(Note: I had hoped to put this up yesterday/Monday but being without cable and thus Internet for roughly 30 hours prevented me from doing so until now)
For my latest review, I decided to watch and do the other live-action film I picked up at Katsucon 15: Samurai Chicks (aka Samurai Chicks: Girls For Independence).
Summary: The film revolves around 4 girls-Yuki, Aki, Saki, and Mickey (Mikki/Mikky), who train to be dancers at the Orion Dancers Academy (meaning yeah, they’re all really cute) during a civil war pitting a group known as The Kingdom, seeking independence from Japan, against the government. Through the tutelage of their instructor, the girls are trained in the ways of using dance as a weapon and how to receive their mission instructions in the form of encrypted music videos from pop idol Cocoe, also a secret operative within The Kingdom. Having been born during a riot, Yuki witnesses her mother accidentally killed by an army plane on the day that, as a 12-year-old, she is accepted into Orion Dancers Academy, and later is recruited and is paired up with the rest for training and missions. However, it all goes wrong on an early mission when an assassination attempt on a major government official and his aide fails and Saki is captured and later killed. Then Cocoe mysteriously goes missing, leaving the others to fare for themselves until, after receiving their final instructions and Yuki being given a special item to use later, they are soon ambushed and ultimately Aki sacrifices herself to save the others but a short time later another ambush results in Mickey being killed and Yuki gravely wounded. After being rescued by what appears to be her mother and left in the care of an old neighbor, Yuki recovers until they’re found and the old man sacrifices himself to save Yuki, who then returns and embarks on a quest to avenge her fallen comrades and continue the mission of The Kingdom.
Interestingly, although it looks like a martial-arts-loaded flick this one has more arthouse-film quality than anything. There’s not as much action as one might expect, although it’s still there-especially in the second half of the film. The biggest problem I have is that the story seems surprisingly nonexistent or shallow. Not much if any is revealed about The Kingdom, the characters’ past beyond Yuki’s, and so on. It almost seems to setup a potential sequel if there ever was one. It definitely has its moments and there are some nice action sequences but it seems to be style over substance It almost seems boring at times too, and even turns into a bit of a horror film in the final sequences. Just tries to be too much of different things and not enough of a total package. It’s a fine film to watch considering it garnered some acclaim by being a Seoul Film Festival Official Selection among others, but go in with tempered expectations. Rent this one first and don’t be surprised if it leaves you with more questions than answers. It also would’ve benefitted from being 20-30 minutes longer, 70 minutes just isn’t long enough. Although…watch the DVD extras and you’ll get some of those answers (namely that “The Kingdom” is actually Okinawa).
The Good: Doesn’t overdo it on the violence (it’s graphic at times but not over-the-top)some gr. Interesting plot twists and angles.
The Bad: The main story and key plots aren’t really explained. Hard to understand at times. Seems to go to fast. Too short. Relies too much on over-violence at the end. Gotta watch the DVD Extras to find out everything.
Bottom Line: Certainly something different and interesting (fighting dance scenes is a very clever concept), but too many missing pieces and too little time and not enough of its core element.
Rating (1-10): 7 (Good).
Samurai Chicks: Starring Megumi Shoji, Ayano Tachibana, Chiaki Ohta, Tomomi Miyashita, R-NA, Kanji Tsuda. Directed by Mari Asato. Released in 2004 by Eurospace. Produced by Eurospace. Released in US in 2006 by Tokyo Shock. Distributed in US by Tokyo Shock & Media Blasters. 73 minutes. In Japanese with English subtitles. Not rated. Contains some graphic violence. Strictly R-rated stuff.
DVD extras/bonus features: Premiere featurette/Q&A from film’s original April 2004 release with Megumi Shoji, Ayano Tachibana, Chiaki Ohta and Mari Asato, “The Making Of A Samurai Chick”, a short behind-the-scenes featurette and a conversation between supervisor Akihiko Shiota and Mari Asato about the project. Total extras/bonus content: 35 minutes.
