Sêrâ-fuku to kikanjû

With a title like Sailor uniform and machine gun I thought this would be a cheesy but funny action flick from 80s Japan. Instead this movie is really boring and the pacing isn't very good. The only good thing I enjoyed was seeing the 80s Japan scenery.

I finished feeling disappointed.

Based on a novel by Jiro Akagawa that was published by Kadokawa publishing company, "Sera fuku to kikanjyu" (sailor uniform and machine gun) was also Kadokawa's (and then president Haruki Kadokawa's) first attempt at movie targeted for teens and young adults featuring also a teenager in the starring role.

Izumi Hoshi (Hiroko Yakushimaru) is a normal high school student, until one day a horde of yazuka shows up at the gate of her school. Unbeknownst to her, her father was the head of a "Medaka Gumi" yakuza clan. His passing away prompted the soldiers to fetch her to become the next "kumicho" or the head of the clan. Pror to passing away, her father smuggled a heroin, and that becomes the focus of rivaling yakuza clans to take possession. When one of her soldiers gets killed, Izumi reluctantly takes charge and starts to lead her troops to face the opposing yakuza clan - the only problem is Madaka Gumi only has four yakuza soldiers where the other clans have many more.

Hiroko Yakushimaru shows her brilliant intelligence to lead the group of adults much older than her. The story seem to lack focus as different characters comes and goes, but the real focus is where's the heroin, and who hid it ? Everyone is running after the heroin and much killing goes on to find it. This all sound's serious, but it's all done in light hearted fashion (how a killing can be light, you have to see this film) to appeal to the target audiences. Towards the end, Izumi while wearing her sailor suit school uniform takes a machine gun and goes into Futoccho's (Rentaro Mikuni) office to settle the score and fires the machine gun in his office, exclaiming "Kaikan" (Feel's good) which was one of the defining moments in Japanese cinema at the time.

Hiroko Yakushimaru goes on to becoming a successful movie and TV actor and is still active today.

What sells it is the main characte,r she is wonderful to see on the screen, just looking around being cute, but, Assertive, and just takes the scream.

It's a really nice useful energy to the movie and it reminds me of a children's movie but then something really dark happens and we could grab back to reality.

There's one really impressive long shot in the movie, and it's hard to hate those goofy Yakuza in her group.

The story goes so many different directions and is so interesting but still hard to follow, It is delightful confusing but still entertaining.

Movies biggest problem would say is it's a bit too slow, I did watch that directors extended version but still I wish it was cut down, but still a fun and memorable movie.

This was probably the young Hiroko Yakushimaru's most successful role in what was then the beginning of her career. She plays Koizumi, a high school student (hence the sailor suit part of the title) whose father passes away and by virtue of bloodline becomes the leader of a small Yakuza gang. The movie has some comic moments just from the concept, that a girl could run this somewhat motley group of guys. However, it is Miss Yakushimaru's performance that really makes this film. One moment sh'e weak, the next strong, one minute playful, the next serious, one minute a girl, next on the cusp of womanhood. One of the things I like about this film was they didn't complicate it by giving her a love interest. She gets to make mistakes, be tough and be a female in a male dominated world without there being too much reference to her attractiveness. Miss Yakushimaru has since gone on to make other films, including playing the wife in the two excellent Always Sunset On Third Street films, but this is her more or less at the beginning. I think you'll like it.

A great title and a great poster, and a movie that's overall pretty good. Sailor Suit and Machine Gun is definitely a strange and flawed film, but there's a lot to like, and watching the 132-minute cut, I feel like there were only a small number of places where it dragged a little.

This movie's about a teenage girl who gets made the head of a yakuza gang. Tonally, it's a little quirky in parts, but I don't knowing I could call it a comedy (you'd expect a movie with this premise to be one), and there are certainly some disturbing sequences in here, too, which make things feel very serious at times.

The abundance of long takes is also interesting. One near the end breaks the reality/logic of the film in a way that confused me, but most of them work well and are overall impressive to see play out.