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Terrorist organsiation Panther Claw try to kidnap Cutie's uncle, but for her
valiant efforts to fight them - she even defeats one of their leaders, Gold
Claw (Hairi Katagiri) -, superheroic android Cutie Honey (Eriko Sato) is only
threatened with arrest by pretty but stuffy police officer Natsuko (Mikako
Ichikawa), at her day-job she is scolded for being late at work (because of
saving uncle), & ultimately uncle is abducted all the same, to god knows
where. Searching for clues in the guise of Natsuko, Cutie cannot come up with
much, until Seiji (Jun Murakami), a shady scientist on Cutie's trail, gives her
some information on Panther claw: That they have killed Cutie's father, who has
once turned her into a robot, & now need a research scientist in the fields
of robotics ... & Cutie's uncle fits the bill perfectly. & behind
Panther Claw is a mythological, plant-like superhuman, Sister Jill (Eisuke
Sakai), who will stop at nothing to get to the secrets of Cutie Honey's power
... even if that means to fight Cutie Honey herself ... problem is of course
that nobody knows who Cutie Honey is in her private life: clumsy office worker Honey
Kisaragi, who seems to have enough problems handling her normal life, let alone
superheroics ... Nobody knows it, but police officer Natsuko is determined to
find out & secretly follows Cutie everywhere she goes, until she has enough
evidence that Cutie is really the poor office-girl ... but of course Panther
Claw have followed Natsuko, so when she thinks she can arrest Cutie, it's all
of a sudden Cutie & Natsuko versus Cobalt Claw (Sie Kohinata), an elite
fighter of Panther Claw, in Cutie's office building. & during the fight,
Cutie gets so angry & heated up that she actually burns Cobalt Claw with
her body heat, before collapsing herself. Natsuko, who knows she owes her her
life, drags Cutie to her home to get her out of harm's way. Soon, the 2 girls
are joined by journalist Seiji, who always seems to know more than he should
(little wonder, since he is secretly working for the CIA), & over a few
drinks the three decide to join forces in their fight against Panther Claw ...
even if the next morning the first thing they have to fight is a terrible
hangover. Sister Jill goes to the offensive & invites the trio to her
tower, which turns out to be a giant drill right under Tokyo Tower that, once
it emerges, lifts Tokyo Tower a few hundred meters into the air. And to soften
Cutie up, Sister Jill arranges for Cutie to fight her 2 remaining top fighters
- Scarlet Claw (Mayumi Shintani) & Black Claw (Mitsuhiro Oikawa) - along
the way ... which Cutie defeats, but she uses up almost all of her reserves
& arrives at the tower's top (& at Sister Jill's) virtually powerless
... & to up the ante, Sister Jill has since taken Natsuko hostage, which
leaves for Cutie but one alternative ... to join Jill in her eternal life, thus
giving her all her android secrets ... but Cutie, the Warrior of Love, has
still one weapon left ... LOVE, & with love alone, she manages to defeat
Sister Jill, who has cleansed herself of all human emotions long ago -
& has thus no way to fight Cutie ... Based on a manga by Go
Nagai, that was turned into an animated tv-series as far back as 1973, Cutie
Honey, the movie, is at times deliberately cheesy, & always
tongue-in-cheek in its depiction of comicbook superheroics ... much like Go
Nagai's manga was in the first place. The inherent (& ironic) cheesyness
of the film is manifested in an overly colourful direction, laughable plastic
costumes, sudden musical numbers, the kitsch ending in which love defeats
everything & of course the villains over-the-top villainy (e.g. lifting the
Tokyo Tower with a giant drill - a bit reminiscent of Golden
Bat, a superhero-film starring Sonny Chiba from 1966, actually). Taken
as a good joke, Cutie Honey is completely
enjoyable & a fun ride from beginning to end - even if it might miss a
certain degree of afterthought that could have made it so much more (... then
again, maybe not).
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Flix.com
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find Cutie Honey at adultvideouniverse.com
