Tweet
Released by: Cleopatra Entertainment
Released on: November 17th, 2023.
Director: Kurando Mitsutake
Cast: Tori Griffith, Damian Raven, Derek Mears, Katarina Leigh Waters
Year: 2023
Purchase From Amazon
Lion-Girl – Movie Review:
In an undetermined future, meteors have hit the Earth and only one out of every thousand people has survived due to the massive flooding that was caused by this. The only dry land left around is Tokyo. On top of that, Civil War has broken out in Japan and due to radiation exposure, some people have mutated into monster/demon/animal hybrid types dubbed Anoroc that have a penchant for killing any humans they come across. In short, this post-apocalyptic world is pretty fucked up.
On the flip side of this are the Man-Anarocs, humans that have not turned into demons but who have, thanks to exposure to that same radiation, developed unusual mental abilities. A young woman named Botan (Tori Griffith), referred to by some as Lion-Girl, just happens to be a Man-Anaroc, and a pretty foxy one at that. When her mother turned into an Anoroc while giving birth and tragically passed away, Botan wound up being raised by her Uncle Ken (Damian Toofeek Raven) and trained as a mighty warrior. Determined to serve the greater good and saving those who need saving, Botan soon comes to the attention of the sinister Shogun Fujinaga (Tomuki Kimura), who basically declares her public enemy number one and offers a massive reward for her head.
Meanwhile, Botan and Ken decide to help two humans, Herbert (Matt Standley) and Mayumi (Shelby Lee Parks), travel across the wasteland to a Man-Anaroc community led by Ogi Agan (Stefanie Estes) with some help from Marion (Joey Iwanaga). As they travel, romance blossoms between Marion and Boan but Kaisei Kishi (Derek Mears) and his gang of Anoroc’s don’t intend to let them get to their destination in one piece…
Lion-Girl has a few things going for it – lots of nudity, an attractive and charismatic female lead who frequently contributes to that nudity, some fun creature designs and make up effects work and some better than average cinematography. It’s also over two hours long and rife with bad CGI effects work, though some of it is charming in its kookiness. The movie doesn’t have nearly as much action as it really needed to succeed, but a few moderately solid fight scenes are included and entertaining enough.
Without having read the Go Nagai source manga, it’s tough to say how accurate this is to what inspired it, but there’s a sense of zaniness on display throughout the movie that keeps it watchable, even when you’re wondering why a more judicious editor wasn’t brought in to help with the pacing issues.
The performances are uneven but generally at least entertaining. Tori Griffith isn’t bad here at all, not only does she look great but she handles herself well and has a decent screen presence that Mitsutake isn’t afraid to exploit. Damian Toofeek Raven is amusing in his role, while most the supporting players (one of whom is former Scorpion Releasing horror hostess Katarina Leigh Waters!) are sufficient if not much more than that.
Lion-Girl – Blu-ray Review:
Lion-Girl arrives uncut on Region Free Blu-ray from Cleopatra Entertainment in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.78.1 and taking up a paltry 12GBs of space on the 25GB disc. Not shockingly, compression is not great here, but that issue aside, the movie looks pretty good in terms of color reproduction and detail. There really should have been more breathing room for the feature, however, as the compression artifacts are hard to miss. Shot digitally, the image is clean and there are no problems in that department but using a 50GB disc would have definitely helped here.
English language options are provided in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and 2.0 Stereo, there are no alternate language options or subtitles of any kind provided. While a lossless option would have been preferable, the 5.1 mix here sounds pretty decent. Levels are balanced well and there’s some good channel separation. There are no problems to note with any hiss or distortion.
Extras start off with an audio commentary from writer/director Kurando Mitsutake who speaks about how he came to know Go Nagai’s work and why he wanted to adapt it, working with Toei, casting the movie, the problems that the Covid-19 pandemic had on the production, shooting the film in America, working with the cast and crew, the effects work, character design and lots more.
The disc also includes a forty-eight second introduction from Go Nagai as well as an interview with him, conducted by Kurando Mitsutake, that runs twenty-eight minutes where he speaks about about his work on manga like Devilman and Lion-Girl, how Toei Video came to be involved in creating Lion-Girl, other projects of his that have been turned into movies, what went into creating the characters for the movie, the affect that the pandemic had on the movie and how that's worked into the story, filming in the United States, auditioning the actors, where some of Nagai's inspiration came for the story and more.
The Making Of Lion-Girl is an hour long documentary that has loads of input from Mitsutake about how the movie came to be made, working with Go Nagai and the challenges that arose during filming. There's also input here from plenty of other cast and crew members as well as lots of footage documenting the making of the movie.
The Hollywood Premiere Screening With Director And Cast Q&A is a thirty-one minute piece that documents the movie's premiere and which features some clips of the cast and crew as well as the audience before then going into the Q&A session with Mitsutake, Tori Griffith and Damian Raven where they talk about filming specific scenes, the teamwork that was involved in making the movie, what it was like on set and more.
Rounding out the extras are a trailer for the feature, a still gallery, trailers for Shin Ultraman, Escape From Area 51, The Rift, Devil's Revenge and Life After Flesh as well as animated menus and chapter selection options.
Lion-Girl – The Final Word:
If you’re a fan of boobs, blood, bloated running times and bad CGI, then Lion-Girl is the movie for you! The movie really should have had more action and tighter editing, but as it stands, it’s a reasonably entertaining mix of sexy sci-fi shenanigans and post-apocalyptic weirdness and the Blu-ray features some decent extra features. It’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend it but you could do worse.
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Lion-Girl Blu-ray screen caps!
