Onna batoru koppu

LADY BATTLE COP (1991) is a Japanese sci-fi thriller that's essentially a rip-off of the 1987 Hollywood film ROBOCOP (which itself drew inspiration from live-action Japanese superhero TV shows). This one's much shorter, because it cuts out all the background detail, character touches and news media coverage that made ROBOCOP so much more interesting and resonant. The scenes here sort of recall scenes in ROBOCOP, but the action direction is so much more sluggish. Every bit of business takes much longer than it would have in ROBOCOP.

The actress who plays Kaoru Mikoshiba, the tennis champ-turned-Lady Battlecop is pretty in a bland way, but she can't act and has no real presence. Her character is humiliated a lot; even after she becomes Lady Battle Cop, she is frequently overpowered and victimized by Team Phantom, the 4-person team of killers employed by the powerful Karuta crime cartel. She rallies two or three times, but doesn't really do anything strategically different when she does. This whole concept was handled in a more satisfying way in later Japanese robot-suited hero TV shows (BLUE SWAT) and animated series (BUBBLEGUM CRISIS, among many others).

There are some good ideas and interesting powers and gadgets that could have been developed or used more, but they just sit there. There's a formidable wrestler-type villain named Amadeus, who has the power to disrupt Lady Battle Cop's systems and send her flying back and forth. These are the best action parts and have the most special effects (although we see the wires in the flying scenes!). But Amadeus' origins are only alluded to (he was built by NASA, but the Karuta cartel stole him) and his character and background are never explored. There is lots of action in the film, but it's never terribly exciting or imaginative; without character development, there's nothing underneath to get us emotionally involved.

Directed by Akihisa Okamoto and starring Azusa Nakamura, LADY BATTLE COP is 80 minutes long and is followed on its Japanese VHS edition by a 15-minute `Making of LADY BATTLE COP' short that includes some of the special FX shots, including a miniature set showing cars getting blown up to test the Neutron Magnum gun (an interesting weapon with good FX that should have been used more imaginatively). There are shots that we don't see in the movie itself, including a shot of Lady B glimpsed on a giant outdoor video screen in a shopping area. The film looks like it was shot in the Philippines; the locations look more tropical than Japan and the soldiers in the final battle scene look Filipino.

This film begins in a futuristic setting in Japan at nightclub where two rival gangs are about to engage in a gun battle. All of a sudden four individuals wearing army uniforms enter and proceed to kill all of the gang members there. As it so happens, these four people belong to the enforcement branch of another highly organized gang known as "the Cartel" and are tasked with destroying all of their competitors. The scene then shifts to a young woman named "Kaoru Okoshiba" (Azusa Nakamura) and two male companions who are congratulating her for finishing second in a recent tennis match. Not long afterward, she also becomes a victim of the Cartel but, before dying, she requests that her body should be donated for a procedure in which she will be transformed into a cybernetic being who can then administer justice. Six months later with New Tokyo plagued by lawlessness as a result of the Cartel a new force for law and order arrives-Lady Battle Cop. However, the Cartel isn't unnecessarily worried as they also have a powerful humanoid robot of their own named "Amadeus" (Masaru Matsuda) who appears to be even more powerful. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say this film was a poorly made, low-budget, Japanese version of "Robocop" which suffered from a poor script, weak acting and even worse action scenes. Truth be told, it was painful to watch at times as the same scenes kept being repeated over and over again. That being said, I was not at all impressed with this film and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

"Lady Battle Cop" is the Japanese answer or knock off to the possibly one of the best action movie in the world "Robocop" and just like how all things should be this movie can't hold a candle to it superior yet it still packed with enough cheese and goofy stuff to be an entertain movie. With a short runtime about 1h 20min the movie will be over before you know it so if you ever want to watch something fun to waste time check Lady Battle Cop out

Cheesy direction, but feels a bit like a comic book, which is nice and different in a way.

Characters have potential, but stay to superficial (especially the main villain).

Plot has potential; engaging in the first half, but totally lacking in the second half and with a predictable, cheesy ending.

Overall the movie seems to have trouble finding the right balance between goofy, over-the-top action and mysterious, big-villain crime.

The villain parts are accompanied by an amazing score tho.

Score of the rest of the movie is nice too; maybe a little too much sax, but a nice change from the generic hollywood action movie scores.

Never having heard about the 1990 Japanese action sci-fi movie "Onna Batoru Koppu" (aka "Lady Battle Cop"), I was recommended this movie by a friend. So I tracked it down and sat down to watch it.

Upon seeing the movie's cover, I have to admit that I wasn't really harboring much of any grand expectations to director Akihisa Okamoto's 1990 movie. But since I had never heard about it, nor seen it, then of course I opted to give it a fair chance.

"Onna Batoru Koppu" is without a doubt a blatant knock off of the 1987 movie "Robocop", except exposed to a Japanese touch. So expect a somewhat spaced out and over-the-top movie here.

Yup, the storyline in "Onna Batoru Koppu" was cheesy, so very, very cheesy. And that is actually what makes the movie watchable and semi-enjoyable to watch.

The acting performances in the movie were as to be expected from a movie such as this. Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with anyone on the cast list.

Visually then "Onna Batoru Koppu" wasn't really as bad as you might expect. So that counted for something in favor of the movie as well. Cheesy costume design, sure, but fun nonetheless.

"Onna Batoru Koppu" is not a gem in the Japanese cinema, not even by a long shot. And it is the type of movie that you watch once, shelf it and forget about it. There are far worse movies readily available out there.

My rating of "Onna Batoru Koppu" lands on a four out of ten stars.