…Today We Celebrate Our Independence Day! (Cue Alien Sounds)

I wonder if there's a Japanese subculture for machine gun limb fetishes... I bet there is.

So today is the 4th of July, I figure I’ll spend the day wandering around, hopping BBQs, drinking other people’s beer, and spending some quality time with my father.  I’m a fan of the holiday, I love explosions, and being an army brat probably had a heavy hand in establishing my hard-line ingrained patriotism.  And of course there are the explosions, musn’t forget the explosions.

Last night I spent some time with my sisters Daniella and Melanie, and brother Patrick.  I don’t get to see them all that often and since it was the girls’ birthday, it seemed like a good excuse to hang and have a few drinks. Of course driving out to the Valley kind of sucks, especially when you have to turn around and head downtown right afterwards, but it was worth it, I love those kids and now that we live just cities apart I don’t have as much excuse for not seeing them.

After the girls’ thing, I headed to the domicile of Joker and Dave, where we proceeded to watch a flick called “The Machine Girl”.  A japanese revenge movie of the highest er… caliber, heh.  Quick review:

When her younger brother is killed by the son of a sadistic Yakuza boss and his bully gang, Ami sets out for revenge. But when she’s caught, tortured and delivered a solid fucking dose of arm severing, she does what all Japanese school girls do…  She gets a gatling gun as a replacement.

The sheer level of violence and gore in this thing are a spectacle worthy of watching.  But it’s not just the fountains of blood (and ‘fountains’ is the right word alright)  and people’s heads being blasted to atomic bits that made it worthwhile.  Although that is pretty cool, you’d have to admit.  But no, the acting is fun, the villains are sufficiently evil and cheesy.  This movie is exactly what rural Japan is like in my head.  People wandering around with swords, yakuzas running the show, folks modifying their bodies with guns and chainsaws, death and dismemberment everywhere, endless cycles of revenge….

You get the idea, it’s Japan after all.

I had a blast watching ‘The Machine Girl”.  If you have a strong stomach and can handle a bloody mess unlike one I’ve seen for quite some time (not to mention tempura’d limbs), you could do a lot worse than to check this out with a bunch of friends on a weekday night.  Have a few drinks, alter your mindset, and sink in for killer ultra-violence.