skills sharp since another set of brothers and their gang, led by the Jack's gay lover, has been trying to kill her--and there is a complication in that an attractive young woman arrives asking Milly to train her so she can get revenge on those who killed her lover. Much of the second movie is set in a fenced and guarded compound know as "Land" where Milly retreats when she needs spare parts or money, getting cash by selling guns that she has taken from the corpses of those dumb enough to attack her. Land is a bit of dystopian home in the midst of the ravaged landscape dotted with crumbling buildings, one of which is Milly's lair and the setting for the final slaughter filled confrontations.
There are a few updates to the typical leg guns, chainsaw arms and chests with implanted drills that characterize Japanese body-modification revenge-themed head-exploding dramas. One of the villains, for example, has a ceramic head which serves him well--and is undetectable from a "normal" (an elastic term here) head until it is taken out by Milly's super-hardened fist which her weird mechanic/doctor buddy fixed up for her after her forearm was severed in an earlier fight.
The fight choreography ranges from excellent to execrable. Some terrific one on one fights occur without weapons in very close quarters, scenes in which it is clear that both combatants were trained--for this movie if not otherwise--in boxing and other hand strike martial arts.
While "Hard Revenge" won't make anyone forget "Ichi the Killer" it is a good entry in the gore sweepstakes.