Hatsujô kateikyôshi: Sensei no aijiru

Apparently, one critic described "Hatsujo kateikyoshi: sensei no aijiru" (called "The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai" in English) as "Fahrenheit 9/11" directed by David Cronenberg. I actually think that I would describe it as "Enemy of the State" directed by Russ Meyer. In fact, I don't know whether to recommend this movie or pan it. True, it deals with the invasion of Iraq, but a porno movie - whether hard core or soft core - is not exactly the place to talk politics! On one level, this movie could lead to hypocrisy accusations: while trying to expose political issues, they spend half of the movie showing off the woman's body, and the whole thing is really just a chauvinist fantasy. If you ask me, these sorts of movies don't really merit controversy.

So, see it if you want, and see whether or not you can come up with a solid opinion of it.

First off, I think the other reviewer was himself too wrapped up in the sex scenes and completely missed the charm of this film. Yes, this is a sex movie and yes the sex scenes do go on for quiet a while and yes the lead actress Emi Kuroda is nude quite a bit. For some, all that can either be a deterrent but you should neither dismiss nor approve of this film.

I can say this. The film is offbeat and has a distinct charm and sense of humor to it. In this world where Transformers is the number 1 movie in America (God help us all), The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai is a much needed change of pace.

Again, I will stress. Do not dismiss this film because of the sex and nudity in it. Watch it through and you will like it. Also, ignore the box calling it "a mixture of Godard and the South Park crew." Godard could never make a movie like this

I found this movie to be surprisingly enjoyable. Its a pinku film due to the nudity and sex scenes but even with her clothes on the actress was quite good. The movie seems to be a farcical lark on those thriller "there is a WMD on the loose" scenarios. The humour (intended or not, Im not sure) was pretty good. Some of the sequences makes no sense but again I don't think this movie is meant to be taken seriously. I think when watching the movie you have to understand that it is essentially a B movie and not compare to it big budget thrillers (or even low budget art-house movies). With that in mind you will actually find the movie quite enjoyable.

When I walked out of the theatre, someone commented to his friend if there was any deeper meaning to the film which he might have failed to realize. Sorry, I think it's safe to say that Glamorous Life is pure soft porn, disguised as an art house movie. There are plenty of movies like these (think Immortel), which somehow managed to come through unscathed by the censors and given the R21 rating for its release during SIFF here.

C'mon, I mean (and I'm not complaining - I enjoy the occasional sexy-sexy shows OK?) right from the beginning you're teased by Sachiko's butt and boobs. She's a call girl for hire, playing to her client's fantasies, like role playing a school teacher. One fine day, she got caught up in a restaurant shootout, and escaped alive with a bullet lodged in the head. She undergoes an unexplainable transformation, in terms of intelligence, gaining an insatiable desire for knowledge, as well as having a supercharged sex drive.

Bunking in with the family of a professor she seeked, more sex is assured with the professor and his introverted son. But the weirdness factor got upped through the introduction of George Bush's cloned finger (comes with the Stars-and-Stripes painted on the nail), which has telepathy, and a life of its own. Since it's a finger, there's no prizes guessing correctly what a finger gotta do. The movie becomes a cheap satire on Bush and his pro-war policies, and I'm not too sure if it's for pure cheesiness or a low production budget which led to wire-work not being cleaned up, and cheapo GI-Joe toy figurines substituting the real Joes, and a really tacky looking Bush who creatively uses his fingers over the airwaves.

As another subplot, the North Korean gunman who's looking for the finger, and was responsible for the bullet in Sachiko's head, ended up trying to hunt Sachiko down, through tracing her contact via her mobile phone, staking out inside her home (cleaning the home, keeping her red panties, and fantasizing), and through an incredible stroke of luck, got to the home of the professor to get to Sachiko. He provided much of the laughs (though I don't think most was intentional), as the gunfights he had (some which made not much sense) turned out to be rather comical instead.

I think I can count up till about at least seven sex scenes, and another equivalent number of masturbation scenes, for the reason that Sachiko doesn't feel a thing why having sex, and only feels the (pleasurable) effects some time after. Sexploitation? You tell me. Works out to be about one sex scene every 7 minutes.

It's one of those movies which almost every male character has sex with the female lead, and the female characters having the urge to remove (or forcefully so) their clothing. It's campy, it doesn't make much sense, and most of what you see on screen, is probably just for the sake of being there. You know not to take this movie seriously when the American national anthem accompanies the end credits, sung badly in Japanese, with an after-the-end-credits scene that simply just implodes.

If you're feeling horny, then this movie might just be your cup of tea.

A lot of soft-core sex, yes... after about the fifth sex scene they become not only gratuitous, but untitillating and annoying. In fact, some of the sex just blatantly screams "fanservice" (anime term).

The politics are heavy-handed and sledgehammer style. Yes, W.'s there, playing a demonic presence - but somehow it's less insulting to him than, say, a European movie would've been.

Great bizarre surreal stuff in the first 45 minutes. Kind of liked where it was going.

There's a lot of it that reminded me of manga mixed with 60's Italian surreal trippy movies. But then the last 1/2 of the movie just seems like they ran out of money and ideas.

After it hits the hour mark, you start to feel the momentum running down... some of the best ideas that you expect to be going somewhere just unravel. Characters are used up and disposed of, or sometimes just disposed of. A whole scene plays out in a cave that I thought would never ever ever end. I don't mind that they didn't spoon-feed the essential message of the film but... What WAS the message ? No clue. If any Amer/Euro etc. movie started dropping philosophy-bombs like this in an attempt to prove how smart it is, it'd be laughed off the street. But since they're spouted by a kawaii Japanese girl, well, then, bless her heart.

A strange title sequence at the end of the end credits, too.

Some budgetary constraints are very apparent - sound effects, many editing points, and one (I hesitate to even call it) shootout was hilariously awful. Some very cheap makeup jobs.

I compare this to Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Cure" - they're different kinds of movie but "Cure" also has a surreal sense - the characters feel like real people and it's terrifying. "Sachiko" just leaves me... pfft. nah. Good enough.