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Sera-Fuku to Kikanju
Sailor Suit and Machine Gun
Japan 1981
produced by
Kei Ijichi, Haruki Kadokawa (executive), Hidenori Taga (executive) for Kadokawa Haruki Jimusho, Kitty Films
directed by Shinji Somai
starring Hiroko Yakushimaru, Tsunehiko Watase, Rentaro Mikuni, Yuki Kazamatsuri, Kazuo Kitamura, Akira Emoto, Masaaki Daimon, Makoto Sato, Minori Terada, Kamatari Fujiwara, Shinpei Hayashiya, Toshiya Sakai, Ken Mitsuishi, Tatsuya Oka, Shingo Yanagisawa, Sumiyo Hasegawa, Hiroshi Madoka, Akihiko Sugizaki, Yoko Kurita, Yosuke Saito, Shintaro Ishikawa, Moto Seta, Kazuo Arai, Daisuke Iijima, Hisashi Imai, Seiko Fujiki, Masamitsu Hirota, Yudai Ishiyama, Chiaki Kojo, Koen Okumura, Kazuo Amuro, Yoko Amuro
screenplay by Yozo Tanaka, based on the novel by Jiro Akagawa, music by Katsu Hoshi
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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From the looks of it, Izumi (Hiroko Yakushimaru) is an almost
disappointingly ordinary high school girl - but then her father dies,
Mayumi (Yuki Kazamatsuri), who claims to be her father's girlfriend, moves
in with her ... and she learns she's the head of the Medaka family. Now
she has little interest in yakuza life, and the family certainly isn't the
most powerful in all of town, consisting of only four members, but when
these four vow to die in battle should she not accept the assignment, she
agrees to do it. And at first it's really just fun and games, as her
family seems happy enough to have her to constantly celebrate - that is,
until their office is shot at, Izumi's apartment is raided, and Mayumi
disappears. And detective Kuroki, the cop investigating the ransacking of
her apartment, suggests her father might have smuggled heroin. If that
already is bad enough, it's worse that soon one of the Medaka family, Hiko
(Shinpei Hayashiya), is found killed, and when Izumi confronts Sekine
(Makoto Sato), leader of a rival clan, with this, she almost ends up
killed herself. Eventually, Fatso (Rentaro Mikuni), an especially ruthless
yakuza boss, enters the frame as well, and it soon becomes clear that
everybody's after the heroin Izumi's father was supposed to have - it's
just that neither she nor any of her "family" know where it is.
But that notwithstanding, Fatso is intent of torturing the location of the
stuff out of her - which brings Mayumi back into the story, who turns out
to be Fatso's daughter, but she might not entirely be on her father's
side. And it becomes more and more clear that Izumi has to pull through
with it all, even if it may cost many more lives ... Now I
might not exactly call Sailor Suit and Machine Gun a masterpiece as
such, and it probably doesn't even totally live up to its suggestively
kinky English title (even if Izumi does wear a sailor suit most of the
movie), but it's really solid genre entertainment that's suitably violent
for its genre, but also finds the ironic side of things, and by adding a
fish-out-of-water aspect to the genre formula it brings some much-needed
freshness to the genre that by the 1980s has more or less run its course.
But above everything, it's just a fun watch that has set out and succeeded
to entertain its audience throughout.
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amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Sailor Suit and Machine Gun at adultvideouniverse.com
