Zero Woman 2

I got to this movie because after watching Gunslinger Girls, I found a list of "girls-with-guns" movies. This was on that list.

Zero Woman 2 is about this cop called Rei, from the Zero Division from the Tokyo Police Dept. Why Zero? IDK. Is because it's an undercover division and officially doesn't exist? Or is named after the famous Japanese World War 2 era fighter planes? Perhaps.

The movie begins when the cop, Rei, tries to stop a Chinese trio of small time crooks from robbing a mob boss. She fails, and the crooks get away with 100 million yen in stocks. But they expected money, so they don't know what they have. The rest of the movie is about the hunt for the stolen goods.

Rei's boss forces her to work with a partner from the normal police, who seems to have ties with organized crime.

What's somewhat a nice surprise about this movie is that the direction, camera work, cinematography is quite good. You can see that they really put an effort into all that. The acting is not remarkable, but it's not bad either. It fits the movie. Natsuki Ozawa, who plays Rei, has a superior and excellent upper torso, it almost seems enhanced, which is apparently why she disrobes quite frequently. But this is only so in the first half hour. After that, she remains fully clothed, there's only a brief scene where Anne, a victim of the criminals, is exposed.

Where the movie fails is in some of the martial arts scenes, where the actors themselves are involved. Not all scenes are bad, but some are clearly amateurish. The movie has decent production values, despite what some here want you to believe. This is especially visible in the scene where Rei's cop partner removes a bullet from her thigh. It's so realistic looking, you almost wonder if it's not real. Perhaps not her leg, but someone elses?

And at times the story seems so jump around a bit too much from one character or storyline to another. And of course, it has the suspend your belief moments of all action movies: Letting someone poke around in your THIGH?? That's clearly crazy, if you knick the artery, you can bleed out in less than a minute. And all the guns vs swords scenes also beggar believe. Which make this movie similar to all the "Taken" and "Mission Impossible" movies where senior citizens over 60 do the most amazing action stuff....

All in all, this is well worth watching. What's remarkable about the lead is that she got her start as 15 year old in youth drama/comedy, then disappeared for 5 years, then did this, and from 1997-2004 made 8 or so porn movies, and then was gone again. She's 50 now, so I doubt we will see her again. What a waste.

6 oth 10. The Melancholic Alcoholic.

This low budget, shot on video, erotic thriller is little more than an excuse to get model/actress Natsuki Ozawa naked in a variety of sleazy situations. The film attempts to combine the sexual charms of Ms. Ozawa with woefully inadequate action sequences, made even worse by the fact that she doesn't seem comfortable or convincing while handling a gun. Martial artist Kane Kosugi (remember him from those early 80's Sho Kosugi ninja flicks?) is the only one in the group who can throw a decent kick, but even he can't salvage the poorly realized action scenes. In its defense, the film is a step above similar Andy Sidaris get naked action fare in style, tone, and content, and is passable as a late night sexploitation romp. However, if you're looking for something more, don't bother with it. Additionally, don't let the American marketing of this popular Japanese series mislead you - this film was originally released in Japan as the second film in the series, "Zero Woman 2".

I kinda liked this movie. The heroine took her top off so many times that I thought she was Rene Russo for a while, but I managed to cope with those sequences. This movie might turn people off due to several rape sequences. These are not stylishly done and almost amount to a fetish. It's a Japanese thing...I wouldn't understand.

The plot is simple. As with most Japanese movies, the acting is sometimes over the top. Considering what looked like a low budget, it looked surprisingly good. The effects that they did pull off were respectable.

So, if you wanna kill ninety minutes and look at a skinny Japanese woman's breasts, this is the movie for you...

In all honesty, there's not much to dislike about this movie. The heroine is very beautiful and she takes every opportunity to remove her clothes (for the most part, they're so skimpy that it's a wonder they stay on at all). The John Woo-style action is clearly sabotaged by low production values, but for the most part is pretty good- the action scenes are slick, visually striking and well-paced. The only times the movie really falters is at the very end, when it suddenly becomes very, very bleak, and when the pacing bogs down in the middle section. As usual, the writers figured out how to come up with dynamite scenes at the beginning and at the climax, but the material they bookend is slow and clearly not given much thought. However, if you're a genre fan, the good stuff just might outweigh the not-so-good stuff. Make up your own mind.

In her second cinematic adventure, Rei (played this time by Natsuki Ozawa) is looking for 10 millions worth of stock certificates that were stolen by a trio of Chinese crooks (two guys and a girl). She is assigned a new police partner, who turns out to have his own agenda: he plans to find the certificates himself and sell them to the Yakuza. Massive bloodshed ensues.

More violent and more exploitative than its predecessor, "Zero Woman 2" also boasts a higher body count and an increased quotient of martial arts, thanks to the presence of Kane Kosugi (the son of Sho). Natsuki Ozawa is not as attractive as the first Zero Woman Naoko Iijima, but she's still pretty and adequately athletic. The main problem with this film is the same as with the original: the extremely slow pacing that can really numb your senses at times. In that respect, the second half of "Zero Woman 2" is better than the first. But the whole film feels longer than it is. (**)