Deadly Troma Sushi

No doubt you’ve seen the flashy, eye-catching "3D Motion" lenticular box cover on the shelf of your local video store - grizzled detective morphs into chopstick-wielding superhero. Gee whiz, the title alone was enough to grab my attention. But that’s Troma for you, folks. Any hook they can use to grab the viewer will be utilized to the fullest extent . . . this is one of the primary reasons that I love them.

Not to worry, because Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD lives up to it’s lurid box cover and title.

Every thousand years - when the stars are in conjunction, the tiger feasts on the nubile, the dragon jumps through the hoop, and the monkey rides the jaguar - the balanced scales of the universe tilt in favor of "The Evil One." Fortunately, the forces of good have a stalwart defender - Kabukiman. But the recipient of the spirit of Kabukiman is ruthlessly slaughtered before the millennial event, forcing the kabuki power to enter the body of clumsy New York detective, Sergeant Harry Griswald. Griswald, possessed by the spirit of Kabukiman, must learn to master his superpowers in order to fight crime and vanquish The Evil One. With the help of the beautiful Lotus and a box of tasty kung-fu worms, Griswald becomes the colorful crime-fighting clown known as Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD!

This is a classic Troma film, earmarked with all of the uniquely twisted elements of the Troma universe. The distilled essence of all that is Tromatic. And it’s no wonder because Kabukiman was written and directed by the guru of gross, Lloyd Kaufman. As usual, no cinematic stone is left unturned, no taboo left unbroken.

The number one rule in Hollywood is that you can’t murder kids. Especially in an action/comedy. Kaufman destroys this within the first ten minutes of Kabukiman (and the slaughtered kiddies are portrayed by Lloyd's own infant daughters!). Only Troma can make a superhero film that, while innocuous enough on the surface, is chock full of drug abuse, nudity, and lingering slow-motion shots of spewing blood and gore! Kaufman’s obvious love/hate relationship with New York City is in full swing here as he utilizes the Hells’ Kitchen locale of Troma’s home base for location shots (complete with hookers and scabby bums).

Although it was inspired by Pucini’s Madame Butterfly, Kabukiman is the living embodiment of a comic book - Mad Magazine for a meaner, more cynical generation. The "Evil One," as usual, is the scum-sucking, freedom-draining, money-grubbing corporate world (but don’t worry, folks, the poor get skewered just as thoroughly). Children are entertained by a bloody gunfight. The media are a bunch of sick, amoral barnacles . . . And the hero uses everything from paper umbrellas to flying chopsticks to defeat the baddies.

A lot of folks look at Kaufman’s economic (and highly creative) shooting style and dismiss it as hack work, but I completely disagree. We’ve been spoiled by Hollywood’s squandering "throw money at it until we don’t have to be creative" mindset. So what if Kabukiman’s flying sequences look cheesy . . . the film has got a tiger attack, a guy on fire, an exploding car, a couple of stunt falls, and the best damn "car chasing a guy on a unicycle" scene ever filmed. I’d like to see James Cameron do the same (hey, he couldn’t even sink one lousy boat without $200 million - the total cost of all of Troma’s films put together). And for those of you who are mammarily deprived, even the beautiful Lotus - one of the principals of the movie - bares ‘em!

Sex, violence, humor, surreal transformation sequences, raw fish . . . Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD has got it all. Wholeheartedly TapeHead recommended, it’s available in the new release section of finer video stores everywhere in both PG-13 and UNRATED versions (although you know which one we recommend).

- Punky McScrubb