Tag Archives: japanese

BLOOD THE LAST VAMPIRE (2009)

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BLOOD THE LAST VAMPIRE (2009)

A scan of the DVD cover as my copy is an ex-rental with a crappy cover

I like the idea of animation being turned into live action. Every time I have heard of a cartoon from my youth or an anime being made into a live action feature I have jumped on board to see the result. Have I been disappointed? Maybe I should let films like He-man, Aeon Flux, Fat Albert, Underdog and The Flintstones live action films answer for me.

Yeah, that’s right. Not a great strike rate .

Blood The Last Vampire is based on the OVA (original video animation) of the same name that was released in 2000. It was originally supposed to be part one of three, but the other two never emerged. Since then though there have been manga, novels and an animated TV series, and now, a live action film.

Gianni Juan as Saya

Blood the Last Vampire tells of Saya (Gianna Jun) who is a 400 year old vampire/human half breed dedicating her life to the destruction of vampires. She gets support from a secretive agency known only as The Council, who place her in situations where vampire infestations may be arising. Even though she appears to be in the Council’s employ, she is only there until she destroys the demon lord Onigen (Koyuki).

Her latest mission takes her to an American airbase in Japan, where, undercover as a student, she finds the plague greater than expected, and with the Council going through some, shall we say, management changes with extreme prejudice, she also finds herself ultimately alone, which is not what she needs when also has to protect Alice (Alison Miller), the daughter of one of the officers on the base.

The vampire close in on Saya and Alice

The cast of this film is wonderful. Gianna Jun as Saya plays the part to a T and considering she does a lot of the wirework herself, kicks some serious arse! Special mentions also have to go to Koyuki, whose elegance brings something different to her major fight scene, and also to Colin Salmon, who seems to pop up everywhere in genre stuff of this period, and never really disappoints.

Standard issue master-styled character

The script on the other hand is average. It employs cliché after cliché, and for those familiar with American pop culture it is hard to find much original with this story, which appears to be a remix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Marvel character Blade. Occasionally the script offers moments where it tries to get some kind of legitimacy with comparisons, disguised as references, to classical literature such as Mary Shelley’s Franksenstein and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures Through the Looking Glass, though ultimately they feel tacked on. The script however isn’t the worst part of the film.

Tragically, the CGI in this is nothing short of deplorable. I not an opponent of CGI effects, and I enjoy it when CGI effects are employed well in a film, but it is not here. The blood effects are almost all CGI, and have solidity to them that looks completely unrealistic, especially as how a lot of the action sequence are in slow motion, which doesn’t hide its lack of realism. As a matter of fact, it makes it look even worse. If I were the filmmaker and my CGI blood looked this bad I would want to get rid of the blood scenes ASAP and would have played all the fighting in fast forward.

I’d like to say that the CGI demons are an improvement, but they are not. Badly designed and poorly executed CG make for a poor cinematic experience. I reckon even the CGI guys from Van Helsing would have laughed at this one. To say I may be being unfair because CGI has come so far, it doesn’t even stand up to films of the period.

In films like The Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police one can overlook the crappiness of the CGI as the subject matter doesn’t appear to be taking itself too seriously, but in this film it looks out of place and awkward. Rubber monster suits and physical arterial blood sprays would have been preferable.

So does Blood the Last Vampire change my opinion of the terrible cartoon to live action films we have so far seen? No it doesn’t, but not because it wasn’t a faithful adaptation or because it was treated with disrespect; the fault this time falls directly in the lap of the special effects department, and a little in the scriptwriters direction. What a shame!

Blood the Last Vampire is a great example of wonderful ideas executed poorly. I appreciate that this is a lower budgeted film, but I firmly believe that just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should – did Jurassic Park teach us NOTHING?!? Just because these filmmakers had the ability to do effects digitally definitely doesn’t mean they should have, as those effects are what ultimately wreck the film.

The DVD menu

Extras: A few extras on this disc:

The Making of Blood covers the making of the film, mainly the physical effects and wirework. It doesn’t go to deep into the making of the film, but it does show the difficulties that can come from a stunt heavy film.  

In addition to a trailer for this film, there are also trailers for Tokyo Gore Police, Ichi, The Machine Girl, Ong Bak 2: The Beginning and Godzilla: Showa Classics.

Film: 4/10

Extras: 4/10

Rewatchability: 2/10

A vampire meets its maker

The DVD was purchased ex-rental from the now-closed VideoEzy Miranda

DARK WATER (2002)

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DARK WATER (2002)

The Eastern Eye dvd of Dark Water

If you remember horror in the early 2000s, you remember one thing: j-horror.

Movies like Ring, Ju-on The Grudge and their many competitors and imitators and remakes flooded the western dvd and cinema market, making us finally aware that the scariest thing in the world is a 7 year old girl with wet black hair, when in actual fact it’s a 14 year old girl with an attitude.

Trust me.

Based on a book by Koji Suzuki, Dark Wayer was directed by Hideo Nakata, who directed Ring, Ring 2 and the western version of The Ring 2. This film could have very easily slipped into the series as it’s about a wet, trapped spirit of a young girl… they could have even named it Bore-Ring… but perhaps that is revealing my opinion of the film a bit too early.

Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki) ponders the rain

Bore-Ring… I’m sorry, Dark Water starts by introducing us to Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki), recently divorced and a former sufferer of some PTSD issues due to very violent books she had been proof-reading for a publishing company.

Matsubara and her daughter Ikuko (Rion Kanno)

Her and her daughter, Ikuko (Rio Kanno), move into a fairly awful apartment block, with a disinterested apartment manager that is in desperate need of some love, but there is something odd about their home.

Water seems to be perpetually leaking from the roof and a fairly ominous stain is creeping across the ceiling in one of the rooms, and more and more, an sense of something strange in the apartment starts to become more apparent, which starts with Ikuko finding a child’s handbag/ backpack.

What is the secret of the water that constantly seems to be in the apartment block, and why does Matsubara seem to be at the corner of the mystery? Is there a presence there, or is her poor mental health to blame?

Introducing yet another ‘scary’ little ghost girl!

Essentially this is a well made as any of these Japanese films of this era, and honestly, when it first came out I was desperate to grab anything from Madman’s Eastern Eye brand, a desperation that Hollywood must have felt as there is an entirely forgettable western remake directed by Walter Salles, starring Jennifer Connolly, Tim Roth, John C. Reilly and Pete Postlethwaite which is so forgettable I actually falsely remembered that it was Demi Moore who played the Jennifer Connolly role, and when you consider my utter love of Jennifer Connelly you’ll understand just how unbearable that film was!

Now this film is well acted by the cast, and honestly the state of disrepair that the apartment block reveals a Japan that I never knew existed as everything always seems either very new and clean, or traditional and well-kept, but the building is almost a brutalist blight on the opinion that Japan presents itself in its media. I found that to be strange and exciting and does actually really set the tone of being wet and moist and clammy.

This is all supposed to reflect the themes of neglect and abandonment of a child and how it can effect their opinion upon the outside world, but the film moves at a snail’s pace, and I am one for a slow and deliberate horror movie, but it also has to be entertaining.

The problem with this film is it’s like an afterschool special version of a Japanese horror film, or even a Hallmark video version. It feels forced and schmatlzy in its tale and in the epilogue I found myself rolling my eyes and wondering if I should just go outside for a walk instead of enduring this.

A repeat watch of and of the Grudge or Ring films would have been a better option than watching this.

The menu screen for the Dark Water DVD

Extras:

Only trailers for Dark Water, Montage, Grudge, Volcano High, Yojimbo, Infernal Affairs and Seven Samurai.

Film: 3/10

Extras: 2/10

Rewatchability: 4/10

The bag that starts the wholemshebang.

This DVD was purchased AGES ago from Video Ezy

AUDITION aka ǑDISHON (1998)

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The steelbook cover to Arrow Video’s Audition

AUDITION aka ǑDISHON (1998)

I first saw Audtion many years ago on a terrible DVD released in Australia that was too dark and muddy and even in such an awful format, it effected me. This Bluray release has none of that and it is an even better watch, as you would expect.

Director Takahashi Miike (Ichi the Killer) has created such a mind blowing psycho-sexual piece of cinema that to stick it in a box marked ‘psychological thriller’ or ‘horror’ is to take away its impact. When first released in Japan in 1999 as Odishon, it was played in such a poor array of dead-end theatres that it whimpered out and looked like it was going to disappear without a trace. Luckily, in 2000, Audition was then picked up for film festivals in both Vancouver and then Rotterdam, where it won both the FIPRESCI prize and the KNF award, and in the following year at Fantsporto in Portugal, it won the International Fantasy Film Award – Special Mention award and was nominated for International Fantasy Film Award.

Based on a story by Ryu Murakami, Audition is the tale of a man, Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), who, after the death of his wife, finds it hard to meet a new woman. Inspired by comments made by his son, Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki), as to how loneliness is making him prematurely age, he embarks on a mission to meet women. Using his position as a video producer he starts a series of auditions for a fictional project.

Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi)

After looking over many women, he finally meets Asami (Eihi Shiina), whose exquisite delicateness intrigues Aoyama, and her quiet demeanour intrigues him, even though she is close in age to his son.

Asami and Aoyama slowly develop a friendship which blossoms into something more intimate, but after they make love for the first, Asami disappears and Aoyama starts an investigation to find her, but what he finds is that she may not have been telling him the entire truth…

The seemingly delicate Asami (Eihi Shiina)

All through this movie there is such a feeling of claustrophobia and discomfort that unlike many films gets right under your skin, as do most of Miike other films. The juxtaposition of moments of quiet beauty and subtle relationship building, combined with some of the shock moments (that I won’t reveal here) are truly amazing. The real trick here is that there are moments of intimacy that are filmed more like claustrophobia than closeness, and that adds to the unsettled nature of this new relationship between the main leads.

… maybe NOT so delicate…

Although Miike doesn’t make horror films per say, he is however a reluctant genre film director who has had horror cult status thrust upon him, which is why films like this, and his others like Visitors Q and his comic adaptation Ichi the Killer are such fascinating watches.

This story works so effectively as it doesn’t adhere to stereotypes, as one would expect from a film that didn’t get punched out of the Hollywood thriller cookie cutter. This film reminds me of the first time I read American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis, the combination of subtle day-to-day suddenly flipped on its head. This is a movie that will stick with you for a long time after you watch it.

The menu screen to the Arrow Video Blu-ray

Disc: An absolute treasure trove of extras on this disc. I must also point out that the film can be watched with an introduction by Miike.

First, we have two commentaries, The first by director Takashi Miike and screenwriter Diasuke Tengan, and a second by Tom Mes. The first is in Japanese so it is subtitled and is enthusiastic and interesting. The second is performed by Mes, a writer who has written books about Miike’s career. It is interesting but less so that the aforementioned one. It is in English.

There is a series of interview with cast and crew: Takashi Miike, Ryo Ishibashi, Eisis Shiina, Renji Ishibashi and Ren Osugi. These interviews are each quite long and not like the ones you would get from American films with a few sound bytes of actors and directors massaging each other’s egos. These are fascinating insights into the film and each individuals history.

Damaged Romance; An Appreciation by Tony Ry looks both at Miike’s career and specifically the making of this film, and even the history of Japanese genre films.

There are two trailers for the film, one Japanese and the other the international one.

Another useless image gallery.

You’ll lose your head over this film.

Big Tits Zombie (2010)

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Big Tits Zombie (2010)

The cover to the Australian release of Big Tits Zombie on DVD

Film: Sometimes it only takes a name to pique ones interest in something. If one can produce something, and give it a name either provocative or evocative, you can get a winner. The history of cinema, especially exploitation and independent horror cinema is rife with alternative titles to make a film sound better than perhaps it really is, or even just to find the correct audience. This film was titled Kyonyû doragon: Onsen zonbi vs sutorippâ 5 (my guess is the last 3 words are ‘zombie vs stripper’) in its native Japan, and the suggested title in English was The Big Tits Dragon. Somewhere along the line, though, an alternative title was offered, and this title, ladies and gentlemen, is one I could not pass: Big Tits Zombie.

That’s right:

Big.

Tits.

Zombie.

The only way it could have been more appealing to your reviewer was if they squeezed the word ‘beer’ or ‘steak’ into the title. This film is written and directed by Takao Nakano, who gave us 2004’s Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy, and it is based loosely on the manga Kyonyû doragon, by Rei Mikamoto.

Big Tits Zombie is the tale of five strippers, Lena Jodo (Sola Aoi), Ginko Hoshikage (Risa Kasumi), Maria Kuroi (Mari Sakurai), Darna (Io Aikawa) and Nene Hanasaki (Tamayo), who are working a crappy strip club in a rundown town, and who never seem to be able to get a break. None of them really get on too well, and one day whilst fighting (topless and in 3D) amongst themselves, they discover that their dressing room behind the club they perform in has a secret door.

Our heroes!

The go through the door and discover a room full of occult antiquities, that are possibly worth a fortune. Unfortunately what they don’t realise is that their presence has brought the dead hidden down a well in the basement back to life. Dead that are keen to eat the living!!!

When  Darna goes back into the room to steal a box of money she found there, she is the first to be consumed, and the other four must now defend themselves against the hordes of the undead… that is until one of them betrays the rest, and becomes one who can control the living dead, and do her dark bidding!!!

The special effects are of a pretty low standard, even by these low budget Asian horror standards. Some of the zombies make up is nothing but rubber masks, but the variety of zombies presented in this film is fantastic. Basically, any Asian stereotype you can think of is represented by an undead version: ninja, geisha, schoolgirl, you name it. Unfortunately, at times the CGI is deplorable. Blood sprays fly out of bodies, but then just dissipate into thin air, and occasionally body cut and slashes don’t appear at all. The amusing this is the cruddy zombies and poor CGI aren’t the worst special effects: there is a tentacle zombie thing whose strings are SO obvious it should have been called Lady Penelope… what makes it even worse is the scene they can be seen in is a 3D scene, and even the STRINGS are given the 3D treatment!!

The Blue Ogre comes to collect the dead!

OK, I admit that this film is made for the nudity and the gore, but for goodness sake, the dancing choreography was of a level that would make a pre-school ballet school bawl in embarrassment. I don’t want to be too critical of it though, as whether deliberately or accidentally bad, the dancing was a comedy highlight.

Keep a keen eye on some of the sets being covered in plastic so that any fake, non-cgi blood or goop, and try not to notice that the credits are reversed, that is it suggests it is the character that plays the actor, not the other way around. Also, the director seems to have a ‘thing’ for Quentin Tarantino judging by the various visual cues from a selection of his films.

Those into not-so-traditional Japanese business fetishism will be entertained. This film has hot girls fighting, panty shots, bra shots, lingering booby blood spray and the classic ‘threatening tentacles’ of many a hentai horror tale.

So even through all the criticism I have offered upon this film, I couldn’t help but like it. Somewhere between the illogical storyline, the terrible special effects and the strippers pulling their boobs out, I found that I was being more entertained than I had been in ages

Big Tits Zombie is a badly acted, terribly choreographed, non-sensical film with crap special effects, hot Japanese chicks and substandard 3D effects. To sum up; it’s a winner. This film knows exactly what it is and revels in it. Fans of things like The Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police need to rush out and buy it now… but be warned: don’t show it to people who claim to be ‘film fans’ because they just ain’t gonna get its bloody, low budget charms! I don’t know what the Japanese word for Troma is, but I imagine the director of this film does!!

Score: ***

The menu screen for Big Tits Zombie

Extras: The first thing that has to be pointed out is that this film is presented in both 3D and 2D. The 3D is probably something you will watch only once, but I imagine you will return the zaniness of the 2D time and time again. Make sure you DO watch them both though, as they do contain different footage in the opening credits. I must also point out the 3D feature isn’t completely in 3D, but instead has an onscreen warning when to put your glasses on, sometimes even a character puts his glasses on as well.

There is a pretty funny Making of on this disc. It may not completely cover the ins and outs of the film making process, but it introduces the 6 main actors, chats with the writer director Takao Nakano and shows some of the behind the scenes footage. It is by NO means a complete ‘special edition’ styled making of, but it is pretty entertaining.

Also presented on this disc is the trailer for Big Tits Zombie, Raging Phoenix, Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl, Love Exposure and Tokyo Zombie.

Score: ***

WISIA: It’s pretty hard to resist rewatching a film called ‘Big Tits Zombie’.

The zombies have a stripper for lunch

BOOK REVIEW : Venus in the Blind Spot by Junji Ito

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Venus in the Blind Spot by Junji Ito

Whilst I have been a fan of comics for as long as I can remember, other than a few dalliances with Shonen Jump, arguably the biggest source of Japanese comics (or manga, if you prefer) I’ve never really read much except for a few reprints that companies like Dark Horse Comics did in the nineties, and the entire Akira series by Katsuhiro Ôtomo that Epic Comics, an adult line of Marvel set to emulate the more Euro Heavy Metal, released during the eighties.

I’ve always liked the style of Japanese art seen on anime like Battle of the Planets, Kum Kum, Kimba, Marine Boy, Astro Boy and the stunning space saga that is Macross aka Robotech, and I admire the fact that with manga, in general, one creator works on a title until they decide to give it up… I wonder how long Marvel would have survived if creators like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko just stopped Fantastic Four or Spiderman! I don’t know why I didn’t jump onto manga more, especially when on considers how much I loved a comic by Guinea Pig film conceptualist and mangaka (comic creator) Hideshi Hino, whose manga Panorama of Hell sat me firmly down and taught me that there was more to horror comics than the sexualised fantasies of Vampirella, or the sub-superhero is exploits of western horror characters like Werewolf by Night and Morbius.

This brings me to my more recent discovery of the work of Junji Ito. Ito was a dental technician who submitted work to a magazine called Gekkan Halloween (translation: Monthly Halloween… who wouldn’t love a monthly Halloween?) which was well received and became his series Tomie, about an immortal girl who curses the men she comes across. Ito has sited Hino and H. P. Lovecraft amongst his influences so how could I not immediately fall for his work?

This volume of his work, Venus in the Blind Spot, is a collection of 10 short stories, mostly in his exquisite tight black lines, but occasionally with colour pages or splashes of colour for effect, and a few mini-posters taken from covers of other comics like No Longer Human. This is all wrapped in a beautiful hardcover volume which has a double sided dust jacket: a similar image is on both sides (that of a beautiful blonde woman seen in the reflection of an eye) but the interior cover is clean (and the woman is smiling instead of staring blankly) with none of the titles obscuring it. This dust cover hides, on the actual cover, a terrifying image of the remains of a man being crushed by the foundations of a house, taken from one of the tales on the inside.

In this collection, there are several tales which are amazing: Billions Alone, which tells of a killer who is sewing people together, The Human Chair, based on a story by Edogawa Ranpo, a tale about a mythical chair that has a person living within it, An Unearthly Love, also based on a Ranpa story, which sees a woman married to a man with an unusual affection for a manikin, the very Lovecraftian The Licking Woman about a woman who attacks people and licks them, leaving a deadly rash where her tongue has touched, Keepsake, about the child born of a dead woman and finally, the masterfully bizarre story of The Enigma of Amigara Fault, a story of an earthquake that reveals a crevice covered in human shaped holes that seemingly echo actual people’s body shapes, causing them to have a compulsive need to enter them.

Unfortunately the other stories didn’t resonate too much with me, though I do think the art of Venus in the Blind Spot, the story of a girl who mysteriously disappears when you get close to her, is possibly some of Ito’s finest. I had a particular dislike for the fanboy-ish Master Umezz and Me, in which Ito explains his own obsession with mangaka Kazuo Umezu, who created the manga The Drifting Classroom, which Ito respectfully parodies/ pays homage to with his own manga The Dissolving Classroom.

The first thing anyone will notice about Ito’s work is how beautiful it is. His characters are all exquisitely beautiful in the execution, with delicate features and calm stature, which is juxtapositions fantastically by the grotesque monstrosities that they become when angered, or due to unfortunate circumstance, which is the key to great horror.

Of course, thematically one would expect there are occasional ideas that seem unusual which are due to culture and tradition, but when the actual stories themes kick off, they are quickly overlooked. His ideas of compulsion and obsession are prevalent and perhaps reveal that doom comes to those who are unable to control them.

This volume has some good stories in it, but it’s probably for completists of Ito only, and a starting reader might do better with Tomie, Gyo or Uzumaki instead.

This volume is published by Viz Media.

***

Steam Boy aka Suchîmubôi (2004)

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One from the to watch pile…

Steamboy aka Suchîmubôi (2004)

Film: It’s an interesting position that I am in where I find myself having to review an anime. As a rule, I am no fan of anime, but their are always exceptions to those rules.

In my case those exceptions are Kum Kum, the Macross Saga, Akira and Memories, and maybe I watched more recent things like Prison School, Keijo and Wanna Be The Strongest In The World. I’m not a Studio Ghibli guy (they are soooo slow and boring), I have little interest in Pokèmon (it’s dogfighting! You’re teaching your kids to like dogfighting!) and both Dragonball and One Piece have such a long history that I’ll NEVER catch up so why bother starting (i did recently attempt to watch Dragonball but by the 8th episode the enemies were STILL just TALKING about fighting… just fight, godammit!)?

Anyway, enough about that: Steam Boy is a Japanese animated film directed by Akira’s Katsuhiro Ôtomo based on a story by him and Millennium Actress writer Sadayuki Murai and tells the story of young James Ray Steam (voiced by Anna Paquin), a young inventor in an alternate steampunk-ish 1866, who has received a parcel from his grandfather, Dr. Lloyd Steam (Patrick Stewart) which is to be passed into the hands of civil engineer Robert Stevenson (Oliver Cotton) as it contains the secret of a powerful new source of steam power.

The problem for young Ray though, is that there is a nefarious group who wish to nab the invention for themselves.. and so begins a story that, except for the source of power, is still politically and industrially relevant today.

There is no doubt that Ôtomo’s hands are all over this film. The entire design of the characters is very similar to his previous works, though the pacing of the film is that of Akira.

Those who are fans of the aesthetic of steampunk should have a blast with this. The entire film is a feast for the eyes and somehow, no matter how fantastic, every machine looks as thoigh it could actually work. I imagine the research that went into the industrial revolution must have been long and arduous.

However, as pretty as the film is, it is quite slow. Some may say carefully paced, but I just found it to be a trial at times. Thankfully it is visually thrilling, so it’s not a complete loss.

Score: **

Format: This Umbrella Entertainment release of Steamboy runs for approximately 126 minutes me is presented is an immaculate 1.85:1 image with a matching DTS-HD 5.1 audio track.

Score: *****

Extras: There’s a decent bunch of extras on this disc:

Interview with Katsuhiro Ôtomo is, as the name suggests, an interview with the writer/ director of Akira, Memories and, of course, this film. The interview is in Japanese with an English dub over the top and is a fascinating look into his creative process.

Multi-screen Landscape Study is a triple-split-screen 20 minute piece of mixed media and interviews which was used at a ‘Steamboy’ exhibition. It’s slightly confusing at first but if you persevere you’ll see some interesting interviews with the creators.

Re-voicing Steamboy looks at the process involved with the casting and recording of the American dub of the film and features interviews with Anna Paquin, Alfred Molina, Patrick Stewart and vocal director Rick Zieff.

Voyage of Steamboy looks at the making of the film, in Japanese with English subtitles.

The Adventure Continues shows the end title sequence without the credit roll over it, which is pretty cool, actually.

Production Gallery is a slideshow of production paintings from the film with a portion of the soundtrack played over the top.

Animation Onion Skins shows 5 scenes in various stages of production, from storyboards to the final product.

Score: *****

WISIA: Probably not, but I enjoyed the amazing animation.

Cutey Honey (2004) Review

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One from the re watch pile…
Cutey Honey (2004)


Film: I was too old to like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers when it first hit Australian televisions, and yet somehow I did. When it first appeared on television I was working in a job where I was home early enough to watch it, and I guess I loved it as it tapped into my love of ‘uniformed hero teams’ like Fantastic Four and the Thunderbirds, and started a love of Sentai that remains to this day. 

With the new Power Rangers film out, I’ve been hit again by Sentai fever and have been watching the original MMPR on Netflix, and due to a bad influence who love anime and manga at work, have started getting back into Japanese movies, comics and cartoons again.

One thing I decided I needed to revisit was this film, Cutey Honey, a live action film based on the manga (and subsequent anime) of artist Go Nagai directed by another anime director, Hideaki Anno, best known for Neon Genesis Evangelion, and who created a new type of special effects for this film, ‘Honeymation’ which combined single photos of the cast which is then turned into ‘live’ anime sequences for effect, giving birth to another term created for this film, Digital Comic Cinema.


This movie tells the tale of Cutey Honey (Eriko Sato), an android copy of a human who has special powers which she uses in her fight against the forces of Sister Jill (Eisuke Sakai) and his (her?) villainous gang of thugs Panther Claw. Cutey Honey gets some help, though, from a cute young police officer, desperate to prove herself, Nat-chan (Mikako Ichihawa) and a reporter, Seiji Hayami (Jun Murakami), but will their combined skill be enough to thwart the baddies?


It’s a bizarre film, even by Japanese standards, with completely over the top villains and crazy events that only make sense within the confines of the film. If you tried to describe the events, I imagine people who watch ‘normal’ films either wouldn’t believe you or would suggest you accidentally ingested horse tranquillisers.

Japanese model Erika Sato is no doubt an exquisite beauty, but in this her acting range extends all the way from sad faced covergirl to squealing excitable sexpot. Actually, the squealing in this film is so frequent, sometimes I felt like I was at a 14 year old girl’s birthday party at a bowling alley, but she is something special, and the camera loves her! Unfortunately, unlike the anime, there are no flashes of nudity with Cutey Honey activates her powers, though she is frequently seen in her underwear, miniskirts or a garbage bag… yep: a garbage bag.

I should point out that Sato is not the ONLY beauty in this film, Mikako Ichihawa is lovely too, though I wish she smiled more, even though it’s not in her characters range.

The film is a load of fun, and it’s funny too. In an age when most superhero films are dark and depressing, this one has a distinct joy in its story, and the bad guys seem to only exist to be evil, though typically, there seems to be an element of Honey’s origin that’s tied into them. Their costumes are bonkers too, looking like rejects from that old MMPR show.

It is overacted, dumb and fun and you’ll perhaps doubt your sanity for watching it, but it is definitely a spectacle worth trying.

Score: ****


Format: This film was reviewed with the Australian Madman DVD release which is present in an OK 1.78:1 image with a good Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track presented in Japanese with English subtitles. The film runs for approximately 89 minutes.

Score: ***1/2

Extras: There is a decent amount of extras on this disc.

The Making of Cutey Honey is a 20 minute subtitled extra highlighting the cast and production of the film. It’s actually quite funny as it’s like a 60s styled, school aged aimed doco, with a whole pile of dialogue like ‘now Cutey Honey is a police officer… I wouldn’t mind being arrested by her’… I’m actually reading the subtitles in a Troy MacClure styled voice! The subtitles on this are occasionally annoying though as the feature itself has a fair bit of Japanese text on it so finding WHERE to see the subtitles seems to be a chore!

There is a bunch of trailers, from the sneak peak, to the actual trailer and a bunch of TV spots.

My most hated of extras, a stills gallery!

There’s also trailers for other Madman releases: Godzilla, Mothra, Mecha-Godzilla: Tokyo SOS, Please Teacher! and Seven Samurai.

Score: ***1/2

WISIA: It’s cute and dumb fun: yeah I’ll watch it again.