Synopsis
After a group of girls get murdered, they come back as ghosts and seek revenge.
Ghost Squad
2018 ‘ゴーストスクワッド’ Directed by Noboru Iguchi
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If you know Noboru Iguchi, you know what you're in for here. Personally, I prefer his compatriot Yoshihiro Nishimura whose films usually have more artistry and edge - Iguchi to me is a bit like the Lloyd Kaufman of Japan, sloppy, splattery, goofy, sometimes fun but just as often tedious.
Unfortunately, this is one of the tedious ones. Far, far longer than it needs to be (106m, why?), this tale of a bunch of ghost girls teaming up to get revenge on their killers is heavily padded with schtick and never goes anywhere interesting or transgressive. If it weren't for the nifty practical effects used for the ghost girls' weapons, it would be a total wash. Watch Karate-Robo Zaborgar instead.
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This movie is godawful. By all merits of its own it shouldn’t even be rated as highly by me as it is, but I had an unbelievably good time watching this with a friend and a couple of drinks. You’ve got a clumsily written story, flagrant continuity errors, a metric fuckton of loops jumped through to give the film a narrative reason to have lesbian ghost stuff and some truly terrible special effects.
The girl power angle of this movie even rings hollow thanks to the flagrant and kinda iffy sexualization of its four protagonists. Sure it’s gratifying to see these ghost girls get back at the men who hurt and killed them, but the inherent feminism in such a premise…
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One of the ghost girls' special powers (powers that they all get by making out with the one living girl) is basically a dog hand puppet that she sorta just swings around and then sometimes there's lasers? Noboru Iguchi without a budget to do bonkers set pieces… it's a little ruff!!
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As a fan of all things Sushi Typhoon it's probably about time to acknowledge I am actually not a fan of ALL things Sushi Typhoon. This is just not very good and surprisingly lame and tame.
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Although it's not among my favorite of Iguchi, there's fun to be had here, and a surprising amount of heart (more heart than butts, which is saying a lot for him).
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As someone who has a great deal of affection for Noboru Iguchi's work, I eagerly await a new opportunity for Iguchi to drop some bit of madness on Western shores. Unfortunately, Ghost Squad is a little too cheap, a little too lightweight, a little too dull to be anything more than a mention in his filmography. After an audacious opening scene, the movie settles into a tale of ghosts seeking revenge on those who wronged them via a living girl who lingers near death.
There is some fun to be had, but the worst of Iguchi's films - the puerile humor and sexism - shine through more than the outrageous fun of some of his previous efforts.
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Honestly, the only reason I'm not rating this lower is because it's competently shot and has some potentially great concepts.
Unfortunately, Iguchi absolutely wastes them in the end.
In a pretty expected continuum of his past work as a director, Iguchi delivers the story of 3 ghosts attracted to a suicidal girl through their desire to get revenge by telling it in the most sloppy and incorrectly arranged way possible.
Probably what best encapsulates the confused emotional core (if you can call it that) of this movie, is a sequence of scenes showing the admittedly disturbing murder of a very young girl, which is then followed up by a very confusing "air shower" scene where her ghost strips down to…
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“Grudge Dog: He’s here to bite ass & chew dog bones. Bite as hard as you like!!”
Every single man in this movie deserved what they got. Except for Akira. Akira tried his best to save Akari. Akari is the sweetest we must protect her and her good boy at all costs!!
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Finally pulled the trigger and gave Ghost Squad (2018) a watch, while I felt this was pretty tame by Iguchi's bat shit crazy standards, there is enough zaniness and offbeat characters to warrant a watch.
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Offensively bad. Irredeemable. At least Machine Girl kept its tone consistent and didn't try to explain away a justification for being a pinku-lite.
Directors using their films as an outlet for their fetishes are nothing new, but at least Tarantino gives a shit about his film making basic sense.
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