Joshû shokeinin Maria: Gekijô-ban

1st watched 8/4/2002 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Shuji Kataoka(Japanese), Ruben Arvizu(American): Many borrowed themes clutter this original Japanese tough woman action movie. The story is about a prisoner with a life sentence, who does dirty work for the cops in exchange for being able to see her son in brief moments and the possibility of reversing her sentence(if this could be done). This particular quest & kill operation has to do with a mad pyshiatrist who is able to control people's minds to do whatever he wants(whether it be killing or prostitution). This is somehow linked to the Taiwanese mafia as well. This movie is obviously previously a TV show, or is one in the making because the ending leaves many things wide open. Without giving it away, one of the unfinished plots involves a relationship with a young cop and the other is whether of not she'll get out and ever see her son again. Ok for a dubbed movie, but too many strange & familiar plot twists to be serious entertainment.

Watched the English dubbed dialogue version and the vocal actors were at times absolutely terrible. Plus they often used way too much reverb on the vocals (I do recording/mixing in addition to music) which was distracting. The fight scenes were horrendously choreographed. A few continuity issues.

"Maria" had a lot of costume changes. I think Maria wore a different outfit for each scene. Not just unnecessary but didn't make sense within the story.

Several scenes with nudity and two with sex but most are PG-13. None were needed. One sex scene had no nudity.

The basic story premise although not new or unique was alright. The script was okay. But they got so much wrong, any potential the film had was killed off.

Beautiful Noriko Aota, of the Japanese pop group CC girls, stars as a La Femme Nikita type, a prisoner who takes on dirty jobs for the government in exchange for seeing her son occasionally and in the hopes of reducing her life sentence. She will use her body or a gun, whatever it takes to bring down the bad guy. Cool premise, right? - especially if you don't bother to think about the legal implications. Hmph. Don't these film makers know that governments are already snowed under with litigation? Imagine the paperwork if word got out that CONVICTS were being recruited as HIT SQUAD!! The litigation would never end... Anyway, nutty story conceit aside, the obvious question is how good a movie is it? Not very. The plot line, which surrounds a corrupt and power hungry psychiatrist - yeah, I never trusted those guys either - seems familiar and tired and the whole exercise feels forced, and what is worse it feels grim. The bluish monotone of everything, a familiar convention among Japanese films of the 90s to indicate a literally colorless urban landscape devoid of hope and crippling to the imagination, is just dull. The action is not very exciting and there is little suspense. The whole thing lacks for basic entertainment value on just about every level, which begs the question WHAT'S THE POINT? If you're going to wallow around on the fringes of super-villainy, at least get some black humor out of it or something. Noriko doesn't even get topless, despite the obvious come-on of the box art. Why so coy? Did the producers think we wanted a TASTEFUL girl with gun shoot 'em up? Sheesh.

A woman murders her husbands killer, a Japanese gangster and receives life in prison. But there's a catch, if she performs hits for the government she will receive reduced time and a chance to see her son.

The opening scene of Maria (Noriko Aota) posing as a dancer in a lounge to get close to her intended hit, and then escaping from 20 odd gangsters in 2-inch heels sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

It's evident that her government training didn't include dance lessons, and she seems unable to put any of the bad guys out of action with her flailing karate kicks. They do provide her with a stunning wardrobe though. What do you wear to an assassination anyway? Vinyl is always a good choice.

The fight scenes are comic, the bad guys are caricatures, the dialog is silly; exactly what you want from a B-grade Japanese action flick.

I gave it a 6, a decent rent if you can get it cheap and are a fan of this genre. Don't expect John Woo style action though -- think Power Rangers.