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Mechanical Violator Hakaider (1995) - Movie Review

Almost as soon as Hakaider started, I was immediately reminded of a handful of my favourite films—early sequences are extremely reminiscent of both Hard Revenge Milly and Tokyo Gore Police—and had to stop the film to check if either Takanori Tsujimoto or Yoshihiro Nishimura has ever cited Keita Amemiya an an influence.

It turns out Keita Amemiya and Yoshihiro Nishimura actually worked together on the effects/designs for Yudai Yamaguchi's masterpiece, Meatball Machine. The Meatball Machine connection becomes readily apparent as the film goes on.

As for Amemiya directly inspiring Takanori Tsujimoto's work: while the two have never worked together, a couple scenes toward the end—and the fact that the film is very similar to Bloody Battle in general—make me fairly certain that Hard Revenge Milly was, at least to some degree, inspired by Hakaider.

As an aside: while looking into Keita Amemiya's career, I discovered that in 2013 Shinya Tsukamoto put together a panel for that year's Yubari Fantastic Fest—a notoriously crazy science-fiction and horror film festival held in Yubari Japan—and selected Keita Amamiya, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Takanori Tsujimoto, and Yudai Yamaguchi (among others) as judges. It's interesting that the critically beloved and wildly respected Shinya Tsukamoto, associated more with art than exploitation, would select these not particularly respected (but wildly talented) filmmakers as his judges. Another case of 'the art that artists like is not necessarily the art that critics like.'

I would also be remiss to not mention the other things I discovered when looking into projects Amemiya has been involved with: He did character/monster designs for Shin Megami Tensei IV and the Onimusha games. He also did design and effects work on the wildly underrated Gunhed, making him a direct influence on Metal Gear Solid—the Gunhed/MGS connection has, of course, never been officially confirmed, but just look at the AI powered walking tanks in Gunhed and tell me they aren't just the Metal Gears from the Solid series. This speculation is strengthened by Keita Amamiya's other films having been noted for having elements (such as the codec in Zeiram) which preconfigure very similar designs in the Metal Gear games. Even this film has a scene that feels very reminiscent of the Gray Fox reveal in the original Metal Gear Solid. Yoji Shinkawa was clearly a fan.

As for Hakaider itself: lacking the formal elegance of Hard Revenge Milly, the high-concept sci-fi of Tokyo Gore Police, and the profound character work of Meatball Machine, the film feels decidedly 'proto-'.

It's certainly not without merit—making an indestructible character interesting is an impressive feat, and the character and set designs are awesome—but it definitely feels at times like a proof of concept for films that would come later. Everything—from the supporting cast and the villains, to the world and core plot beats—feels like it could have done with a little longer in the oven. Nothing here is bad—in fact the film itself is a lot of fun!—but it's hard not to feel stangely disappointed by how almost great Hakaider is.

That said, when the film is at its best and the flashes of Amemiya's genius come through, it really is something special.

Probably the best example of this is the film's final act, when Hakaider finally fights his way into the base of the messianic 'Gurjev' ('Gurdjieff'?)—a flamboyant villain whose mediocre performance is more than made up for by the fact that he wears a white suit with a massive skeletal bird on his shoulder, its wings hanging over his arm like a cape. While most of villain's base is the standard abandoned office-blocks frequently used in Japanese action movies, at the heart of the base is Gurjev's office: a large, all-white soundstage with ridiculous baroque touches—ornate cornices, pointless columns, and interior balconies that face out onto blank white walls. As the final confrontation begins, we quickly learn that the insides of the white walls have been painted blood-red and filled with blood-red pipes and wires. As our hero fights his nemesis, the office is gradually destroyed and it starts to feel like the building itself is part of the fight—an organic creature whose interior shell is being broken away, biomechanical viscera spilling from smashed walls and shattered, bonelike furniture. It's one of those insane design decisions that can only come from a (slightly unhinged) visionary.

Also, any time Amemiya does a gore effect involving a head/face, it's some of the craziest stuff I've ever seen in cinema. It's truly exciting to know I can still be surprised after watching thousands and thousands of the weirdest and most creative films ever made. There will forever be strange and disturbing beauty waiting to be discovered by explorers of the bizarre.

The Brazil-esque dream sequences are also gorgeous—and I would not be shocked to see Miyazaki (FromSoft) mention them someday.

So, as far as my first Keita Amemiya film goes, Hakaider leaves a good impression. I probably couldn't have asked for a better introduction—if for no other reason than it feels like Amemiya's films might be the Rosetta Stone for understanding the brief 'Tokyo Splatter' movement of the mid-2000s. Follow me on letterboxd!

#keita amemiya #yudai yamaguchi #takanori tsujimoto #yoshihiro nishimura #hakaider #tokusatsu #tokuposting #film critique #film studies #movie review #letterboxd #japanese movie #japanese film #tokyo gore police #hard revenge milly #meatball machine

I <3 freaky movies

I wish I knew somebody that matches my freak in movies. Like yes bae let’s watch possession, audition, blue velvet, Lorna the exorcist, hellraiser, meatball machine, ichi the killer, and killer nun that’d be so fun.