Archive for the Live Action Category


Live-action: Sukeban Deka Movie 1

April 2nd, 2007

Today’s review (and the letter “H”) is brought to you by the most magnificent munificence of Chet at Media Blasters, one of the greatest guys *ever.* And not just ’cause he gives me wacky movies…he’s just really great. ^_^

You may remember that back in February, I was pleased as punch to review the most recent Sukeban Deka live action movie. For today’s review, I will be backtracking some years in order to review the very first Sukeban Deka movie. About 20 years or so.

There was a TV series based on the manga Sukeban Deka which starred Saito Yuki as tough chick Asamiya Saki who was blackmailed by the police into functioning as an undercover agent for them. (Here is the review of the manga for that whole story.) After the first TV series ended, the name Asamiya Saki became a pseudonym that was given to two other girls in order to enable them to fight for justice, etc, etc.

This movie takes place after the second “Saki,” whose real name is Youko, has retired from the life of a sukeban deka, a delinquent cop. I am feeling mightily overworked this evening, so instead of telling you anything about the plot, I am going to throw you at the pretty darn comprehensive Sukeban Deka encyclopedia website. Here is a detailed synopsis for the first movie. As you can see from the picture at the top of the page, there’s a whole herd of sukeban deka by the time this movie got made. ^_^

There’s a couple of things to enjoy about this movie, other than the random violence and super psycho-with-a-fake-hand bad guy. One – every red shirt character dies in Saki’s arms, which I start finding pretty funny after then third or so death in a 80 minute movie. Second – the reunited sukeban group planning their strategy over dinner was a masterpiece. As Yukino serves up the dinner she has cooked from behind her frilly apron, she calmly discussed taking out guards at the island they are going to invade. It’s freakishly cute. If you turn off the sound, the girls all look like they are planning to get their hair done, but they are actually cheerfully discussing blowing the place up. ^_^ The super powered up yo-yo Saki gets from her handler that would destroy her arm if she used it too much was pretty awesome, as well. ;-)

I wouldn’t be reviewing it on Okazu, though, if there wasn’t at least *some* Yuri interest. At the beginning of the movie, Saki II has retired to a normal life of frilly pink sweaters and studying for the college examination. When she falls headlong into the mystery of evil Headmaster Hattori’s sadistic paramilitary island school, she immediately gathers up her comrades to face the conflict. One of them, Yukino, has left a message with Youko that she’s leaving Japan to go overseas. There’s a definite, immediate, tension there, as Youko contemplates her and Yukino’s choices. When Yukino does join them, the tension does not go away. There is a fraught scene between the two of them after the aforementioned dinner scene. If it had been a straight couple in a western movie, there is no doubt in my mind that a kiss would have been attempted, although it would have been aborted by Okyo’s appearance as, indeed, Yukino’s and Youko’s heavily charged moment was.

So, not Yuri sexxors or anything, but for an old school girl-gang live action movie…yeah.

The disk comes with an actual extra – the “making of” the movie, which was kind of cool. You get to see how insipid the actresses actually are and how silly the stunts and scenes are before they are all cut up and reattached. Defintely worth watching. For the price of the disk, you get plenty of entertainment.

Ratings:

Cinematography – Better than you think at first – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – hard to judge, let’s call it – 4

Overall – 7

Think Enter the Dragon with a lower budget and schoolgirls and you’re not far off.^_^





Yuri Live-Action: Late Bloomers

March 28th, 2007

When this cynical, jaded reviewer finds herself grinning at something, it always makes an impression. Especially when I had no particular expectations for whatever it was that I was watching/reading.

Late Bloomers is a silly, awkward and surprisingly sweet look at two women who fall in love with one another.

Dinah Groshardt is a middle-aged math teacher in a middle-America high school. She’s pretty much the standard “teacher/coach” type, without the intense hatred of high school students one so commonly finds in real high schools. Carly Lumpkin is the school secretary, and married to the history teacher, who is pretty good friends with Dinah. Carly doesn’t like Dinah much, because her husband seems to have more to talk about with Dinah than with her. Dinah tries to be nice to Carly, but is rebuffed cooly.

When Dinah begins to teach Carly how to play basketball, it becomes apparent to us long before it does to them, that they are starting to be attracted to one another. It’s not long before their attraction reaches scorching point.

Once they become lovers, it’s not too far to wanting to move in and live happily ever after – which they attempt to do. When their relationship is discovered, it polarizes the town. Dinah loses her job and Carly apparently returns to her husband…but not for long. In the end, they force the town to deal with them and their relationship by having a very public wedding.

The end was incredibly stupid and pat – everyone who was against the relationship shows up anyway and kids, husband and co-workers all suddenly are okay with it all. But, you know – fine. It’s a romantic comedy, not a realistic slice-of-life or a drama or anything. It’s just a goofy movie about two not particularly sexy people falling in love. (I have to say, though, one of the characters reminded me strongly of a friend, which probably made her cuter to me than maybe to other viewers.)

What absolutely makes the move work – and far exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations – was how horribly sincere and awkward the characters of Dinah and Carly are. Dinah’s marginal social skills are so cringe-making at the beginning of the movie that she feels *real* instantly. Later, as they find themselves attracted to one another, there is another realistically awkward scene, as each in their own home, they appraise their very middle-aged bodies in their bathroom mirrors. Again, so real, that I didn’t have to suspend disbelief at all.

The emphasis here is on romance and self-discovery, but the bed scenes were just about right for this movie. No punches pulled, but nothing explicit.

If this was a movie about two teenagers, it would have been just another coming out flick. And really, it *is* just another coming out flick, because there are plenty of one woman in straight relationship x one lesbian falling in love movies out there. But a harmless and entertaining example of the breed.

Ratings:

Cinematography – 8
Characters – so painful they were good – 7
Story – 5
Yuri – 10
Service – not lesbian porn by any stretch of the imagination – 1

Late Bloomers was the goopy, soppy sentimental kind of cute. Not really a movie to have a bunch of people over to watch, I don’t think. This is a home alone, curled up on the couch with ice cream, type movie. Perfect for days when you’re under the weather.





Live Action: Sukeban Deka Codename=Asamiya Saki

February 13th, 2007

Some series are simply too good to let die. Not just franchises like Gundam, but the actual series themselves. I don’t think it’s any accident that all three of the insanely popular girl-gang series that I love, Yaji Kita Gakuen Douchuuki, Sukeban Deka and Hana no Asuka-gumi keep coming back like Asuka’s gold coin.

Sukeban Deka began life as a manga, which was then made into an anime OAV and, in the 80’s, a popular three-season live-action TV show, all of which I have reviewed previously. For the basic plotline, general Yuri-ness and links to manga and anime on Amazon JP and Amazon respectively, click the link to the past review.

Last year, Sukeban Deka came back once again as a new live-action movie. And I was *dying* to see it, let me tell you. :-) It took a while, but I finally did manage to watch it and it was probably the best 90 minutes I’d spent in a long time that involved me doing nothing more than staring at a screen.

The movie starts with a young woman chained and gagged in a cage. Her rage at her condition is apparent, and she does everything she can to escape, eventually dislocating her own shoulder to escape the strait jacket she’s been put in. She does escape, but a momentary fit of humanity as she stops to comfort a lost child puts her back in the hands of the coppers.

We never learn the girl’s real name, but the cops offer her an ugly deal – her mother is in New York illegally and will be deported back to Japan, where all sorts of warrants are out for her, unless the girl helps them out. She’s given a yo-yo with the police’s chrysanthemum seal as a weapon and a new name…Asamiya Saki. Armed and decidedly dangerous, Saki heads back to Japan to infiltrate a high school at which several mysterious deaths have occurred. She’s also warned that there is another undercover operative – but they haven’t heard from that other operative in months.

Saki runs into institutionalized bullying almost immediately and, also immediately, saves the damsel in distress from same. The leader of the bullies is Reika, a girl with classic shoujo evil girl ringleader hair. I completely approved.

So, Saki takes on the entire school, from teachers, to pathetic manipulated geeks to evil henchmen and women, all the way up until she faces Reika once again in a battle of the yo-yos. This scene was SO awesome, I cannot express it in mere words. Where Saki is wearing full body armor leathers, Reika is kitted out in studded pleather miniskirt. I said to the screen, as she pulled out her own evil yo-yo, “Please let it have blades…” and you know, it did! I was so happy, I stood up and cheered.

Of course the final battle is meant to be poignant, as Saki faces a guy who kind of sort of was her love interest, and it was an okay fight until he, quite inexplicably, pulled off his nice hair to reveal and incredibly stupid looking wig underneath. I guess he wanted to die blond. I don’t know.

In the end, Saki and the damsel in distress actually had a sweet moment, where said damsel admitted that she liked Saki, although I really think it was in a “friend” way. But it was still sweet and more heartfelt than the bad guy’s quasi-sexual schmoozing.

Amazingly, this movie almost completely lacked any of the usual Japanese live-action pacing problems. I was quite impressed.

Throughout, the cop who becomes Saki’s keeper keeps saying things that implies that Saki is the daughter of the “real” Asamiya Saki. So it was a pleasure that Saito Yuki, who played the first Saki in the TV series, appears as this Saki’s mother. Total “fanboy casting” but it worked.

This movie did such a great job of capturing all the qualities of the original (manga) series, while still having a personality of its own. And even as it updated the myth, it never once lost sight of its roots. An outstanding adaptation of a classic story.

Ratings:

Cinematography – 7
Story – 9 for the sheer faithfulness to the original concept
Characters – 9, ditto
Yuri – 3, but just right
Service – 6

Overall – 9

This movie is da bomb. A great way to resurrect what was the grandmother of all girl-gang series. (Now if I could only get a picture of Matsuura Aya with a lowball and a cigarette. ^_^)





Takarazuka: Singing in the Rain

February 6th, 2007

I am not a Takarazuka fangirl. I know this because I do not know the nicknames of every actress in a particular troupe. I do not follow a particular troupe or actress to the exclusion of all others. I just like what I like with no preference for anyone or anything. Makes *real* fangirls crazy, because I’m like “I have no clue what troupe so-and-so is in.” ^_^

Okay, so way back in the dawn of time, I got a copy of the Takarazuka Rose of Versailles: Oscar et Andre on VHS. It was pretty, and pretty…er…laughable. Mostly because my wife kept singing her own lyrics to the music. But at some point Aran Kei stepped out on the stage as Fersen and my interest in Takarazuka was born. And despite my refusal to obsess, I do still like Aran Kei. ^_^

So Sean Gaffney, in his continuing effort to destroy what little soul I have remaining, brought his DVD of Singing in the Rain starring Aran Kei to what was essentially a Yuricon regional staff meeting with munchies.

I had never before seen the original Singing in the Rain. Isn’t that awful? So, while I vaguely knew the story, it was all really fresh and new to me.  I think I probably liked it better *because* I hadn’t ever seen it before. I was able to follow some of the dialogue, and I honestly marveled at the way the songs were translated. They really worked.

But the number one reason the show works is the combination of Aran Kei as Don Lockwood and Yamato Yuuga as Cosmo Brown. Let me digress for a moment…

When I attended Winter Comiket 2002, I picked, quite at random, a Takarazuka doujinshi which, quite at random, was an Aran Kei book. In fact, it was a “Touko x Tani” book, which translates into English as “Aran Kei x Yamato Yuuga as a BL couple”. ^_^ It’s very bizarre to me, the lesbian who sees the otokoyaku as women in suits, that straight fans see these women as men somehow…

In any case, I went into the show knowing that fans liked the two of them together. And, now that I have seen the show, I agree. The dynamic between them was simply delightful. They aren’t Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor, but their dance moves aren’t too shoddy, either. ^_^ I can see why the doujinshi artists paired them together, and not Aran Kei and Hizuki Hana (who was, btw, quite cute as Kathy.)

In general, I am not a fan of musical theater. But you add in the gender-bending of Takarazuka, and that weird surrealism that comes from translating a thing into Japanese from English and I’m always going to find it much more entertaining. ^_^

Ratings:
Cinematography – 7
Music – 8
Story – 8 (It’s pretty funny in any language)
Characters – 9
Yuri…or is it Yaoi this time? We’ll call it – 3

Overall – 8

Mmm…Aran Kei….





Live Action: Love My Life

January 24th, 2007

While I was in Tokyo, I had the chance to see the movie based on the terrific, Yuri manga by Yamaji Ebine, Love My Life. I won’t be going over the characters or plot of the story in detail, because if you haven’t read the manga, there’s just about no way you’d see the movie, so if you’re unfamiliar with this manga, please take a second to read my original review of LML. (For folks coming to this blog from Afterellen.com, most of the next paragraph is relevant to earlier posts about my trip to the world’s largest comic market, Comiket. If you want to know the story of the manga – and movie – read the link above.)

Looking at it now, I realize that we were *incredibly* lucky, because the theater we saw it at, N Theater Shibuya was a very few blocks from Bruce’s hotel. I only today learned that it played at like *two* theaters. What were the chances that one would be in walking distance from where Bruce was staying? Oh, and btw, it was immediately above the Shibuya Animate, which meant that the next day, we knew where we were going for that, too. Did I mention “lucky?”

The movie version of Love My Life was very sweet. There were some number of changes from the manga, which I’ll detail below, but in general, it was a really cute movie with an undoubtedly happy end where the girl got the girl. Totally worth having seen for that alone. I sincerely hope that there’s a US release.

The biggest weakness of the movie was something I have encountered over and over and over in Japanese live-action films: the pacing. This movie was almost 90 minutes long and when I saw the running time,I was skeptical as to how they’d stretch the story…especially as the first few chapters of the manga/movie zip by in rapid succession. So it starts off light and fast and happy, and then, suddenly, stops dead. At just about the time any American movie would start wrapping up, Japanese movies insert 20-30 minutes of absolutely nothing. It kills the energy, sucks the life out of the movie and makes my wife get fidgety. ^_^

In this case, after having established how sad Ichiko is, we are treated to 20 more minutes of her being sad. Sad, sad, sad. She’s so sad. And when the end comes, there’s another pacing issue, but if I complain about that I’m just being a hard ass.

Well, I’m a hard ass. Here goes. Eri has called Ichiko after their long separation and instead of calling back, Ichiko starts running. And running. And running. Eri, waits and waits and waits, while Ichiko appears to run across the freakin’ country. *Just* as Eri begins to turn away unhappily, Ichiko comes running up. Uh…wouldn’t a phone call back saying “I’m coming!” have been a good idea right then?

The actress who plays Ichiko is…well…okay. Where the Ichiko of the manga is pleasant, hard working, smart and cute, this Ichiko is dreamy and over-smiley happy. She plays the role like a baby seal you’re waiting to watch be clubbed.

On the completely other hand, Eri is played perfectly. It’s immediately apparent that she, while not being a gabber, has a deep and rich inner dialogue – and you want to be part of it. I think that she was just about perfect.

And the rest of the cast is pretty great, too. The actor who played Ichiko’s father hit the nail right on the crumpet with his portrayal – and Ichiko’s gay friend Take was immediately likeable and real.

There were a few things changed for the movie. For one thing – the hair. In the manga, Ichiko, and later, her mother’s former lover, have dyke-y short hair. In the movie, both have shortish normal cuts. And the bald skinhead girl who piques Ichiko’s fancy is turned into a mohawk-wearing punk. No clue why.

Another thing that was changed, which I thought really odd, was the soundtrack. The manga has a distinctly classic jazz background. You can’t miss it, as jazz music and musicians are mentioned nearly every chapter. The movie was given a peppy, pop music soundtrack by noodles, that was, nonetheless, exceptionally appealing. The opening theme, particularly, was darn cute.

The final thing that I could not help but notice was that Take merely announced that he had nabbed himself a boyfriend. In the manga we meet Joe, an African-American student. I was sort of sad to see that they didn’t show Joe. I was wondering how they were going to handle that – the fact that that they didn’t bother bugged me a tad.

The story is reasonably close to the manga, until the extra inserted bit at the end, as Ichiko kills her Eri-less time by trying to become a translator like Papa. The beginning, particularly, is very, very good. Their relationship is sweet (I know that I wasn’t the only one in the theater holding my girl’s hand during a few of the lovey-dovier scenes) and quite realistic.

Ratings:

Cinematography – A little precious, 6
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 10
Service – 3

If only someone would edit that slow bit, the whole movie would be a real keeper. ^_^