This DVD release comprises two low-budget features. The first, ‘Hard Revenge Milly’, is really a short film at a little over 40 minutes. In it, the mysterious Milly (Mizi Mizuno) plans to carry out a solo attack on notorious gang the Jack Brothers, who, we gradually learn through the requisite flashbacks, massacred her family. By the way: as the story progresses, it turns out that Milly is part robot.
In the sequel, ‘Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battle’, which runs almost twice the length of the first and has ever-so-slightly higher production values, it’s clearer that the world Milly inhabits is a post-apocalyptic wasteland (a hovercraft flies across the sky at the beginning). In this one, Milly trains Haru (Nao Nagazawa) to carry out her own revenge against the people who killed her boyfriend. But there are problems: the Jack Brothers’ associates want Milly dead.
For the most part, budgetary constraints mean that these films are actually rather slow: we watch as Milly sits around sharpening her sword, preparing for the next fight. This can last for several mind-numbing minutes at a time, or in the case of the first film, at least half of the total running time. The splatter is infrequent and footage is reused repeatedly in flashback form. It becomes a little trying when you’re seeing the same arm hacked off for the fourth time in an hour.
The redeeming feature is the streak of irony running through the films: the characters take themselves deadly seriously, but we’re not meant to. In fact, a scene in which Milly decapitates someone from behind, and his headlessblood-spurting body slowly turns to face her and fires a pistol, is magnificently absurd and earns the set a whole extra star.
Yoshihiro Nishimura, the man responsible for the special effects in these films, has also worked on such titles as Robogeisha, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein and Samurai Princess. I haven’t seen those films, but their titles alone should give you some idea of what to expect here: by-the-numbers boardroom ideas turned into reality, combining the most bankable elements of Japanese culture with popular Western stories for low-rent, kitschy entertainment. Here, it’s Mad Max by way of Kill Bill.
The special features are two ‘Making of’ featurettes, which simply show behind-the-scenes footage of filming and aren’t particularly illuminating.
Overall Verdict:
Aside from a couple of outrageously funny moments, there’s not much here to sustain interest.
Special Features:
The Making of ‘Hard Revenge Milly’
The Making of ‘Hard Revenge Milly Bloody Battle’
Trailer
Gallery
Reviewer: Tom René