Movie to Skip: Hard Revenge Milly
There is a certain breed of Japanese film that spans the gap between exploitation film and live-action anime.
Hard Revenge Milly falls right into that category. The film itself is very low on plot, but high on atmosphere and
cartoon violence. I say cartoon violence because while it certainly has a horrific element, with heads and limbs being chopped
off on a regular basis, it is also of a character that is unbelievable because of the over-the-top silliness that goes with it
(e.g. in one scene, for instance, a man with a recently chopped
off head continues to walk and shoot in a manner similar to
a chicken with his head cut off...). The fact is, of course, that this
kind of movie is extremely violent, and is certainly not
something you'll be enjoying with your significant other.
This particular film has its faults. The basis for
Milly's revenge is certainly justified, but the backstory, shown
through flashback, is just a little too... graphic considering the
tongue-in-cheek nature of the rest of the film. Frankly, I've
never been a fan of watching violence against children in a movie, and
this one goes just a little too far outside my
comfort zone. It takes a certain level of sick mind to joke around
about certain things, and the writer(s)/director of this film
goes there. I suppose that's the "shock" element of the film that gives
you the taste of an exploitation film. I would have
preferred to spend more time in the anime side of things...
That one element aside, this is a surprisingly enjoyable film for the obvious low budget and poor quality of
writing. (The acting wasn't too bad, for a B-movie...) I can't go so far as to recommend the film, although some people
might enjoy it for the novelty of the thing... or as a primer to its better sequal, Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battles. The
long and short of this film is that the potential audience for such work is probably fairly small. And that's probably a good
thing...
Movie to See: Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battles
Like the first movie, Hard Revenge Milly this is also a gap bridging movie between live action anime and
an exploitation film. Mercifully, this one is much more on the anime side of the equation. In fact, there is an interesting
sequence near the end of the film where the ulimate villain and Milly have a pretty good fight in a style similar to something
you'd see in Full Metal Alchemist, which was kind of fun to see.
If you've seen the first Hard Milly movie, then you've pretty much seen this one too. Although Milly
becomes more of an agent of revenge rather than being out for her own vengeance... not that it really matters. Ulimately
the plot is fairly similar and the action relatively similar to the last. But
unlike the first movie, this one is actually
fairly well done in the special effects department. Yes, there is still
some over-the-top silliness, but it is done in a
way that is better than the limb chopping technology of the first Milly
that wasn't much better than the Black Knight sequence in
Monty Python and the Holy Grail... if that's something you're concerned about.
If you want to get a taste of what I mean by a film that bridges anime and exploitation, then this is probably
the film I would recommend you see. The first one is just a tad too exploitation, and this one is much more comfortably
situated in the anime realm. My bet is that if you like anime, and you're looking for a live action version of that, then this
is closer to what you're looking for than the original Milly movie, or even something perhaps more iconic of this genre
like The Machine Girl.
