I was late to the party when it came to ‘Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.’ In part because it didnt really get a release in the UK (a VERY small print run of VHS tapes in the early to mid 90s was pretty much the beginning and end of it until 2024, when Radience films finally released the film in the UK in HD and on disc for the first time). While i’d been aware of the film since the mid 2000’s, I didnt ACTUALLY get to sit down and watch it till mid 2022 via Tromas own ‘in house’ release on bluray which a friend VERY kindly sent my way.

But recently Vinegar Syndrome and Troma signed a mutual deal in which Vinegar Syndrome gain access to most of Tromas back catalogue to remaster in 4k and release in shiny shiny new packaging with a raft of new and archival extras…and I absolutely loved Kabukiman the last time I caught it, so I grabbed it during a sale this year, and with Halloween getting dangerously close, I decided to rev up the 4k player and see if the Boutique labels could manage, what the studios could not.

The plot follows detective Harry Griswold, one of the best cops in the NYPD, as he gets caught up in life changing events. When he misses a date with a fellow officer, Harry decides to go to his local Kabuki theater which is having an award winning run. Unbenownst to Harry, behind the scenes a great battle is shaping up, as an elderly man and his grandaughter warn of a great evil approaching. The plan, is for the old man to transfer ‘the power of ‘Kabukiman’ to a young protoge.

However; before that can happen our young man is killed by a gang of thugs hell bent on realising the prophecy that will lead to the rise of the great evil one. midway through the performance of the play, that same gang storm the stage, killing the old man and most of the theater goers. Harry steps in and manages to stave off a TOTAL blood bath, but the old man is hit, and in his final moments, transfers the power of ‘Kabukiman’ to Harry.

Leading Harry to undergo a bizzare transformation into the one and only ‘Sgt. Kabukiman’ a champion against evil with razor point fans, exploding sushi and arrow tipped chopsticks! Harry isnt quite sure whats happening to him as he slowly morphs in and out of his Kabuki alter-ego, but Grandaughter ‘Lotus’ is on hand to whip Harry into shape ready for his ultimate destiny of defeating the prophecy once and for all!

And, of all the Troma films i’ve seen, this one kind of fascinates me the most, a co-funded production between Troma and games company ‘Namco’ ‘Sgt. Kabukiman’ is a bit of an odd duck in the sense that there was a little bit of disharmony between Troma founders Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman.

The president of Namco, when discussing the tone and vibes for the film, instigated that he would very much still like to have the wild and crazy vibes that Troma were known for like ‘The Toxic Avenger’ but the he believed that the amount of offensive content and violence should be toned down. Not eradicated you understand…but rather, that the whimsy and surrealism should be the front foot of this venture, and that any violence shouldnt really exceed a PG-13 rating. Around this time Troma were in early development of ‘The Toxic Crusaders’ and the mindset from Herz perspective was that Troma was beginning to umbrella a little bit into a more accessable studio, where there could, in theory, be a film to suit any age or preference. And Sgt. Kabukiman having that same degree of ‘Troma-mania’ but targeted more at a YA audience could be the thing to help open the gates to the next generation of Troma fan.

Lloyd Kaufman disagreed, reckoning that the film should be R-rated and boundary/taste pushing because thats what people come to Troma for. In the end, after much discussion, two cuts of the film were produced, a ‘PG-13 cut’ that toned down the violence and played up the comedy, and a ‘Directors Cut’ that was R-rated and had a harder gorier, oozier edge to it. In the end, the PG-13 cut was what made it into cinemas, but subsiquent releases on home video would default to ‘The Directors Cut’. Which is the version I watched tonight.

All in all, I still love it as much, if not moreso than I did when I first watched it. The script moves at a bullet pace, the tone is perfectly balanced between giving the audience an ACTUAL story and 3 act narrative, while also feeling like at any moment the whole production could just derail into absolute farce comedy.

The act structuring itself is reasonably balanced, I feel like the Directors cut lets the film breath just a little more, but im still not 100% convinced the added gore and violence improves the film any more than the PG-13 cut.

The characters are all pretty well developed, and this would mark one of the final Troma movies to ACTUALLY BOTHER to give the characters a well rounded character backstory and arc. With most Troma movies after this devolving into single goal characters incoherently screaming for 90 minutes.

I really appreciated the fact this was a multi-plot narrative with some nice pathos moments contrasting the bizarre and whimsical comedy elements. Tonally, its a comedy with action elements through and through, and I for one really appreciated the playfulness of this film. Whereas a lot of Troma movies put their hand firmly on your shoulder before shoving you into the haunted house. This film feels like a much friendlier approach, welcoming the audience into the world of Troma with open arms and gradually warming them up to the bizarreness, rather than throwing them into the deep end. I think if you have a friend who’s never seen a Troma movie before, this one or maybe the new ‘Toxic Avenger’ may well be the best avanue to start things off.

The direction, for Troma is pretty great, clear thought went into the sequence building Kaufman clearly had a vision he wanted to realise here, and I feel like he largely achieves what he sets out to do, with only a handful of duff moments (Which…again, for Troma, is pretty remarkable) Direction of the cast is also A-grade with over the top choreography and effects work complementing some nice set space work, mild improvisation and choice line deliveries. Kaufmans an old hand at this style of film making, and I think ‘Sgt. Kabukiman’ is probably his most compitent work in terms of the budget intersecting the vision.

The cine on the new 4k release is nothing short of remarkable, a layer of grime, dirt and nicotine has been scraped off the 35mm print for this release and its as vibrant and gorgeous as ever, while this upgrade does only further highlight the cheaper aspects of the production, I was on the whole really impressed with just how sharp the image was on this release and how wonderful the composition and sequence building across the scenes looked and felt. Its a pretty solid work with incredible colour work and some nice lighting set ups. Let down a bit by a somewhat rushed feeling edit in terms of cutting styles…its a nitpick, but ultimately it did pull the film down a little bit for me.

Performance wise Rick Gianasi as Harry/Kabukiman is just incredible. I really liked the duel role play, and this is the one and only time they really give that nice duality. Harry is a bit blunt, charismatic, at times a bit comedic, but a largely cool headed man being dragged into the insane world of cosmic rituals, eternal evils and Kabuki theater. and across the runtime we see him lose his cool several times and eventually relax into the world of the supernatural.

As Kabukiman, he duel weilds being ABSOLUTELY insane, explosive, acrobatic and unstoppable, with occasionally snapping briefly back into Harry’s personality. Which was a nice twist and only added to the total feeling of ‘unknowing’ as to what the hell was going to happen next.

Susan Byun as ‘Lotus’ is also delightful, getting some wonderfully dry humour in places and really being given a good range to work with across the runtime. I dont think her performance is particularly amazing, but again, for Troma? she might as well have won the academy award that year. Bill Weeden, is for me a bit of a loose link here, he plays our villain for the piece, and while I dont think he plays a bad guy particularly badly…I think the type of baddie he’s being asked to play here, plays a little bit against what his acting style is. Personally; his turn here wasnt for me. I didnt think he was bad, I just think we needed a cooler, stonier presence for the character of ‘Reginald Stewart’ and Bill just doesnt really have that energy.

Add to this the Soundtrack which is a bit of a game of two halves. the rockier music such as the theme tune or tracks containing an actual band with vocals? are probably some of my all time favourite Troma music pieces of all time. I STILL listen to the ‘Theme from Sgt. Kabukiman’ pretty regularly years on from my first time spinning it, its legitimately a great little hair rock track that plays on music from Madam butterfly, and the band sessions all rework the music of puchini and other classical pieces to great effect in my opinion.

However, at the same time the incidental music, appears to have all been handled in house, and its vaguely asian sounding cheap farty synth whomps. it works from time to time…more during the comedy elements than anything else…But quite often when the synth music landed, it landed with a squeltch. I wasnt a fan.

Altogether though? I think ‘Sgt. Kabukiman’ is probably my second favourite Troma movie of all time, only just behind the original ‘Toxic Avenger’. Its upbeat, more whimsy driven over shock or gore, the direction and cine are some of the best Tromas ever had, as are the performances. The scripts rock solid, its sincerely funny and barring a few dud tracks, the scores pretty incredible too!

Its actually kind of wild to me that they didnt nurture and develop Kabukiman into a franchise of his own…This first film does an incredible job of parodying the ‘origin story’ film that the superhero genre is well known for, and not only did they not really build on that past this movie, they actually went in the OPPOSITE direction, essentially reducing Kabukiman to an ‘anyone can play him’ bit character who turns up in other Troma movies for occasional cameos…and most bizarrely of all, as an occasional host for Tromas youtube channel. with his new backstory being that after this film, he gave up crimefighting, got married, lost everything in a divorce, became an alcoholic and fought a rape case against him. They could have been 3-5 films deep into Kabukiman lore right now…and instead they took probably their most viable other franchise to Toxie and squandered it into oblivion…insane…its actually insane to me…

But I digress, go watch ‘Sgt. Kabukiman’ its REAAAAAAALLLY good!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/sgt-kabukiman-nypd/1/