Hot Picks
|
|
|
Supa Gun Redei Wani Bunsho
Super Gun Lady: Police Branch 82
Die Exekution / Super Gun Lady: Department 82 / Super Gun Lady: Substation Alligator / Super Gun Lady Wani Bunsho
Japan 1979
produced by Rou Miura for Nikkatsu
directed by Chusei Sone
starring Emi Yokoyama, Kaoru Janbo, Shin Kishida, Hatsuo Yamatani, Kenji Imai, Rikiya Yasuoka, Ken Kazama, Sakae Umezu, Koji Kawamura, Kintaro Sakata, Hatsuo Yamaya
screenplay by Haruhiko Arai, Jun Takada, Chusei Sone, based on the manga by Tooru Shinohara, music by Ken Matsumoto
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
Mika (Emi Yokoyama) and Rin (Kaoru Janbo) are two of the toughest
agents of police branch 82, the toughest department there is when it comes
to apprehending criminals ... and currently, they investigate the suicide
of a businessman who has even left a suicide note - only they're sure it
was no suicide but murder. Their trail before long leads to an alleged
nationalist organisation - that's actually a web of terrorists. However,
eventually, the two women become the hunted, and after a long and violent
car chase, Mika is captured by the nationalists, stripped, humiliated,
raped, and hooked on heroin. Eventually, Rin manages to rescue her, and
eventually, she and her colleagues get Mika clean again. Heck, they even
manage to have some of the heads of the nationalists arrested - but they
are all mighty men within politics and the police, so they just organize
for a few crazed convicts to raid a bank and create a hostage situation to
not only distract Mika and Rin (who are told to intervene) but also the
public at large from the scandal. And while Mika and Rin succeed to
resolve the hostage situation and shoot all the bankrobbers, the leaders
of the nationalist web get off scot-free - but are ultimately assassinated
by Mika and Rin, who make sure of it their deaths look like accidents ... A
film that works more due to its action and torture setpieces than anything
else: Especially the first scene (a car crashes into an average family's
home without warning), the central car chase that involves a high-speed
drive through a derelict building, and the solution of the hostage
situation could not be tenser, and more adrenaline-filled - and there are
other sequences of the same quality as well. That said, the film's plot
seems awfully jumpy and not 100% thought through, and the characters
remain flat throughout, their relations to one another underdeveloped. For
all the well-executed action, the film is still well worth a look I
suppose, just don't expect any depth to go with it.
|