MOVIE REVIEW: GARO THE MOVIE 2: RED REQUIEM (2010)
When I was younger, I found the works of a Japanese artist named Keita Amemiya. He’s a grand artist who has a keen understanding of brushstrokes, character design, and wild fantastic ideas on heroism. He contributed a lot to the tokusatsu genre, working on monster designs on a lot of “Metal Hero” shows (“Kamen Rider BLACK”, “Jiban”, “Cutey Honey the Live” and “Zyuranger”). I first learned about him through 1988’s Mirai Ninja, and kept looking for his work. Would you believe it found me again, in the shape of movies like Tao no Tsuki (Moon Over Tao), Mechanical Violator Hakaider, Zeiram and Zeiram 2? Then in video games like Hagane (SNES), Shin Megami Tensei IV (Nintendo DS), the Onimusha series and Genji: Days of the Blade (PS2)? It’s like the universe WANTS me to know more about his work!
And then the Internet got involved.
I found Amemiya’s work on his portfolio website CROWD and began to look thru it, and found out he had a movie I hadn’t seen — GARO the Movie 2: Red Requiem. I had to get it and see it, but I ended up with a special treat: I got the Malaysian edit. This is significant because Malaysia has strict censorship guidelines about what gets sold on home video to avoid selling pornography, which is illegal in Malaysia. As a result, I treasure my Malaysian copy of a crazy and stylized movie about a sentient piece of jewelry and his partner, our hero Kouga Saejima (actor Ryosei Konishi) — a Makai Knight and successor to the title of Golden Knight, GARO. The jewelry in question is Zaruba, a Madou Ring, as they team up with even more Makai Priests (the administrators of Makai Knights) and investigate an infiltration of monsters led by a monster named Karma. It steals and consumes souls by weakening a person’s mental defenses by showing them their wildest dreams in a mirror…and then trapping them in a mirror dimension to consume their souls.
The villain Karma is played by former erotic actress Saori Hara, who later gave up the blue profession due to her emotional response to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan. She doesn’t have much to do but stare with her amazing eyes from the green-screen (and have her boobs censored by the Malaysian government), and the movie is so much more than that. In contrast, the Makai priests have Rekka (played by Mary Mastuyama) — who is MAI WAIFU for several reasons:
- She attack and kick high
- She flexible
- She anger management problem
- She gunning for Kouga’s spot as the first female Golden Knight
All that put together kept me interested, because she actually gives Kouga something to work against. Yeah, there’s clunky 3D mecha fighting that wouldn’t be out of place in Gods of Egypt (this is not an insult), and there’s a lot of technical stunt work, special effects, CG work, and wire-fu blended together for a fun romp that showcases Amemiya’s design and art work, as well as set up a sequel. None of that matches the character development Rekka gets, and for that I give this movie a high recommendation.
CHOICE CUTS
- The monster design is pretty dope, which is par the course for Keita Amemiya.
- Rekka’s character development is one of the reasons why I stayed watching. Also she kicks a lot of ass. She reminds me of Blaze from Streets of Rage.
- The henchmen in this movie are great — they’re preppy goths or some other subculture I’m not aware of in Japan.
- Speaking of scenes culture, there’s a fight scene that takes place in a nightclub that is amazing. It’s not Tony Jaa, Donnie Yen, or Jet Li, but you feel every blow.
- Thank you Keita Amemiya, and to all the collaborators to make your visions come to life!
— previously published 9/11/2018 on Facebook Notes —
