Kekkô Kamen: ritânzu

Third in the films based on Go Nagai's manga series about the hooded nudist super heroine, and is probably the best so far. There's a new actress playing Kekko (Misaka Mori) who isn't quite as effective (or as, uh, striking) as Shino Saitô who played the well exposed heroine in the first two films (KEKKO KAMEN and KEKKO KAMEN STRIKES BACK – USA DVD titles), but the film is less inane and more enjoyably campy and honestly amusing and cute. Instead of the draconian celebrity's school, we have a regular high school whose swim team takes on a new, and draconian, instructor (the same guy who ran the Celebrity school in the previous films) in order to win a competition. His methods include torture and other overdone KEKKO staples – including an underling who wears a giant frog outfit – which gives Kekko plenty of opportunities to rescue the film's leading victim (a swim team member who can't swim. The film focuses more on her and her school friends, with only a couple of "muffication" battles between Kekko and the baddies, and the film is better for the extra characterizations. Like the last two, KEKKO RETURNS is kind of an exhibitionist Saturday Night Live sketch – it's a one-joke story, but, with this film's increased coherency and reduced absurdity, the film winds up on much better footing and is a better comedy for that. Don't miss the cute video under the closing credits, which shows how the swimming scenes were really filmed. Media-Blaster's DVD, like their first two, includes interviews with several actors and actresses about the making of the film – all of whom continue to pretend they have no idea which among them actually plays Kekko. OK, I'll go along with it.

They should have named this movie "Young Girl Learns How To Swim" instead of "Kekko Kamen Returns". Sure, that alternate title would have drawn (even) less viewers, but at least it would have been more honest and fewer people would have felt so disappointed after seeing the film. Because the title character appears no more than 3 (yes, 3) times throughout. I actually liked the new actress playing Kekko Kamen: she might be a little slower with the nunchucks than the previous one, but she has a more athletic build. However, most of the time we're just watching cute Japanese girls in swimsuits (OK, it doesn't sound bad so far!), talking, seeing ghosts, training to enter a swimming competition, and occasionally being tortured by their pervert teachers. I think this is all supposed to be funny and heartwarming, but it's creepy and boring instead. I'm still not sure if the original material cannot be transferred well to film, or if it just fell into the wrong hands. 0.5 out of 4 stars.