I picked this up in Chinatown as an import with no subtitles because the box art looked cool. I didn't know its out here on DVD in two weeks. Then again what I paid for it is better than the 27 buck list price.
Okay, managa/anime sourced film about a tough young girl in New York returned to Japan when they find out she's been there illegally. Dumped on the streets she's given a chance to help "the Police" find out who's behind a plot to blow up kids in a school and possibly blow up the city as well. She's given a school girl uniform and a killer yo-yo with which to protect herself. (or something to that effect) Made by the director of the second Battle Royal this is an improvement over that film, while at the same time borrowing some of the angst and visual flourishes of that film. This is a good little movie that movies along even when you don't understand most of whats being said. The action is good, its mostly martial arts until the final confrontation, and several of the fights are better than many of the fights in recent American action films.
There are a couple of problems for me. Allowing that I'm watching this in a language not my own the plotting of the villain makes little sense. There's something about the plan that suddenly peters out about an hour in. As I said I couldn't really understand what was being said but there was this sudden WTF moment when I suddenly had the feeling I missed about 10 minutes.(I hope this will be cleared up when I see this in English dub or sub).
The other problem is that the yo-yo of the title doesn't really show up until the last half hour. Sure there are a few tentative uses, but mostly its seen just in the final battle with the female baddie. It also doesn't help that the battle is also a tad anti-climatic after all thats gone before. (I won't go into the fact that the battlefield changes a couple of times to work against our heroine- like when a bad magically appears for her to trip over) Definitely watchable-assuming they don't blow any English dub (The wrong dub will kill this so go for subs)-just opt for rental or cable.
Okay, managa/anime sourced film about a tough young girl in New York returned to Japan when they find out she's been there illegally. Dumped on the streets she's given a chance to help "the Police" find out who's behind a plot to blow up kids in a school and possibly blow up the city as well. She's given a school girl uniform and a killer yo-yo with which to protect herself. (or something to that effect) Made by the director of the second Battle Royal this is an improvement over that film, while at the same time borrowing some of the angst and visual flourishes of that film. This is a good little movie that movies along even when you don't understand most of whats being said. The action is good, its mostly martial arts until the final confrontation, and several of the fights are better than many of the fights in recent American action films.
There are a couple of problems for me. Allowing that I'm watching this in a language not my own the plotting of the villain makes little sense. There's something about the plan that suddenly peters out about an hour in. As I said I couldn't really understand what was being said but there was this sudden WTF moment when I suddenly had the feeling I missed about 10 minutes.(I hope this will be cleared up when I see this in English dub or sub).
The other problem is that the yo-yo of the title doesn't really show up until the last half hour. Sure there are a few tentative uses, but mostly its seen just in the final battle with the female baddie. It also doesn't help that the battle is also a tad anti-climatic after all thats gone before. (I won't go into the fact that the battlefield changes a couple of times to work against our heroine- like when a bad magically appears for her to trip over) Definitely watchable-assuming they don't blow any English dub (The wrong dub will kill this so go for subs)-just opt for rental or cable.