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Deep Sea Monster Reigo
InMovie Reviews, Ugly

Deep Sea Monster Reigo (Review)

January 26, 2009By

Deep Sea Monster Reigo

aka Shinkaijû Reigô

2008
Directed by Shinpei Hayashiya
Written by Shinpei Hayashiya and Keita Toriumi

Thanks to the wonders of Chinese DVDs we get a copy of Deep Sea Monster Reigo, which information has been leaking about this film for five years! Much of the initial filming was done around 2004-2005, and since then it has been mostly effects work done in spare time by director/writer/effects man Shinpei Hayashiya, who is a major effects guy in Japanese cinema and enjoys working on giant monster films so much he has been making his own for that past few years. He has been known to have made Gamera 4: Truth (Gamera 4: Shinjitsu) which features a white Gyaos; and also the Godzilla fan film Godzilla x Desugirasu (which is probably Godzilla VS Seadora.) So this guy lives for this stuff. In fact, we are already getting a sequel, Deep Sea Monster Raiga!

Over the years, the project has gone through several names, including A-140F6: Shinkaijû Reigô sakusen (A-140F6: Operation Deep Sea Monster Reigo), Reigô tai Yamato (Reigo, the Deep-Sea Monster vs. the Battleship Yamato) and finally Shinkaijû Reigô (Deep Sea Monster Reigo.) In 2004 Shinpei Hayashiya was negotiating two other cast members, former pro-wrestler turned politician Hiroshi Hase and former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Neither of them signed on, but it would have been cool. We wrote an article about Deep Sea Monster Reigo a while back, so it has some more tidbits.

Reigo requires some background information so we don’t just jump in with no clue what is going on. The Yamato was a Japanese warship that served in World War 2, at the time it was the heaviest warship ever built displacing 72,800 tonnes at full load, and armed with nine 46 cm (18.1 inch) main guns. The Yamato was sunk in April 1945 during Operation Ten-Go. None of the historical officers mentioned in the Wikipedia article show up in the film (at least as far as I could tell) so everyone seems to be purely fictitious. But, then, subtitles… The film takes place in the days just after US involvement in World War 2 and the Yamato faces its first powerful opponent, a sea monster named Reigo. Reigo is a little ticked that the Yamato killed its baby, so she sets out to starts smashing up the Yamato and its battle group (Battleships sail with several smaller ships for support, mostly destroyers/cruisers.) Battle is joined, people get killed, ships get sunk, the monster roars a lot, lighting flies all over the place, your general kaiju stuff.

This Chinese DVD has no English subtitles, so it is either Japanese language or Chinese subtitles, so we shall just wing it. At TarsTarkas.NET, we don’t need no stinking subtitles! The film is pretty easy to figure out without subtitles, so no worries there.

Ensign Takeshi Kaido (Takayasu “Taiyo” Sugiura) – Our lead character is Ensign Takeshi Kaido, a newly graduated cadet out to sea on his first mission right when the US declares war on Japan. He has a girlfriend and will be around during a lot of the action, but doesn’t really do a lot. Taiyo Suguira starred in Ultraman Cosmos and several other productions.
Officer Noboru Osako (Yukijiro Hotaru) – is the father of detective Osako from the Heisei Gamera trilogy, so this is a neat little surprise. Osako runs one of the gun crews on the main battery. Yukijiro Hotaru also starred in Shinpei Hayashiya’s fan film Gamera 4: Truth (aka Gamera 4: Shinjitsu)
Chie Kojima (Mai Nanami) – Takeshi Kaido’s love interest. Not a big role. Besides having a photobook Mai Nanami hasn’t really done much of anything.
Captain Yamagami (Susumu Kurobe) – Ultraman?!?!?! Yes, it is Susumu Kurobe as Captain Yamagami, the captain of the Yamato who can’t handle losing so many men, then mysteriously disappears. Susumu Kurobe was Hayata, Ultraman’s human alter-ego in the original Ultraman series. Susumu Kurobe starred in numerous other Ultraman productions, and was also seen here in Ghidrah and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus.
Crewman Kanai (Yoji Tanaka) – Another Yamato crew member. Yoji Tanaka was in a lot of cult films including Cutie Honey.
Benkei (Ukon Ichikawa) – aka Saito Musashibo Benkei (1155 – 1189), a legendary warrior monk who is in a bunch of kabuki and Noh plays, so maybe you should learn some culture and go see one. Or just watch him dance around on the deck of the Yamato as the entire crew is slaughtered. Ukon Ichikawa is a renowned kabuki actor.
Reigo – Reigo is a mama mad about her dead baby and attacks the ship foolish enough to make her childless, the Yamato. Reigo has electricity powers, lightning strikes her all the time and she can conjure up little electric Reigos to tear people up. Not immune to battleship weapons. Reigo was designed by Amemiya Keita (the director of Zeiramu) and then developed by Haraguchi Tomoo, who worked on the Heisei Gamera trilogy.

Deep Sea Monster Reigo
InMovie News

Deep Sea Monster Raiga – sequel to Reigo!

December 31, 2008By

Deep Sea Monster Reigo

Deep Sea Monster Raiga is an upcoming kaiju film from Japan that just happens to be a sequel to Deep Sea Monster Reigo, which we reported on months ago. The original film was the WW2 battleship Yamato against a sea monster, the new film is modern day and has a land monster attack Japan! Shades of Godzilla, eh? He even looks suspiciously like him, but totally isn’t. Maybe he will fight a turtle that totally isn’t Gamera. There is a trailer up at Nipponcinema.

Official site

Thanks to Avery!

InMovie News

Sexy S.W.A.T. Team films

December 26, 2008By

Mototsugu Watanabe produced a number of Pink films. Besides Sexy Battle Girls (See the Yo-Yo Sexy Girl Cop Review), he also started a series of films known as Sexy S.W.A.T. Team films. There were four films in this series, total. Two of them are currently prepped for release by Pink Eiga, who are also releasing Sexy Battle Girls. Their website is NOT WORK SAFE: Pink Eiga. They are releasing the first and fourth movies, but are labeling Sexy S.W.A.T. Team 4 as 2 (Sexy S.W.A.T. Team 2: The Silence of the Sushi Rolls). The films were written by Haruka Namiji (1, 2, and 4) and Kôsuke Takeda (3) . Watanabe has made over 100 films, established his own production company in 2001, Nabe Cinema, and continues to make Pink films to this day. He is probably filming one right now. Using your sister!

Here is some info on the individual films:

Sexy S.W.A.T. Team aka Onna chikan sôsakan: Oshiri de shôbu! aka Female Detective Molester Buster: My Ass Wins.
1998 IMDB link
cast: Masayuki Akuta, Yumika Hayashi, Yukijirô Hotaru, Shôko Kudô, Nao Saitô, Satomi Shinozaki

The “Sexy S.W.A.T. team” is an elite unit of four beautiful women, fighting Tokyo’s sex crimes. When inspectors, Michelle and Heather, discover a laser is erotically affecting peoples’ minds, they link the incidents to a nearby Brainwave Institute. The struggle begins as they attempt to uncover the mystery, and bring down the mastermind behind it all.

Trailer link on NSFW Pink Eiga site

Sexy S.W.A.T. Team 2 aka Onna chikan sôsakan 2: basuto de goyô! aka Female Detective Molester Buster 2: Catch You with My Breasts aka Chikan fairu: sennyû onna sôsakan 2.
1999 IMDB link
cast: Shôko Kudô, Tomohiro Okada, Nao Saitô, Keiko Seto, Hitomi Yamazaki, Makoto Yamazaki

Sexy S.W.A.T. Team 3 aka Onna chikan sôsakan 3: chijô no tekunikku aka Female Detective Molester Buster 3: Indecent Technique aka Chikan otori sôsakan: inshû no yubisaki aka The Molestation Investigator Decoy
2000 IMDB link
cast: Yukari Aoki, Ichirô Nakade, Makoto Sasaki, Mayuko Sasaki, Shûetsu Tôkaichi, Makoto Yamazaki

Sexy S.W.A.T. Team 4 aka Onna chikan sôsakan 4: torokeru kahanshin aka Female Detective Molester Buster 4: Melting Body aka Chikan otori sôsakan 2: geki nure inran shiri aka The Molestation Investigator Decoy 2.
2001 IMDB link
cast: Yumika Hayashi, Yukijirô Hotaru, Motoshi Imano, Kyôko Kazama, Terumi Minami, Ken’ichi Tajima, Shûetsu Tôkaichi

The elite sexual crime investigator, Claire, tries to arrest a sexual offender on a train. However, he puts a strange machine on her vagina and she becomes momentarily paralyzed. One day, she is ordered to investigate a stalker’s incident. She discovers the crime is related to the groper and his strange machine. Claire asks the help of super genius scientist and criminal, Dr. Honeybar Nectar, and tries to solves the crime

Trailer link on NSFW Pink Eiga site

InMovie News

Japanese Movie Trailer Craziness

December 26, 2008By

Trailers for five other films are included on the Yo-Yo Sexy Girl Cop DVD (I have a non-American version, so YMMV.) They are a general cross-section of the DTV softcore industry in Japan, which is filled with hundred of weird films. Some of them are breakout weird, and some of them are just standard weird. I think you will know when we get to the breakout one…

First up is some random film about a bunch of people who have sex, use vibrators, bang on a dude’s junk with a hammer (and then a girl satisfies his bandaged unit.) This is followed up by going on some sort of stage show/seminar/home shopping channel and sexing it up Japan style. No clue what the title is, but if you can translate it you can order this fine DVD for some reason:
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Next up is a movie designed like some show that looks like guys nailing girls with random jobs, trying to get to 100 girls. The professions include a massage girl, some girl in a mardi gras costume, a ballerina, and it looks like #100 is a reporter. There are also Chikans (Japanese subway perverts) who factor into the plot somehow. All of this seems to be produced by a boob-themed tv show that seems to be putting on a contest. This film is odd, but not enough craziness or fun for my taste.
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The third entry is the highlight and why this article was written…a film with ninjas! Titled Bin Bin or something, starring a ninja dude with ratty teeth that make British smiles look like Crest City. This is a costumed film, much like a future review here called Queen Bee Honey. The trailer lets us know the film is filled with sex sex sex sex sex sex, but it also features some wacky characters:
Ninja Girl
Other Girl
Girl in Cat Costume
America Girl – She has red white and blue panties, and is all pro-USA.
Evil Devil Girl
Nerdy Ninja Girl
Random Nerdy Dudes – one has a big fro
The main gnarly-toothed dude can fly thanks to blue screen technology. Blue screens – enabling bad films since the color blue was invented. Another interesting sequence involves the Evil Devil Girl sucking Gnarly Teeth Guy into a black hole where her vagina should be! Someone’s fantasy just go made in Japanese bad teeth form!
There are also ninja fights, and best of all, a giant robot that steps on the two girls operating it. Giant robots in softcore porn, I think this is a first.
This film looks like fun city.
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Next – There is some sort of magic act to make a foam dildo by a hot chick, this is the intro to the next movie. It has a plot that seems to be about a UFO, except there is also parts that look like The Ring. Some sort of low budget science fiction spoof. The title might be Yrick, because that word keeps appearing on the screen, and there doesn’t look to be a title screen.
So some girl yells at you, so buy the DVD, because she yelled at you to! You don’t want to anger the random Japanese movie starlet, do you?
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The final trailer can be described as thus –
Kyoko is some girl who wants to be martial artist or something, she has glasses and a sports bra. Her training seems to be pulling trains with all the dudes. That’s like ten guys at once. This is some sort of gang-bang karate. Forget 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, this is Ten Guys’ Poles Taker. There is some other girl who is pulling trains as well, I guess she is the rival. They keep pulling trains until the girl who pulls the most trains wins. This movie would be good if you like seeing women have sex with lots of dudes at once, but don’t like it to be actual porn. You know, what we really need is a softcore film about train operators who have lots of sex, because that hasn’t been done yet! Imagine all the time you could film with stock shots of trains entering tunnels. Skanks on a Train.
Kyoko is called a loser by the guys in her train, but the fight is on, so she keeps gang-banging away! It is a movie to show you the triumph of the human spirit. I could be completely wrong on the plot, but Japanese trailers are confusing.
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InMovie Reviews, Ugly

Yo-Yo Sexy Girl Cop (Review)

December 26, 2008By

Yo-Yo Sexy Girl Cop

aka Sukepan deka: Bâjin nêmu = Moromie Saki

2006
Directed and written by Daigo Udagawa

Japan’s output of film is remarkable. They have taken to direct to video like it is crack cocaine, allowing for hundreds of cheaply produced films to flood the market, many of which are adult in nature. Their softcore industry is a monster of its own, complete with dozens of subgenres and long-running film series such as the Ninja Vixens movies (ten at last count) and erotic versions of many mainstream films. I hesitate to call Sukepan deka: Bâjin nêmu = Moromie Saki, aka Yo-Yo Sexy Girl Cop an erotic parody, because the films seemed to have forgotten the parody part and is instead just a slightly sexed up version of the big budget film done for 1/100th the price. It is hard to believe I spent so long looking for this film, thinking it would be a good companion piece to the Yo-Yo Girl Cop review. Instead, it is disappointing to say the least. There are some moments of charm, but all in all the film is slow and boring, slightly disturbing, and will never be watched again.

Yo-Yo Sexy Girl Cop (Sukepan deka: Bâjin nêmu = Moromie Saki) is not the only erotic version of Yo-Yo Girl Cop (Sukeban Deka: kôdo nêmu = Asamiya Saki) to come out in that film’s wake, the hardcore porn Sukepan deka: kôdo nêmu = Maramiya Saki was another example. Where as Yo-Yo Sexy Girl Cop merely stars an AV actress and has simulated sex, Sukepan deka: kôdo nêmu = Maramiya Saki is filled with hardcore sex. In addition, Yo-Yo Sexy Girl Cop is not even the first softcore knock-off of the Sukeban Deka franchise, Mototsugu Watanabe’s Sexy Battle Girls (Nerawareta gakuen: seifuku o osou) – aka Sukepan deka: kawaii meiki preceded this film by many years. Having not seen that film, which starred Kyôko Hashimoto, I can’t accurately compare the two. More info on the two other Sukeban Deka erotic versions mentioned in this paragraph are at the end of the review, along with poster art.

So now we can jump right into Yo-Yo Sexy Girl Cop (Sukepan deka: Bâjin nêmu = Moromie Saki), written and directed by Daigo Udagawa. The film stars Mihiro Taniguchi as Saki Moromie, and follows much of the basic storyline from its inspiration, though it ditches the boring website cult storyline and just runs with a prostitution ring, government corruption, and the schoolgirl forced to investigate by a secret agency in order to save her jailed mother. The film copies the poster art, the uniform style, and some smaller details, but is limited by the small budget as to what they could do on film.

Let’s meet the cast!

Saki Moromie (Mihiro Taniguchi) – Saki Moromie is your normal teenage Japanese girl whose mom is a crack fiend. To free her, Saki must work for the secret government agency that arms girls with yo-yos and sends them after criminal syndicates. Just like that other movie that came out recently. The yo-yo is kept in a special holster set into the crotch of crystal panties. Just imagine all the goofy sexual innuendo possibilities, especially with a pervy country like Japan making this film. Mihiro Taniguchi started out as a nude model and eventually became an AV star. She has recently starred in a few more mainstream movies, including the film you are now reading about.
Asuka (Shô Nishino) – Saki gets a friend, the popular and hot Asuka, who shows her the ropes and is the first person ever to be kind to Saki (after beating her up.) So of course she is soon to die. Shô Nishino is also an AV star
Reiko (Rio Nakamura) – Teacher and evil slore who dreams of running the school’s prostitution program herself. Somehow, this involves killing some of the most popular prostitutes. I don’t get it. Whatever. Jealous of Saki’s good looks. Rio Nakamura is another AV star. So many of these Japanese actresses in the softcore films turn out to be AV stars. It is amazing.
Headmaster (???) – The Headmaster runs the school and the giant prostitute ring that it encloses, but he is an idiot and keeps way to many records, plus squeals like a pig in the slightest whiff of him getting caught. He has probably confessed his crimes to a toll booth collector after missing some change. I do not know who played him.
Politician (Seiji Nakamitsu) – All politicians are slime buckets, but this one is nothing but bucketless slime. All horrible goo, no containment. His public face is one of caring, but his private face (hidden behind a mask) is killing schoolgirls after he sexes them up. Japanese politicians are more efficient on their perversions, throwing several in the basket at the same time. A biography of frequent Pinku star Seiji Nakamitsu can be found here.
Saki’s partner (???) – Saki has a partner in her special police squad, but all he does is stand around looking clueless and depressed, like he wants to talk to saki but is too afraid of girls to say anything. He is nothing like his counterpart in the original movie. I do not know who played him.
Nerdy Guy (???) – He may be named something like Sapei, he is the first to befriend Saki in her new school after she defends him from those gross girls and their scary vaginas. But his affection is pathetic and interfering with her bad girl persona, so she treats him like dirt. He keeps coming back for more. I do not know who played him.

Cool Dimension
InMovie Reviews, Ugly

Cool Dimension (Review)

October 6, 2008By

Cool Dimension

aka Kûru dimenshon

2006
Directed by Ishii Yoshikazu
Written by Sato Midori and Yamamoto Norihisa

Three sexy Japanese girls with guns and leather costumes kill a bunch of people. You’d think that would make a good film, and you’d be wrong! I don’t know how they did it, but they managed to squeeze almost the entire life out of a picture that should have been fun and over the top. Instead, it is a constant bore, more depressing than a kitten with AIDS, and somehow manages to make the brisk 70 minute running time feel like four hours. The general plot is some sort of f-ed up version of Charlie’s Angels, except they just kill people and sit around in various vaguely sexual poses with the Bosley character. Yeah.

One major problem is the entire characterization effort is put into depressing voiceovers while shots of the character looking glazed over, bored, and brain dead are on screen. The ramblings of the actresses would have been rejected on even the crappiest LiveJournal pages, their introspection flatter than a piece of paper. None of the characters have any real motivations or personalities, and much acting consists of staring forward or remaining completely still. We don’t know anything about the girls when the movie starts, and by the end, we still don’t know anything. Take a counter example, the movie Yo-Yo Girl Cop where we get actual characterization by the actresses acting and not doing voiceovers, actual backstories for the characters, and even a peppy soundtrack (which is still neat if you discount the songs by the actresses and just focus on the theme.) The theme here sounds like it was ripped from an experimental German black and white film from the 1950’s that has a gong banging every ten seconds or so. Not something that people will be humming in the car.

Shiori (Yoko Mitsuya) – The leader/head assassin of team Cool Dimension. For some reason wears red leather as opposed to black. Has the special ability to avoid gunshots if she completes a back flip. Yoko Mitsuya is a former child model turned actress. Shot in the back.
Mika (Mitsuho Otani) – The lesbian member of team Cool Dimension. But not lesbian enough for it to be interesting. In fact, she may not be a lesbian but just a victim of bad writing. Killed by a bunch of rival female assassins brought in by Junko.
Junko (Mika Shigeizumi) – Crazy evil member of team Cool Dimension. Why is she evil? Why not, she just is. Mika Shigeizumi must have had eyelid surgery, giving her eyes some bug-eyed look that enhances her character’s supposed insanity. The best acting in the film was done by surgery she had years earlier. Killed by Shiori.
Kurokawa (Kenichi Endo) – The Bosley character to his trio of creepy angels, Kurokawa spends most of the film in various disturbing still-life embraces with one to all of his charges. He sets off an aura of creepiness, and that was before I recognized him from Visitor Q. No dead body sex here, but Kenichi Endo is a regular fixture in Takashi Miike films.
Charlie (CGI/??? Voice) – I guess his name is Charlie, they never give it, but he gives the orders to the teams and organizes the assassination missions for the Cool Dimension team. Maybe he is Mr. Cool, or Mr. Dimension. Beside a brief appearance in the beginning, he never factors in again and is completely forgotten. It’s just that kind of movie to not bother with explaining anything.
Haruki Muraoka – Target of the group, wife was killed by corrupt politician Mr. Tsuyama ten years prior, and his daughter was injured and hidden. Killed by Junko.

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