|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
The Penguin Gang - C-Ko (Meiko Kaji), the only female of the group, the
overly serious Taki (Takeo Chii), Ganishin (Tatsuya Fuji), Jiro (Yusuke
Natsu), and the gun-crazy yet mild-mannered Debo (Soichiro Maeno) - are
actually not even a gang, just a bunch of youngsters who enjoy their life,
enjoy playing pranks, and sometimes get in trouble for it ... which might
even mean getting in fights with other, actual gangs every once in a while
- like that one gang that also thrashes their club house at one occasion.
But the kids enjoy what they're doing, enjoy being young and silly ... all
but Taki, who while the others were pranking half of Japan has fallen in
love with rich girl Asako (Bunjaku Han) - and against all odds, she with
him as well. Thing is, Asako has good use for Taki and the Penguin Gang
... Taki and Asako take the Penguin Gang to a camping ground at the
beach - to train them as if they were soldiers. Sometimes the others try
to protest, but Taki has some leadereship qualities so he wins everybody
over to his side ... but ultimately he and Asako have ulterior motives:
they want to rob the money transport of a money-grabbing sect, which would
result in a small fortune to be split among the gangmembers - Asako
doesn't want a share, just revenge on the sect for personal reasons -, and
this would mean quite a big step for the Penguin Gang, who so far hasn't
made it beyond petty theft. After a few days of fun and games on the
beach, Taki lets the others in on the plans for the heist, and it sounds
like a waterproof plan - but as with all the best-laid plans ... Wild
Jumbo is a sequel to the first Stray
Cat Rock movie Delinquent
Girl Boss really only in name: While the first one was a rather
typical gang movie (despite great looks and an approach at the height of
its time), Wild Jumbo combines elements of heist movie, beach party
movie and even coming-of-age movie, but blended in a highly original way
that's probably closer to French nouvelle vague than anyhing else with its
breaking with cinematic conventions by using freeze-frames and speech
bubbles at (only seemingly) random moments, by its (again only seemingly)
very laissez-faire directorial style, and its very cool, contemporary
musical score. All of this make Wild Jumbo not feel like the second
part of a series but an original film coming out of nowhere - and one that
deserves to be seen as such, as it is a highly original and very
entertaining movie! By the way, filmed back to back with
another Stray
Cat Rock movie, Sex
Hunter - which was much more straight forward in its approach to
the genre (if this is a good or a bad thing I leave up to you to decide
though, I'm fond of both).
|