Rating: **
Alternate Title: Maju Toshi 9-1
Review Date: 11/22/01
Cast: Kumi Shiraishi, Mickey Curtis
Well, "awful" sums it up pretty well. However, it's watchable and considerably better than the repulsive sequel, "Beast City 2" (1996). Unfortunately, it's overly talky and misdirected, so without the benefit of subtitles it's difficult to figure out what's going on. Mari (Kumi Shiraishi) is a typical, pretty young office lady. When her boyfriend gets killed by a werewolf (well, it's supposed to be a werewolf...) she starts having bizarre flashbacks of a previous life and a mysterious tattoo appears on her butt. She hooks up with three other girls who have had similar experiences (and similar tattoos) and realizes that she's a descendant of an ancient ninja clan that was at war with the werewolves. While Mari is busy training in the ninja arts, two of the other girls die at the hands of the werewolves, and she and the remaining girl bring the battle to the head werewolf (played by Mickey Curtis who appears onscreen for maybe a total of sixty seconds). After killing the same henchmen over and over again (don't these guys ever die?!?) the girls finally succeed in defeating Curtis, but he only lets out a sinister laugh because he knows there's a sequel right around the corner.
Oddly enough, the most notable and enjoyable aspect of the film is the music score, which is inspired and appropriately atmospheric. Apart from three excruciatingly long and uncomfortable sex scenes, this low budget film is watchable and the action scenes are sometimes even marginally entertaining. Kuri Shiraishi performs some fairly decent fight scenes and even pulls off an explosively bloody decapitation scene. But the highlight of the film has to be the most impressive (not to mention explicit) display of vaginal muscle control that I've ever seen. One of the ninja girls actually manages to crush a werewolf's penis while he's raping her, in full vagina-cam detail. Shocking and unexpected to say the least...