Samurai Princess (2009) User Reviews

No princesses and no samurai, just a lot of insanity.

[lewiskendell · 4/10 · 22 May 2011]

I'm unashamedly fond of this genre of over-the-top, ultra-gory, and often hilarious Japanese movies. When done right, they're endlessly entertaining. Samurai Princess is not one of the finer examples that I've seen. 

The story is a revenge tale about a girl who becomes a Mecha (super-powered humans modified with the body parts and souls of the dead). She's searching for a group of men and two other Mechas who are responsible for the assault and dismemberment of a group of her friends. The plot is not presented in such a straightforward way, though, and there's a revolving door of random characters that pop up spout some back-story, get in a fight or two, and then die or disappear. 

The action scenes are weak, the attempts at humor come off as just weird, and not much of anything really makes sense. Samurai Princess is definitely a low-budget affair, with most of the money seemingly going renting the various warehouses it was filmed in. 

The only real entertainment to be found is from wondering what inexplicable thing is going to happen next. Watch if for that, or don't bother with it, at all. 

9/10 on the WTF scale, 4/10 as a movie. 

And please don't ask what the title has to do with the actual movie, because I've yet to figure that out.

There is no way you can beat the 11 souls I have inside me.

[lastliberal · 5/10 · 21 April 2010]

If you liked Tokyo Gore Police, which was written by Kengo Kaji, the writer and director of this film, then you will probably enjoy this blend of sci-fi and horror.

There is more gore in the opening than most movies have in their entirety. It doesn't quit, but keeps getting stronger. Stacks of bloody body parts appear throughout.

You just have to give up trying to make sense of this movie, and enjoy the ride. It will amaze you with special effects, weird weapons, and buckets of gore.

Don;t know about that ending.

Not worth the effort

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 5 January 2010]

I made it about halfway through this movie before I quit. The story was stupid and the action was incoherent. Sure there was gore in the movie, which was alright, but overall this movie is not worth the effort. You would be much better off with Tokyo Gore Police or Machine Girl. As an enthusiast for gore and horror movies, I was sorely disappointed with this movie.

There are lots of nice movies coming out of Japan, and recently a wave of gore flicks. Tokyo Gore Police, Machine Girl and Meatball Machine are movies to check out for gore fans - Samurai Princess is not!

It was not all bad. The good parts of the movie was the colorful costumes and some of the cast. But it far from makes up for its overall lousiness.

Cover art is a fraud

[jimadam · 2/10 · 23 January 2010]

No one wears a 2-piece bathing type suit mainly because the film was shot in freezing cold weather. The breath coming from the actor mouths was distracting. Hollywood and Hong Kong is so much better weather wise. There is no real samurai or any type of fighting. It's just a special effects gore fest, where a sword is swung and blood and body parts go flying. And it goes on and on. The story, whatever it was was, is background clutter and doesn't matter as the film makers only want to gross you out. A one trick pony. The specials efforts are gross, not clever. I guess if you are watching the film with a bunch of friends, then the film might work better, as you can laugh at and comment on the gory special effects. I am avoiding anything done by this Director in the future.

I have seen and love Machine Girl. A movie with a real story and clever special effects spaced properly throughout the film and it is just as gross.

So bad it's hilarious

[MrsFrankenstein · 3/10 · 15 April 2011]

First off, if you're looking for a movie with a serious plot avoid this one at all costs.

The plot revolves around a young girl who's eleven friends, who just happened to be hanging out in the woods for some reason, are all raped and murdered. So the young girl is turned into some sort of android called a "Mecca", possessed by her friends souls, and now she wants to avenge her friends deaths.

This movie was actually pretty fun to watch because it was so bad that it was funny. The English dubbing was terrible, the amount of gore was ridiculous, and it looked like it was filmed on a budget of fifteen dollars. The characters in the movie are pretty funny. So all in all this movie is good for a laugh.

Everyone has a devil inside

[nogodnomasters · 1/10 · 8 January 2019]

Alternating your body, like putting a chainsaw on your leg, is illegal. A girl is put together like Frankenstein from the body parts of her friends and vows revenge to those that killed and raped them.

The plot was not solid. The story and effects inane.

Guide: Sex and nudity.

Get a higher budget if you want to film something like this

[Vartiainen · 3/10 · 9 August 2019]

Samurai Princess is your typical Japanese girl gore film. A young woman gets traumatized one way or another, gets superpowers and then goes on to hack her tormentors into pieces. Lots of blood, lots of body horror, lots of gore. It's a very niche genre, but it has its fans.

What keeps this particular film from reaching its supposed potential is the limited budget. The costumes are for the most part okay and it's clear that what little money they had went into prosthetics and monster make-ups. Which are fine. But that means that they had money or talent left for good shooting locations, other special effects or actors. All three of those are outright awful, which brings the whole movie down.

And don't get me wrong, a lot of these Japanese gore films are clearly made with a modest budget. But at least they haven't been shot in the local forest, like this clearly is. They go into great lengths to hide the fact, but it's still pretty visible. And distracting.

Then again, the gore is somewhat pleasing, the costumes have character and at least the tone is consistent with the genre. Nowhere near the best of its genre, but could be worth a watch if you're looking for something new.

Watcher beware, Looks are deceiving

[cjk_35 · 6/10 · 20 December 2009]

An evil forest overran by Outlaws and Mechas. Who will rape and kill any poor soul who enters. But there is someone else in this forest. A spirit of vengeance, a warrior, and a Mecha to fight other mechas to bring justice to the innocents. They call her SAMURAI PRINCESS!!!

Now before you rush out and buy this movie remember to be cautious. This movie is not for everyone. It definitely is not for children. It is not for all anime fans, even though the plot makes for a great anime. It is not as cute and clean as most animes. It isnot for fans of Kun fu and action films. This film has a very narrow demographic. If you like Truma films like The Toxic Advenger or Class of Nuke'em High. Then this is the film for you. It is film with gory dismemberment and lewd humor. It is really a movie that you do not want other people to know that you watch.

The story is rather simply and barely develops. The duologue is wooden. the writer did not put much effort into the script. The acting and directing was terrible. The only thing that was worth watching was the fight scenes but even they where unsatisfactory. all it was showcasing special weapons, blood spraying and body parts being hacked off.

Over all I give the movie six out of ten stars. If you like this movie the check out Big Man Japan.

Come for the gore, not the story

[Laosungdao · 8/10 · 18 June 2009]

Kengo Kaji, who wrote Tokyo Gore Police, both wrote the story for and directed this new gore-fest from Japan. Yoshihiro Nishimura handled the make-up effects, as he did for Tokyo Gore Police. So if you loved Tokyo Gore Police - which I really did - you'll probably like Samurai Princess. It's a sci-fi kind of thing that's set in an alternative Japan. The Samurai Princess is the sole survivor of a group of young women who are raped and murdered. She becomes an android to avenge their deaths. There's also a white haired Buddhist nun, with lovely white eyelashes and white fingernail polish(?!), who shows up from time to time. The story may not make much sense, but who really cares? It's a fun and hilarious splatter-fest of gore. Not quite up to the level of Tokyo Gore Police, which had a much better story-line, but still quite enjoyable. Some upper frontal female nudity, but not a lot.

A new sub-genre that's beginning to feel stale already.

[ElijahCSkuggs · 6/10 · 22 November 2009]

There's something about this new, ultra-violent, insanity laced, splatter genre from Asia. I've seen a few of these types of flicks now, and with each passing one, I keep asking myself why I'm not going ga-ga over them. I like them, sure. They're the most creatively violent flicks coming out these days. But movies as a whole, they're just bloody messes. I feel like I should be persuaded to just scream joy from the roof-tops because of the ridiculousness of the ideas and blood, but I guess I've seen enough films, enough bloody weird films, to form this opinion.

Based on this lil blurb, I don't think I have to explain myself for the reason why I'm not telling you about the intricacies of the story. But just to help a tad, it revolves around "mecha's" (sp?), revenge, and absurdity. Which are all cool aspects to a film in my book. But again, when intertwined in such a bizarre way, any type of emotional aspect to the film is lost. And that's where these films go awry. There are slow parts where it seems you're supposed to give a flying sh!t about the story. But the thing is after that scene where the dude is literally turned into a 'fountain of blood', my mind is totally checked out, and I'm only looking for more grue and of course, nudity.

Which brings me to another aspect to this crazy genre; the lack of sleaze and nudity is disappointing. Fortunately for Samurai Princess, the lead actress is/was (?) an A/V actress, so lucky for us, there's a sex scene with nudity. But besides one other nip scene, and of course the boob-weapon, there's nothing. You would think with all the amputated limbs, geysers of blood, brains, alligator legs etc. etc. the sub-genre would exploit other areas than just the red stuff. But again, good job to this flick for delivering a nice 'n cutesy sex scene.

I feel like I have to repeat myself when I say, I like these films. But not really as films, but as a kind of gore highlight reel, with hot Asian babes prancing around doing high-kicks. I'd love to see a film with this type of gore done in a more traditional way. Maybe a werewolf flick, that just showers the viewers with blood during scenes of attack. Something more simple that's still enormously violent, could be something that really works. I feel that's just useless wishing, as it seems these films are slowly beginning to reach a wider audience, so we'll probably continue to watch this sub-genre of film for a wee bit longer. Not that I really have a problem with that. It's just feeling a tad played out already. Also, moar bewbs, plz.

Actually Not Bad

[mmushrm · 6/10 · 31 January 2011]

This movie actually surprised me by not being too bad. In fact I found it rather enjoyable. I admit that I usually stay away from the Japanese gore movies. I find them to be too much verging on being ridiculous, disgusting and simply going for gross outs. I picked this up simply because of the title. Unlike the others of the gore genre this one isn't too over the top it its gross outs. There is actually a story, there are funny parts, no overwhelming gore and the lead is pretty. There isn't the "this is just sick and disgusting" feeling. Don't expect award winning acting. But if you don't mind watching a B movie with gore and bad special effects. This one is not bad.

No Samurai...No Princess

[masercot · 7/10 · 6 March 2010]

The video-shot feature was remarkably like Tokyo Gore Police. Both relied heavily upon gore-related effects and bionic horrors. Both look like they were shot in vacant areas and not studios. Both had coherent plots and sincere acting...

This movie, however, had more of a nightmare feel to it. Although the madness of the two villains was horribly over-emoted, the madness of one of the minor characters had a morbid feel to it. The collection of body parts for resurrection was almost like watching Alice in Wonderland. They were definitely trying to make a movie out of this.

Unfortunately, as with many Japanese movies, the writers felt the need to give their audience a healthy dose of rape and gore. Although the gore does explain where all of the body parts come from, eventually it lost its impact from overuse.

The female lead, who apparently has fourteen souls residing in her, is a decent actress. Her martial arts ability seems a bit suspect when she cannot even make a silhouette training sequence look convincing.

This wasn't a bad movie.

But, it didn't seem to have much respect for itself...

3rd Times a charm with the Tokyo Shock, this time it's "Samurai Princess"

[tonymo1977 · 7/10 · 30 March 2010]

"Samurai Princess"

Once again Yoshihiro Nishimura rears his gory FX laden head in "Samurai Princess"! This time directed by Kenjo Kaji ("Ultraman Moebius").I'm convinced Nishimura could never disappoint! "Samurai Princess" is a hybrid of "TGP" and "TMG", although the lack of budget is recognizably evident, though it doesn't detract from the overall distinction of the film. The costumes are 1980's retro chic and heavily stylized. It does appear though that the cast and crew were offered a forest for a set and said go to work! That is exactly what mad scientist Director Kenjo Kaji had, and precisely what he needed to make this formula for success that is...."Samurai Princess". Kaji does a great job, but when you include Yoshiro Nishimura into the picture, you can not expect to be shortchanged, he will gross you out....hardcore!! You may in fact get more(generally bucket fulls) than you could have ever imagined. Nishimura is truly an effects master, only the best in blood, gore and the most perverse imaginations ever created. Exploitive, yet stylistic and original.

At one point Samurai Princess was a normal schoolgirl, spending time with her friends by a nearby stream, living life as it should be, when a villainous gang of sadistic rapists comes along. The rapists do what they do best and Samurai Princess is left alone, clinging to life and left for dead. Along comes a even stranger individual, who specializes in typical mad scientist insanity, more specifically, experimentation's mixing human and machine. Now, "Samurai Princess" is known as a "Mecca" a cyborg like creature instilled with elaborate instruments of death. Also with the help of a Buddhist priestess they insert the souls of "SP's" dead friends into her. Now, flash forward back to present day..... awake and coming to the realization that her normal life is over..."SP concludes someone made her this way and she will do anything and kill as many as it will take to find out who.

Aino Kishi plays the beautiful "Samurai Princess, clad in minimal clothing, the adult film actress fits the part to the tee. Aside from the lackluster budget, that in my opinion is only visible in video production and set design, this film is a real treat to the genre. Original costume design, stupendous effect by a true effects genius and well done acting(at times quite overdone), this makes "SP" a genre must see. Although "Samurai Princess" was not a "Tokyo Gore Police", it did have similar elements, only turned down a few notches.

"Samurai Princess" wields Katanas that discover the best in arterial spray in every direction possible. Anyone standing anywhere near the spraying is sure to be bathed in blood, at times covering the camera lens, a Nishimura trademark! Two removable breasts that when attached together yield a grenade, that on occasion will make heads explode in full view. A circular saw that extends from the sternum of "SP"....I'm sure you can imagine what that does. Chainsaw legs and a guitar that emits sound waves when strummed, causing a serious mess.

"Samurai Princess" is a highly creative film, filled with high quality scenes of gore filled madness, done by only the best effects director possible. What the film lacks in development and budget, it completely makes up in originality, creativity and style. The fun factor for "SP" is clearly off the charts....and for goodness sakes, IT HAS BREAST GRENADES!!!!

BruceVain

Like a "Power Rangers" episode made by Troma

[lovecraft231 · 6/10 · 17 June 2010]

In case you didn't know, Japanese Horror has changed since the earlier parts of the last decade. Sure, there were films like "Ichi The Killer" and the ongoing wave of Japanese Zombie flicks, but in much of the last decade, the country was largely known for it's supernatural creepfests with long haired ghost girls and mounting dread. While that was fun for a while, it eventually went the way of many fads/sub-genres of horror-yesterday's news. You can only see a pale supernatural force so much until you get bored.

So what's the new-wave of Japanese Horror at the moment? Splatter Comedy flicks. Movies that owe largely to the likes of old Troma movies, Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers" and the like than they do old Japanese Urban Legends and haunted TV's or whatever. Flicks such as "The Machine Girl", "Tokyo Gore Police" and the upcoming "Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl" have defined this new era, and Kengo Kaji's "Samurai Princess" is one of the latest in this new trend.

The plot takes place in an alternate universe Japan, in which a our titular heroine (adult film actress Aino Kishi) was one a normal girl. That is, until a group of rapists had their way with her friends and left her for dead. Oh, and a mad scientist has fused the souls of her dead friends, implanted them into her, and turned her into a vengeful cyborg. Wackiness and arterial spray ensues.

From the get go, "Samurai Princess" is utterly bug-f#@k insane. It has chainsaw legs, wacky villainous sidekicks (the mad scientist has a gaggle of fan girl types following him wherever he goes-it's actually a lot funnier than it sounds), evil monsters, a pair of breasts that double as grenades (yes, you read that right), a man wielding a guitar that doubles as a sword and a chainsaw, and so much more. It's also shockingly funny as times, with some amusing gags thrown in, as well as the non-stop insanity making sure that you never grow bored. It also helps that the gore never wears out it's welcome-quite the contrary in fact, as each set piece is bonkers and all around entertaining.

Yet, the whole thing ends up feeling kind of like the sum of it's parts. One major flaw is the production values. While I normally don't complain about poor production values in genre fair, the Shot on Video style left me feeling a little let down, as it would have benefited from better editing, camera work and whatnot. Also, the performances are really hit and miss, with Aino Kishi being a bit bland as our heroine (though the fact that she's willing to disrobe doesn't hurt the least). The biggest flaw though, is the poor fight choreography. Films like this need fight scenes that can hold up with the movie, and here they just can't.

In the end, it's a flawed movie, but for rainy weekend fair, "Samurai Princess" makes for a fun time. If Troma made a "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" episode, it would probably resemble this.

dumb entertainment

[Sorpse · 7/10 · 23 February 2013]

i feel like once you have seen one of these movies you have seen them all, This movie is very similar to machine girl, robo-geisha, and yakuza weapon. Machine girl was the first so it gets the credit and is surprisingly the best of the 4. They are all however over the top rediculouse in every way. The characters are all absurd, the gore is over the top, and they all feature crazy cyborgs with the wildest of weapons. You could probably write the same review for all 4 movies. The most memorable part from this installment would probably be the boob bomb. We are treated to this tastey weapon not once but twice just so you don't forget it. Besides that you get the regular buckets of cgi blood and as many inventive and different deaths as possible thrown at you by the boat load. One part i liked was when the guys skeleton was punched right out of his body, fake as hell but cool non the less. None of these movies should be called incredible but they achieve what they set out to do and thats is to entertain without being smart just never boring, and for this they get some credit. These movies are fun if you arnt wanting to use your brain.