Bullet Points: Gun Woman
There are many films that try to push the boundaries in hopes of gaining some sort of cult following. They show a ton of gore, or sex, or are extremely violent. But there aren’t many that shove all that stuff into one film. Now I don’t want you to think that this is some sort of Hostel/Nymphomaniac/Hobo with a Shotgun like movie, cause it’s not. It is, however, a film that uses those three things; gore, sex, violence, to exact one of the simplest of human emotions, revenge.
The following review is NSFW due to nudity and gun woman-ing.
The Gist: The wealthy and sadistic son of Hamazaki rapes and murders the wife of a brilliant doctor before leaving him paralyzed. Now the doctor has become the Mastermind of a plan to turn a former meth addict into a living weapon, capable of infiltrating a secret facility and killing Hamazaki’s Son.
The Cast: The title character of “Gun Woman” is played by former adult star Asami. She has had several films under her belt (although she rarely wears one cause she’s always naked) and this one seems to be the one that is putting her acting skills at the forefront. She only says one line in the entire movie and while it takes some time for her to show up on screen when she finally does she totally owns the movie. Her trainer/mentor is the Mastermind and doctor whose wife was raped and killed by Hamazaki’s Son. Let’s just say that he isn’t happy about the situation and he plans on getting revenge at all costs. Most of the backstory and whatnot is delivered by way of two hitmen en route to an extraction after a successful job. These parts can get a little sketchy in terms of the acting but stick around for the rest of the movie and you won’t be disappointed.
GW trains under the creepy watchful eyes of her mentor, the crazed maniac doctor.
The Villain: While we never meet Hamazaki, his son is a real piece of work. There aren’t many movies that showcase a villain as hate-able as this one but Hamazaki’s Son is one of the most vile characters that I’ve ever seen on screen. He is creepy as hell looking too; the kind of character that you really don’t want to see on screen which is why the attempt to kill him is so much more satisfying. I have seen a whole bunch of Japanese films and I can’t think of a villain this bad off the top of my head.
Hamazaki’s Son won’t get much empathy from viewers in this one.
The Action: While the premise for the film is very straightforward; a man who seeks revenge attempts to turn a woman into the perfect killing machine and sneak her into a high-security facility to finish the job is very simple, the first two acts are used mainly to set up the final fight against Hamazaki’s Son. The second act does give us a couple of cool training montages which I enjoyed and we get to learn about the plan to kill that lunatic at the same time as Gun Woman so there isn’t much wasted time. The run time for this movie (86 mins) is actually one of the best things for it. You don’t want to “dilly dally around” and ruin the pace. The final act is pure revenge-filled insanity and it is marvelous. It’s a true throwback to revenge classics with a Japanese HardGore element.
I don’t think Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano train this way.
Take it Home:
- Eat your heart out Viggo: I thought Viggo Mortensen was badass after watching Eastern Promises but this finale puts that fight scene to shame.
- Battle dressing: Gun Woman has a very innovative way of battle dressing her wounds.
- Sorry Scarlett: Scarlett Johansson was badass in Lucy but she isn’t Gun Woman badass. I don’t expect to see an American remake come anywhere close to this one.
- 007: “Gun Woman will return”
Rating: 4/5
A story about true love.
