Slash And Burn

Sukebandeka The Movie 2: Counter-Attack of the Kazama Sisters

Japanese Title: Sukeban Deka: Kazama san-shimai no gyakushu
Director: Hideo Tanaka
Actors: Yui Asaka, Yuka Onishi, Yuma Nakamura
Year Released: 1988
Genre: Action
See Also: Sukebandeka The Movie, Battle Royale
Otaku Alert: Hiroyuki Nagato, who plays Dark Director Kurayami, starred as Kinta in Imamura Shohei's great Pigs and Battleships.

I've recently discovered that I love the Japanese '80s, and for completely different reasons than I love my own '80s, which is based largely on nostalgia. From where I'm standing, on the outside looking in, the '80s in Japan were the last days of innocence before the bubble burst and teenage girls began selling themselves to salarymen for cell phones. Before the loss of childhood and Love & Pop, before all of today's weird, alienated murders and shut-ins, there was the '80s, a squeaky-clean time of flared hair and good intentions, earnestness and bubbliness.

The difference in idol presentation is telling. The video diary that accompanies the DVD for Sukebandeka The Movie 2: Counter-Attack of the Kazama Sisters follows star Yui Asaka as she does her best on set, does her best in press conferences, and does her best in concert. The clothes are priceless but so is her attitude, all fresh-faced smiles and "gee whiz" pluck. I don't for a minute believe that the idol industry in the '80s was any less corrupt and soul-crushing than it is today, but what is different is that then people wanted to believe that it was somehow innocent. The projected image becomes reality, or at least the desired reality.

What better way to highlight that innocence than in contrast to fascist youth thugs? Yui (the character's name is the same as its star), the third Sukeban Deka, or girl gang cop, has been recruited into a leather-headband-wearing government group of teens who dispense justice with spiked yo-yos and Aqua-Net'd bangs, shutting down discos like pre-college exam Nazis. Yui leaves the group, but is called back into action by her two sisters, Yuka and Yuma (the actresses who play them also having identical first names) when the Sukeban Deka program director is kidnapped and a floppy disc containing the youth group's nefarious plans is obtained.

Unlike the first Sukebandeka movie, which often played like a toned-down '70s exploitation film, number 2 is light all the way. With its "kids in trouble" side story and cheap lighting, it looks more like an American TV show like The A-Team than a Toei movie. But hey, that was the '80s for you. The Japanese film industry was in dire straights—not every film can be a Tanpopo. That being said, Counter-Attack does have its moments. The series' trend of making school-girl accessories into weapons continues with knitting needles and a boomerang metal origami crane. And Yui Asaka, it has to be said, is pretty damn cute.

Kenta Fukasaku recently added to the series with his Yo-yo Girl Cop, a terrible movie whose only saving grace is an overacting Riki Takeuchi.

Riki Takeuchi Sings!

You've joined his fan club, now own his single.

Patrick Macias was kind enough to post MP3s of Riki's 1995 single, "Yokubou no Machi," or "Town of Desire." Lots of wailing guitar, thick synth strings, and one gravely voiced bad ass. There's even a karaoke version so you can do your own Riki.

Get it here.

Gamera, Super Monster

Japanese Title: Uchu kaiju Gamera
Director: Noriaki Yuasa
Actors: Mach Fumiake, Yaeko Kojima, Koichi Maeda
Year Released: 1980
Genre: Kaiju
See Also: Gojira, Gappa the Triphibian Monsters, Dogora
Otaku Alert: The Belgian video title for Gamera, Super Monster is Phoenix Dominator. I think I just found my new DJ name.

Gamera, Super Monster is the "clip show" of Gamera movies, comprised of stock footage sequences from all six previous Gamera films. Battle sequences from the earlier films have been shoe-horned into a seriously odd sci-fi adventure film about three super women from space and their mission to befriend a boy with short-shorts, making this 1980 entry into the kid's kaiju series a sort of "greatest hits" of Gamera and pretty much the only Gamera movie you need to see.

OK, that's not entirely true. I really do enjoy Gamera. Not as much as Godzilla, of course, the big lizard being my childhood hero and introduction to Japanese culture. But there's just something so endearing about Gamera. I mean, he's a turtle. Who stands. He's like those mariachi frogs you buy in Tijuana, glued into position so they look like they're standing and playing instruments. A turtle shouldn't be standing on two legs, but there he is. Oh, and now he's sticking telephone poles into his ears—how cute!

Sadly, that telephone pole sequence isn't included in the clips (so you really do have to watch more than one Gamera film) but the general weirdness of the past Gamera films is maintained in Gamera, Super Monster. This, I believe, is due to the fact that director Noriaki Yuasa was sitting in the folding chair with "kantoku" printed on the back. The man helmed all of the Gamera films to this point save one and was obviously the driving force behind the general weirdness of the series.

A ship that looks suspiciously like the Imperial Star Destroyer from The Empire Strikes Back wants to take over the Earth, so it begins sending monsters to attack the cities of Japan. Gamera, of course, rises to the occasion, as do three women in Jazzercise tights and capes, inspired, no doubt, by the Superman movies. There's lots of Yamaha organ product placement and plenty of cool Xanadu-like visual effects as well. Ultimately Gamera triumphs over little-boy-hating aliens, and flies off into space with (inexplicably!) clips from Starblazers and Galaxy Express 999 running under him.

Gamera, Super Monster was released as part of the Elvira's Movie Macabre series, packaged in a double-disc set with They Came From Beyond Space. The film is in widescreen, the only domestically available Showa-era Gamera film in such a format, although it's still dubbed into English. It's also obviously a VHS port. You can watch it with or without the original Elvira TV show segments. I opted for with, as I never saw her show back in the day. Sushi and geisha jokes abound.

Update on Viz San Francisco Theater

I spotted this in Kaiju Shakedown's interview with the folks from Viz:

We're even in the process of building a new art-house theatre in San Francisco, VIZ's hometown. In addition to the theater, this building will house a J-Pop bookstore, café, and some girls’ fashion retailers from Tokyo. It's scheduled to open in the winter of 2008.

I heard some time ago about the theater but the other stuff sounds good too. But how will they fill programming? Viz doesn't have that many acquisitions in film format...

Oh, also, Viz is bringing Nice no Mori: First Contact aka Funky Forest to DVD. That's the kind of news I like to hear.

Learning Kanji From Movies

One of my favorite things about studying kanji (the written characters that come from Chinese) is learning a character that I've seen in movie titles. So much of the kanji I learn is without context. Until I'm living in Japan, it's just characters that I forget after taking the test. But to see it in the context of a film title, or in credits, well, then it sticks.

So here are some characters you may see watching Japanese films, starting with the basics.

映画
Pronounced "eiga," this means movie.

作品
You see this one in credits a lot. It's pronounced "sakuhin" and means, essentially, a work of art, or more simply, a production. As in a Toho production.

七人の侍
"Shichi nin no samurai," means, in English, Seven Samurai. The last character is the one for "samurai." "Shichi" is the first, meaning seven, and "nin" (sometimes read "hito") is the second, signifying that it's seven people.

生きる
Another Kurosawa title, this one is "Ikiru," which means, "to live." You may have noticed (if you're at all familiar with how Japanese is written) that not all of the characters are kanji. The second two (as well as the third one in "Shichi nin no samurai") are hiragana, phonetic characters unique to Japanese. In the case of 生きる, the hiragana changes as the verb conjugates. The の (pronounced "no") in the above title denotes a possessive, essentially (seven people that are samurai).

風林火山
The Japanese title for Samurai Banners, "Fuu rin ka zan," actually means, "wind, woods, fire, mountain."

やくざの墓場
The title for Kinji Fukasaku's Yakuza Graveyard is written in kanji and hiragana. The first three characters are "yakuza," then the "no," and then "hakaba," which means graveyard. It's made up of the characters for "grave" 墓 and "place" 場.

下妻物語
This is "Shimotsuma monogatari," better known as Kamikaze Girls. The English title has nothing to do with the Japanese title, which means "Shimotsuma Story." Shimotsuma is a city in a rural area a few hours north of Tokyo. But what is useful to know is the word "monogatari." You've seen it tons of times in Japanese movie titles. "Zatoichi monogatari," "Tokyo monogatari," "Hachiko monogatari."

武士の一分
This is another with an alternate English title. In English it's Love and Honor, Yoji Yamada's latest samurai film, but in Japanese it's "Bushi no ichibun," or "one part of bushi." "Bushi" is, of course, the warrior spirit, or "bushidou" 武士道.

妖怪大戦争
Any guesses? "Youkai dai sensou," which means Great Yokai War. The first two make up "yokai," which is like a spook or goblin. Next up is "dai," or "great," then "sensou," which means "war." I saw a poster for the Takashi Miike film when I was last in Japan, before the movie had come out here on DVD, but I couldn't read the characters yet. After learning "sensou" in kanji class, I looked up "yokai" to make it complete.

And my personal favorite:

怪獣
"Kaiju," as in rubber monster movie kaiju! The characters mean "strange beast." Hey, I just noticed that the first character, "kai" 怪 (strange) is the same as in "yokai" 妖怪. Wow, I just learned a new character.

I love Japanese.

I Big Up Myself Part 2

Daily J has posted part two of its interview with me. So there.

Thanks to everyone at Nipponster for choosing me to be your launch interview. I hope I don't ruin your business.

(But seriously. It's quite flattering. ありがとうよ。)

Buying Japanese DVDs Part 2

Recently I linked to a piece I wrote last year about buying Japanese films on DVD. After looking it over I realized there was more to cover, particularly in the realm of bootleg DVDs and all-region DVD players. I'll address those two in this piece.

You may want to get caught up on the previous piece before delving into today's guide.

Bootleg DVDs
When I wrote the previous piece, I had yet to really get into the wild wild west world of bootleg DVDs. There are just so many amazing films that haven't been released on DVD, or are frantically difficult to come by, that sometimes it's just necessary. But where to buy good bootlegs? Here are three vendors that I frequent.

Kurotagi
http://www.kurotokagi.com/
The Good: Huge selection, professional quality, hard-to-find films.
The Bad: Pricey ($15.00).
The Skinny: If you can afford it and are serious about Japanese film, this is the place to visit first. Color DVD inserts, screen-printed discs, menus and everything. Better take out a second mortgage as there's so much good stuff you're going to bankrupt yourself quick.

Super Happy Fun
http://www.superhappyfun.com
The Good: Big selection (and from more than just Japan), good quality.
The Bad: No inserts, label-printed DVDs, pricey ($13.00).
The Skinny: I like Super Happy Fun, primarily because of the name. But they also have good stuff, like Himiko and Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan. A bit pricey for no insertsor case though.

All Clues No Solutions
http://allcluesnosolutions.com
The Good: SUPER cheap ($7.00, or $6.00 each if you buy 5), and some weird-ass stuff.
The Bad: No case, no inserts, no label on the DVD.
The Skinny: All Clues No Solutions is the new kid on the bootleg block and they're off to a good start. I like them because of the price, which you can't beat, and the selection. They've got stuff I haven't seen anywhere else.

All-Region DVD Players
I don't own one yet, so I can't vouch for specific players. Friends have them, and it seems really convenient to be able to play DVDs from any region, any country. You can always hack your player like I did, but that won't allow you to play PAL DVDs in an NTSC player (or vice versa for those of you on the other side of the pond). That being said, I have heard friends complain about the crappy look of PAL DVDs in their all-region players, but my friends are poor so better quality players may take care of that issue.

You can find all-region DVD players all over the place. Kinokuniya in San Francisco's Japantown has one. I've seen them in Chinatown as well. J-List has a variety of them as well, in a variety of prices (all under $100). I mention J-List because I'm an affiliate, and if you buy something from them I benefit.

Alright, happy hunting.

An Interview With Me

The nice folks at Daily J have done an interview with yours truly about this little site of mine.

Read what I have to say here.

Daily J is a part of Nipponster, a search engine that filters for Japan-related content.

Come On, Amoeba

I don't want to hate too much, because I really do like Amoeba. I've been going to their stores since they opened in Berkeley in 1990 (seems older than that, but that's what the website says). When I lived in LA I shopped at the Hollywood store, and of course I often frequent the Haight Street store. So what's up with the recent shoddy DVD ordering?

The Haight store has a great DVD section. It's huge and I've come to rely on it for fun shopping. I always find used stuff at good prices, and usually new stuff too. But the last few times I've been in there to pick up a Japanese film it hasn't even been ordered.

Last time it was for Welcome To The Grindhouse: Dragon Princess/Karate Warriors and Rica. They had neither. Today I was in there and they still didn't have Rica, nor did they have Horrors of Malformed Men or Snake Woman's Curse! I asked about it and they said they must have snuck under their radar.

OK. Rica I can kinda understand. But Horrors? It's one of the most expected titles recently. Never been available on DVD before. Ever. Not even in Japan. So what gives? I hate to say it but I'm going to have to start buying all my DVDs online.

Crunchyroll Now With Index

Just checked out Crunchyroll for the first time in a while and I was plenty surprised to see they had added an index function. The Drama Index is just what I had been hankering for.

I'm not sure if a lot of movies have been uploaded lately, or I just missed them, but the index is packed with amazing movies. Such as? Gojira Vs. Gaigan, Shinobi No Mono, Haze, the list goes on.

If you haven't discovered the wonder that is Crunchyroll yet, get thee there pronto.