Release Date: April 27, 2011 Length: 74 minutes Director: Eiji Uchida
Main Cast:
Maimi Yajima as Reira
Motoki Ochiai as Yukito
Jiro Sato as Sensei
Mao Ichimichi as Yui
Another film that's finally been taken off that 'need to watch' list and this one had been on it for a while. Wasn't really planning on giving this a review as it was so hard finding info on this film such as who most of the cast was, not even Asianwiki has this film listed which is rare for them not to have a film. Plus I couldn't find another review out there for this film or at least one in English so figured may as well do a quickie review for it, maybe this is the first review for it. My computer is really acting up again which is why I'm going to try and zip through this. Edit- Computer started to work normally halfway through so it does end up being a fairly concise review.
This movie is based upon a serial that ran in Weekly Shonen Magazine back in the 80's, not positive but think there may be two sequels to this. Maimi doesn't appear in them but she was the main reason for watching this film, she was also in the 2011 film "Ousama Game", two films in that year and none since then.
The main character in the movie is Yukito, a young man who works as a bicycle deliveryman. The film didn't get into his past at all such as why he's a vigilante, how hold he is and certain other details probably because at a running time of 74 minutes a lot of things were left out. One day Yukito did a delivery at a small cafe, after the delivery he left but soon returned to find the waitress and another man in the cafe stabbed to death.
The culprit was still there, a sleazy man who tried to take advantage of a young female telling her he'd make her an Idol. Upon seeing the two dead bodies. He was able to elude Yukito but unknown to him he was followed to his office by Yukito. They entered an elevator together but only one came out alive as Yukito took revenge for the two murders and killed the man whose name like many others in the film was never mentioned.
Maimi plays Reira who is a quiet but efficient assassin. She works for Kaneko who is the owner of a club that caters to higher class men looking for teenage girls to have. At the end of the movie it came out that Reira's family was killed 15 years ago and had been brought up to be an assassin with her 'father' being the mysterious Dojima who we only see briefly at the end. We only see Reira on one mission to kill someone but what a job she does as the man she's sent to kill has about fifty guards protecting him. They were no challenge at all for Reira who defeated them all somewhat easily with her final kill being the man she was sent to eliminate.
Yukito had befriended a man who owned a flower shop, that man was single with a teenage daughter named Yui. One night she was out with her friend Manami, the pair was approached by a man pretending to be an Idol scout but actually worked for the IX Club which is where Reira also worked. The pair of girls were quickly abducted by the man's henchmen and zipped off to the club where they were drugged immediately. They were next in line at the club to be their sex servants for their clients, the biggest client went by the title of Sensei and don't think we ever heard his real name.
Yukito discovered what happened and has set out to break into the club to rescue Yui and her friend. Before he could do that though for some reason Reira snuck the two girls out and dropped them off at a hospital where Manami died but Yui died. Her father tried to to take revenge for the hideous acts the club did but before he could do any damage they guards there killed him. That act set up the final scene as when Yukito heard of his friend's murder he vowed to take revenge.
At the club Reira's boss discovered what Reira had done with the two new girls and now she too was a prisoner of the club and was forced to have sex with the ultra sleazy Sensei. Besides not knowing his real name we also never learn why he was such an important person, one time the police entered the club but upon seeing him they quickly left. Sensei got his due though as Yukito has managed to break into the club, no one in his path stood a chance. First all of the guards were killed, then the Senseio and shortly after that the club's manager along with Dojima who was the mastermind the running of the club but a person who we only saw at the very end.
One person Yukito spared was Reira, perhaps he lad learned of her releasing Yui and her friend. Though a ruthless killer Reira did have a bit of a kind side as it turned out, she was also very adept at playing the piano which she did at the club though sure many of the clients weren't there for the music. At the very end of the film Reira and Yukito pass each other on a bridge and he looks much different in his deliveryman's uniform
Reira recognized him though and briefly spoke with him for a few seconds. He told her that his 'real name' was Black Angel who was out to rid the world of evil yet he never really went into why he had that cause. Yukito also told Reira then that now she's also a Black Angel and they may be seeing each other once again, don't know if that ever happened as the film ended right there.
Your life will not be incomplete if you don't view this movie but I found it quite a solid watch, actually I've really always enjoyed B-movies like these more then most other genres. There really nothing about the film I didn't enjoy, true there were no award winning performances but all in all if you like these shorter action movies then would recommend it highly and will give it a rating of an 8.5/10 which is a good grade from me as not many films get over a 9/10. Perhaps the only drawback was that they couldn't go into a lot of details about their pasts, especially Yukito's.
Guess if a ruthless killer was about to get you if they looked like Maimi that'd be the way to go as your last memory would be of one of the hottest women in history. She certainly looked fabulous in the film, she really didn't say all that much as you can see by the screenshots as she was a bit of a quiet killer. Have many more pics of Maimi in the next post plus following these ones here have a short trailer for the film.
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