Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

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Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

Post by HungFist »

Nishimura will begin filming new "action splatter" film, which is a follow-up to Meatball Machine (Yudai Yamaguchi, 2005), in February. Auditions for heroine (who must be/look like in her 20s, and be willing to show her boobs, it says) are held in a few weeks. The script is written by Sakichi Sato (the writer of Ichi the Killer and Gozu, as well as the director of Zero Man vs. The Half-Virgin).

- https://twitter.com/ni4yo4/status/671164132914159616
- http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/ni4yo4/imgs/8/5/8552fa06.jpg

It also turns out Nishimura is working on the new Toho Godzilla film for the special effects... which is not surprising since he worked with Shinji Higuchi on Attack in Titan as well, but it's still a bit amusing if you know what I mean.
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Re: Untitled Meatball Machine Project (Yoshihiro Nishimura,

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The combination of Nishimura and Sakichi Sato could potentially result in unbearable silliness but overall I'd rate Sato as a much better writer than Nishimura and his usual collaborators. He did an outstanding job compressing the 2000 pages (10 volumes) of the Ichi the Killer manga into a feature film and he did similarly good work adapting another Hideo Yamamoto manga called Stop the Bitch Campaign. I don't remember too much about Tokyo Zombie except thinking that it felt like two 1 hour movies spliced together and I have somehow missed The Insect Detective until now, which is amazing considering it stars Sho Aikawa as a cop turned private detective who solves crimes by talking to insects, apparently including a polititian's intestinal bugs...

Nishimura actually already directed a Meatball Machine short film a few years ago so this is a return of sorts. I don't remember seeing it but I did like Jun'ichi Yamamoto's original 1999 short significantly more than Yamaguchi's feature.
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Re: Untitled Meatball Machine Project (Yoshihiro Nishimura,

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Guro Taku wrote:Nishimura actually already directed a Meatball Machine short film a few years ago so this is a return of sorts.
Titled "Reject of Death" and it's on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eGHTRa-_aI

Easily the most direct nod to Tsukamoto's TETSUO of anything Nishimura has directed. He made this before TOKYO GORE POLICE apparently though the internet can't seem to agree if it was shot in 2005 or 2007.
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Re: Untitled Meatball Machine Project (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016

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Any news about this project? Has filming already taken place?
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Re: Untitled Meatball Machine Project (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016

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Yes, filming has been completed and Nishimura is editing the film

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- https://twitter.com/ni4yo4/status/741199519438671872
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Re: Untitled Meatball Machine Project (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016

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That's what I wanted to hear! Thanks for the update! After watching "Reject of Death" a few more times, I found myself really looking forward to this one.
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Re: Untitled Meatball Machine Project (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016

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The film has a twitter account now
https://twitter.com/kodoku_mb_movie

The title is Kodoku Meatball Machine.

Set for 2017 release.

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Re: Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

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Re: Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

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Re: Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

Post by HungFist »

Thanks! I had missed that.

I do not dare to have my hopes up very high, but will I watch it? Of course!

I love Nishimura, but truth be told he doesn't age like wine. He did his most exciting stuff in the 80s and 90s.

Anyway, I'm hoping to have fun with this. Some pretty cool practical effects work on display in the trailer (and somehow the CGI doesn't bother me as much as usual, so far)

And man, you gotta give credit to this shot alone!
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Re: Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

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I forgot to post my thoughts.

Kodoku Meatball Machine (Japan, 2017) - 2.5/5
Occasionally exciting but poorly paced follow-up to Yudai Yamaguchi's 2005 splatter punk film. The film is essentially a 40 minute introduction followed by a 50 minute non-stop monster melee on the streets of Tokyo. Yoshihiro Nishimura once again excels with his inventive low budget monster design and entertains the audience with the usual blood showers as well as a "topless chase scene". Unfortunately he also uses some depressing CGI and green screen sequences, and relies too much on drama that fails to engage during the first act. Another problem is that Nishimura has never been a very good action director. The fights often seems like random moves and clips edited together. Composer Kou Nakagawa played an important role in making Nishimura's earlier films so effective, but for the past few collaborations his work has been repetitive and less interesting. The film remains, however, quite watchable and at times even exhilarating despite the issues.

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Re: Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

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German BD comes out in December. I think there's a real chance that will be before a BD/DVD release in Japan.
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Re: Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

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New trailer plays up the film's international film festival appeal and has plenty of new footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSx1GogzaO0
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Re: Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

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I didn't mind the drama during the introduction and thought this would be a real return to form by Nishimura when the monster mutant carnage started. Unfortunately, there is indeed some lamentable CGI and the mutant smackdowns get repetitive after a while. It was better than NINJA WAR though.
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Re: Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

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JP DVD and BD announced for 2018/03/07.
- http://www.allcinema.net/prog/show_dvd. ... id=1016069
- http://www.allcinema.net/prog/show_dvd. ... id=1016070

The interesting thing is it says "Unrated Edition" and lists a running time of 108 minutes as opposed to the 100 minutes that was listed for the theatrical release. I can't confirm either running time, but I so far it looks like this will be a longer version.
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Re: Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

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HungFist wrote:The interesting thing is it says "Unrated Edition" and lists a running time of 108 minutes as opposed to the 100 minutes that was listed for the theatrical release. I can't confirm either running time, but I so far it looks like this will be a longer version.
Here's what King Records, who distribute the film for home video in Japan, have to say about that:
The running time in Amazon Japan, etc. is wrong. We eventually decided only to release the 100 minutes version but when the announcement was first made, it mentioned 108 minute. That is why Amazon, etc. mentions 108 minutes (our publicity/sales promotion team should have corrected the running time but seems like they haven't...). Only difference in our version (Japan BD/DVD) is that there are less brutal/gore scenes in the Japanese version (because of the rating) and the logo of the Film Classification and Rating Organization is included.
So it would seem that the Japanese version is actually shorter than the international releases.
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Re: Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2016)

Post by HungFist »

Interesting. Thanks for the info!
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