Sailor Suit and Machine Gun

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.

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.

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.

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.

Humorous satire of Japanese yakuza flicks in which Hiroko Yakushimaru plays the daughter of a yakuza oyabun (boss) who dies and leaves the clan to her. Unfortunately, the clan is not exactly top flight, as they drive around in old, backfiring cars, one member is, well, a little effeminate, and veteran actor Ken Takakura (Black Rain, Mr. Baseball are his two most recent American flicks) tries his best to keep Hiroko out of trouble. The scene with Hiroko when she sprays a room with machine gun fire and then exclaims "Kaikan"!! (roughly translated as "exciting" but perhaps in a physical sense) became somewhat famous in Japan at the time with people using the phrase in the same tone of voice as Hiroko. A funny and entertaining movie that I would definitely recommend to anyone who can understand Japanese (alas, there is no subtitled version).