Sêrâ-fuku to kikanjû

A great title and a great poster, and a movie that's overall pretty good. Sailor Suit and Machine Gun is definitely a strange and flawed film, but there's a lot to like, and watching the 132-minute cut, I feel like there were only a small number of places where it dragged a little.

This movie's about a teenage girl who gets made the head of a yakuza gang. Tonally, it's a little quirky in parts, but I don't knowing I could call it a comedy (you'd expect a movie with this premise to be one), and there are certainly some disturbing sequences in here, too, which make things feel very serious at times.

The abundance of long takes is also interesting. One near the end breaks the reality/logic of the film in a way that confused me, but most of them work well and are overall impressive to see play out.

It's really not very good and after after a while I decided to stop watching the film once I had enough to see the sailor suit get out the machine gun and that would be it. No although she made the yakuza at the top she never really wanted to get out the gun. I entered watching the old film but it was still not very good and I can to the idea that it was a film for teens and was never going to get anything other than being sweet and singing. And although rather sweet, but not shouting she wasn't very wonderful although youngsters would might like it.

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.

Okay piece, on the surface, this film resembles a standard yakuza or idol film. The film lacks the enticing violence of the yakuza genre and the self-absorbed camerawork of idol films, making it more like a teen coming of age tale.

It places a strong emphasis on a compelling story and a visually delectable range in cinematography. The story was very progressive for 1980s Japan, and the gang treated a woman like their Oyabun. At the forefront of the film is the incredible acting by pop idol Hiroko Yakushimaru, her performance throughout brings the film together.

Accompanying the illustrious score is impeccably expressive and technical cinematography, focusing on a beautiful mix of static, wide angle shots as well as long take aesthetic

Those who are expecting an adrenaline-fuelled action adventure may be disappointed. The film, as previously mentioned, is a teen coming-of-age tale with a bizarre underwater setting, rather than an urban crime drama, leaving the final product somewhat confusing for those who are unaware of its intentions.

It could receive a remake with another perspective of the work and would probably be successful with the public and the current zeitgeist.

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.