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April 18, 1998
Goku Midnight Eye part 1 Reviewed by Reverend Ian Woolf and Reverend Peter Eisler
(originally reviewed April 18th 1998)
The video starts off with the ever popular UGH! song, so beloved of Manga fans. After the traditional highly inaccurate previews of other Manga titles, the burning Manga cross is displayed - a wonderful symbol.
And so Goku Midnight Eye begins, and our hero emerges from the shadows. Goku Furinji: a shirtless, cynical, hardboiled, smart-mouthed, chain-smoking, unmodified, ex-cop, private eye; faced with an autopsy report like “apart from the hole in his head, there’s not a mark on him”. Yet another policeman has died, again apparently a suicide. Goku is not convinced. More policemen die, “They’re dropping from the sky like flies, at this rate we’re going to need hardhats!”.
This movie has it all, from a genius villain with a fowl plan using swan weapons, women with handlebars for easy mounting, to the hero gaining the ultimate internet account with access to ALL computers on Earth and in orbit around it; the gift of a mysterious mind-reading benefactor. There’s a woman with hypnotic charm, the cudgel of Monkey that Goku’s left eye knows how to use, and a villain who gloats “I’m too busy to watch you die now, so I’ll tape your death and watch it later”.
Goku finds it “handy” being the most powerful man on Earth with his new toys, and finds he is able to pole-vault tall buildings if not actually leap over them.
This is a clever and witty movie written by Buichi Terasawa, and from
Yoshiaki Kawajiri, the director of Ninja Scroll and Wicked City. We highly
recommend you don’t miss it.
