Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (Kyűketsu Shôjo tai Shôjo Furanken) (2009)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Eastern Eye Trailers x 5
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	81:03
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (50:18)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Yoshihiro Nishimura Naoyuki Tomomatsu
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Naoyuki Tomomatsu Shungiku Uchida Jiji Bű Erina Cay Izumi Sayaka Kametani Yukie Kawamura Sayako Nakoshi Aya Nishisaki Eri Otoguro Takumi Saito Sayo Eihi Shiina
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Kou Nakagawa

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     All is normal at Tokyo High School; the wrist cutting club is in training for the big competition, the Ganguro Club girls are replete with special black make up and afro hairstyles, spoiled girl Keiko (Eri Otoguro) is in love with handsome hunk Jyugon Mizushima (Takumi Saito) while her father Kenji (Kanji Tsuda), Vice-Principal of the school, doubles in the school basement as a mad scientist in kabuki costume killing and dismembering students, before screwing them back together in inventive ways and trying to bring them back to life assisted by over-sexed school nurse Midori (Sayaka Kametani). Into the mix comes shy transfer student Monami (Yukie Kawamura) who falls in love with Jyugon and on Valentine’s Day gives him a chocolate. In reality, however, Monami is a vampire and the chocolate, laced with her own blood, starts to turn Jyugon into a vampire as well. Keiko fights Monami for Jyugon but is no match for the vampire and is killed. Her father retrieves her body, reconstructs her using parts from other students, and revives her as Frankenstein Girl. Now she is a match for Vampire Girl and the battle for the affection of Jyugon starts in earnest.

     Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (Japanese title Kyuketsu Shojo tai Shojo Furanken) is based on the Manga comic by Shungiku Uchida. It is a tender teenage high school romance – complete with vampires, nymphomaniac nurses, wrist cutting girls, afro and black makeup wearing students, kabuki scientists, severed limbs, blood, gore and more blood. It is totally manic and absolutely over the top, just what one would expect from a joint effort by directors Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police) and Naoyuki Tomomatsu (The Machine Girl). There are geysers of blood drenching the characters, the sets and the camera, plus severed heads and limbs galore; in one scene Frankenstein Girl detaches one of her arms, affixes it to the top of her head and uses it a helicopter blade to take off and chase Vampire Girl.

     Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl does have some things to say about Japanese teenage pop culture, and the ending contains a nice twist, but it is mostly completely insane and nothing is taken seriously, the cast and effects people attacking the whole twisted scenario with intense and maniacal energy; some of the film is grotesque, some very funny, but it is never dull. If you like the directors’ earlier work, this is the blood, gore and insanity cranked up to eleven!

Video

     Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, which I believe is close to the original theatrical ratio, which is not listed by the IMDb. It is 16x9 enhanced.

     In keeping with the film this is a vibrant print. Colours, especially the blood reds, are accentuated, but yellows are also prominent, and garish. Skin tones are, however, natural. Detail is pristine and contrast extremely sharp, except in the flash-backs which are deliberately soft. Blacks are rock solid and shadow detail great. The CGI effects, of which there were a lot, look reasonably natural and quite good. I noted no film or video to film artefacts.

     The layer change at 50:18 resulted in a tiny pause.

     The English subtitles are in a light greenish yellow font and are easy to read. I did not notice any spelling or grammatical errors.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 Kbps. It is surround encoded, and for a 2.0 track was quite aggressive. Dialogue is clean and from the front centre, but effects and music constantly occurred in the surrounds to good effect. A bit of rumble came occasionally from my subwoofer as well. There were no clicks or pop-outs so this was a loud, reasonably enveloping audio track.

     Lip synchronisation is fine.

     The music by Blood-Stained Fellow is a vital participant in the film. It varies between heavy rock to chant like voices, to pop love songs and is frequently over the top; just like the visuals!

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Original Trailer (1:07)

Eastern Eye Trailers

     Trailers for other films from Madman: Vengeance (1:36), Haeundae (2:37), Thirst (1:56), Ong Bak 2 (2:42) and Maiko Haaaan!!! (1:41).

     The three disc Region 2 Japanese version is listed as including a CD soundtrack, a Frankenstein Girl spin-off short film, a “making of”, stills gallery and a number of featurettes, but the feature and extras lack English subtitles. Sales sites list the Region 1 US (NTSC) and the Region 2 UK versions as including the “making of” (65 min) and Stage Greetings feature (20 min), but none of the reviews I have read for either version mention any extra other than the trailer. Caveat emptor. For now I’ll mark the comparison as “same.

     There is nothing even remotely subtle about Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl - vampires, reconstructed “humans”, nymphomaniac nurses, wrist cutting girls, kabuki scientists, severed limbs, blood, gore and more blood. Insanity cranked up to eleven, although nothing is taken seriously. The video is excellent, the audio loud; a trailer is the only real extra.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall