Alien beings attack and latch onto human prey to use as robots in their quest to destroy their own kind.
It all begins with a guy that's about to hang himself but is interrupted by some strange creature that kills him before he has a chance, blood spraying EVERYWHERE, tentacles flapping around, consuming the man’s body. Next thing you know we're in the middle of a battle between two creatures that look a lot like the guys from GWAR. Well one beast guy pulls a knife out of his hand and hacks the other beast guy's head open, claiming victory by eating his robot brains. Out of nowhere the winner is electrocuted and killed by some guy with a electro pulse rod and a welding helmet. The killer looks over at a girl named Michino, who has an eye patch and a bandage around her throat, where one side is pulsating. Que the movie title. Next we're at a factory where one of the workers, Yoji Muraishi, looks out into the river that runs along the factory property. Then back to work where he's working on his machine and listening to a conversation his coworkers are having about a girl Miki, who walked out on one of the guys during a date, I’m guessing.
The next morning something bloody craws out of the lake and attacks a young boy, covering him in tentacles. The boy, covered in the tentacles walks out into the road where he meets the reaper by the hands of a man behind the wheel of his jeep, who runs him over so hard it rips the boy's body from his feet and sprays his blood all over the front of the van. The driver gets out sees the vile remains of the boy and throws up, leaning on his van, where he too gets attacked by the tentacle creature. A little bit later after some sappy obsession shit there's another battle between two more man beasts where the welding helmet guy shows up, yet again, to kill the man beast. We then find that one of the man beasts is the guy from the van that was attacked by the tentacle monster. Anyways he gets away and goes off to die, when the tentacle creature gets tired of him, pulling itself off his body and moving on to his next victim.
 
The same night Yoji gets his ass kicked by a drag queen that he turns down and pushed into a pile of garbage bags where he's confronted by the tentacle monster himself, only this time the tentacle monster dies right in front of him. He takes the monster home to investigate it and decides he's going to keep it. The next day he brings the beast to work to try to cut it open with a drill to find that it has a protective shell that can't be penetrated. He decides to put it in his closet for safe keeping and goes out with his friend. He runs into his love interest, Sachiko Misawa, about to get raped by his work associate Tanaka. He jumps into save the day and gets his ass kicked. Tanaka walks off so Yoji takes Sachiko back to his place where we find that she has an obsession with him too. Out of left field Sachiko goes on a rant about how her father abused her and put these horrible scars on her. At the same time the tentacle beast wakes up and attacks Sachiko raping her and ultimately turning her into a wo-man beast, controlled by an alien within her. First she is forced, by the alien, to kill Yoji’s friend, then she attacks Yoji rendering him unconscious. Left with the dilemma of either saving or killing his new girlfriend Yoji is in for the ride of his life, especially after finding himself being infected and transformed himself and set to destroy her.
This movie plays out a lot like Tetsuo: Iron Man, but at the same time developing it's own personality and style, that and its in color which I'm definitely cool with. The gore, the costuming the story, all excellent. This movie is full of hard punches and lots of cybernetic chaos. When you find that this is a love story it really kinda throws you off but it's still compelling and definitely worth watching. Make no bones about it, this movie is confusing as hell, but it makes up for the strangeness with it's effectiveness and style, not to mention it's blood PACKED!
Meatball Machine is a definite must see, I found myself wanting to watch it again after I was finished. It doesn't leave too many things left to question but at the same time it opens your mind to the possibility of aliens consuming humans and turning them into fucked up robot warriors. This movie is definitely worth owning and if you do get a chance to get it check out the special features and watch the original short film that inspired the movie. Very highly recommended!
By
Back to Asian Review Archive
|
ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Mîtobôru mashin
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Yudai Yamaguchi, Jun'ichi Yamamoto
WRITING CREDITS: Junya Kato
GENRE: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
CAST: Issei Takahashi, Aoba Kawai, Kenichi Kawasaki
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 90 min
RATING: 9/10
Meatball Machine Website/IMDB Click here
Meatball Machine Trailer Click here
|
