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To save her mother (Yuki Saito) from deportation, problem child Saki
(Aya Matsuura) is forced to become the student of a posh high school
that's supposed to be the headquarters of a terrorist organisation that
reaches out to bullied highschool students via a website that gives advice
on building bombs and committing suicide. Saki soon gains the trust of Tae
(Yui Okada), the school's prime bully victim, and finds out that she and a
hospitalized friend (Erika Miyoshi) have actually started what has become
the dangerous website a year ago as a mere self-help site for bullied
kids, but it has since been hi-jacked and altered into something more
sinister by someone named Romeo (Shunsuke Kubozuka). And Romeo seems to
love fitting out students with bomb vests ...
Eventually, Saki learns the ultimate goal of the terrorist organisation
is mass suicide with Tae delivering the bomb to do so as involuntary guest
of honour. Saki can prevent that - but meanwhile Romeo and gang rob the
first national bank in a daring heist, as the mass suicide was only a
distraction for the police.
Ultimately, Saki manages to track down Romeo and gang, and after
fighting and defeating his henchmen and his right-hand-woman Reika (Rika
Ishikawa), the high school beauty queen who is actually a secret
policewoman gone rogue, she engages in an extended fight with Romeo, armed
only with a yo-yo, at the end of which Romeo blows himself up thanking her
for the fun she gave him.
Riki Takeuchi plays aki's mentor who unbeknowest to her is also her
dad.
A film that features a cute schoolgirl (who dresses up in spandex for
the finale) fighting crime ared with a yo-yo, just can't be all bad, and
thanks to a very fast-paced directorial effort and to Aya Matsuura in the
lead, who balances the cute and the tough-as-nails aspects of her
character very well, this film isn't. Yet, it's far from perfect, too:
Somehow the film takes itself way too seriously to acknowledge the campy
aspects of the material, Kenta Fukasaku's direction tries a bit too much
to be hip to be fully effective, the plot makes little to no sense at all,
with most plottwists straining credibility past breaking point, and the
many references to earlier incarnations of the Sukeban Deka
series are actually not only unnecessary, they distract from the main
plot.
All that said, the film is still good (if a tad mindless)
entertainment, it's just nowhere near what it could have been.
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