Very low-budget film from Japanese indie director Mari Asato, shot on digital video (DV), it has the crisp, unappealing look of video tape (in contract, SALVAGE was also shot on DV but with diffused filters, giving it a more filmic appearance). Never actually identified as Okinawa, the film occurs on Japan's southernmost island as especially talented dancers in a dancing school are recruited as warriors, to keep "The Kingdom" from being absorbed by Japan. The dancers have a special dance-step code that they use to communicate and, when they complete training and are deployed to Tokyo as assassins, to receive orders via a top music video diva. The film is a cute action film, competently directed if not fully professional in tonality and style. The actors who play the Samurai Chicks (which aren't samurai at all, but martial artist dancers) are all very good and appropriately cute. The fight scenes betray the actors' lack of true martial art skills, but Asato directs with gusto, and the film succeeds as an effective entertainment despite its obvious low budget.
Review of Dokuritsu shôjo gurentai
