 Ah, Japan. Where would Film Gutter be without Japanese cinema, eh? There's every chance we'd have run out of material but for the proliferation of the strange, experimental and gruesome that has spawned out of the country over the years. Of course, that's not to say that there aren't many very fine Japanese films across all sorts of genres, but there seems to be a specialism in the underground and the extreme for sure. Which brings us to Anatomia Extinction. One of the great things about there being such a welter of Japanese gore and splatter cinema is that almost everything is a surprise, barring a handful of particularly famous (or should that be infamous?) entries. So there's very little expectation one way or the other, which means that you can watch nice and neutrally and just take the movie at its own value. And at large, I rather enjoyed this particular shorter film. Anatomia Extinction is set in a near-future Japan where there are huge problems with overpopulation and overcrowding, and our lead is pretty much an everyman (who remains unnamed) suffering the various stresses and strains of existence in that sort of environment. That is until he sees a dead body on the floor in the back corridors of the subway and then finds himself pursued by a dark entity that has a very special mission for him... I say 'dark entity' because basically I'm still not eminently clear what the thing is. It's kind of a robot, and kind of a demon, and goes under the charming moniker of an 'engineer'. When the being catches our lead, he recruits our hero to be one of these engineers, with the goal of reducing the population. The backdrop of climbing murder rates, presented through a variety of news pieces, leaves little doubt as to how he is supposed to go about this. The implant given to him not only makes this quest impossible to ignore, but all too easy to carry out. It's hard to ignore the inspiration taken from the likes of Akira and Tetsuo the Iron Man in the angles of dystopian future Japan and the fusion of human and machine, but there's enough that's likeable here in its own right that it stands up just fine on its own. The rat metaphor that runs throughout was an interesting one, highlighted by some research our lead does on rat behaviour in extreme circumstances. The visuals were generally fun – with some great fantasy/dream sequence moments – and the lead actor is pretty convincing in the journey from regular, mild-mannered guy to murderous, cyber-enhanced lunatic. The effects aren't always great but there's a degree of invention in here that appealed to me, and the central concept was interesting enough to perhaps have carried something a bit more substantial than just short of an hour. The time did whizz by watching this one, which isn't always the case even for something this slim. Sure, you can see it's low budget, but it was enough fun and had enough meat to it to carry it along nicely. It's not likely to live hugely long in the memory, but if you're looking for a decent way to spend an hour you could certainly do much worse. RATING: 7/10. A pretty enjoyable surprise – some of these Japanese splatter films don't look great these days, some in having not aged well, while some others are simply terrible in conception and execution (see my review of Entrails of a Virgin as a reference there). Sure, this is a bit later than some of the swiftly and cheaply made movies that jumped on mid-80s Guinea Pig bandwagon, so maybe it's entitled to be a bit better. But for me there's a bit more going on beneath the surface that some of its ilk, and there's a bit of creative flair and imagination alongside a little splash of worldbuilding too. I wouldn't consider it an essential – I couldn't stick it up there with the likes of Audition - but it's a solid film for sure and should offer something for regular readers or regular viewers.  AUTHOR INTERVIEW: LUKE WALKER HOLDS A MIRROR OF THE NAMELESS TO HIMSELF
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