Otenki onêsan

This is a great little film with lots of interesting (and hilarious and erotic) twists and turns. I'm always a little put off when I hear "satire", but this is satire that never descends into cynicism. The film makers obviously enjoyed making this. I also highly recommend the sequel, "Weather Woman Returns", which is just as good.

A high school girl has a boy profess his love to her but he rejects him. Some years later she is working at a TV station and gets her chance to fill in as the weather girl on the evening news. During her segment she lifts her skirt & flashes her panties to show how high the snow is in Hokkaido. Ratings skyrocket and she is made permanent weather woman. But then the TV network chairman's daughter returns from studying in Paris & doesn't like the new weather woman.

This is part comedy. Part Pink Eiga. Part Roman Porno. Part drama. Part weird. It doesn't do any single part great. It is the sum of the parts that make this film great.

Most of the real laughs are early on. Some of the humor falls flat. There is one erotic but funny scene plus some more non-erotic scenes containing nudity. A few short scenes with S&M played mainly for the humor. Some dramatic scenes though nothing real heavy. Plus a few things left to see for yourself.

This was the third time watching. Thought this time it wouldn't be too good so I'll sell my DVD, but I'll be keeping it! I have the Japanese version with subtitles. There is also an English dubbed version. If you want a fun movie, this is it.

French bread makes a number of appearances in this film. No idea what significance it has other than the daughter returning from Paris.

Some minor scenes take place at a Dom Dom. A Japanese fast-food chain. Strangely I don't see them in the end credits. Didn't make their hamburgers look appetizing.

This is a great over the top parody of television excesses. A new weathergirl makes a point of showing her panties (or lack thereof) to the audience and ratings go through the roof. (another featured show on this network is "Hello Pervert") From there the story veers off into weather witchcraft and magic battles with some truely strange musical numbers thrown in there somewhere. Its a fun romp and Kei Mizutani is gorgeous.

One is tempted to suspect the feminist credentials of any male director, especially in a film boasting graphic female onanism, and a not-exactly-hostile-to-adolescent-male-fantasy bath scene featuring naked women, licking, foam and cute maid's outfits.

Nevertheless, one must applaud Hosoyama's intentions - he far outstrips the similarly themed and styled 'To Die For' in terms of both visual imagination and ideological sympathy. What begins as a media satire turns into a gleefully bizarre S&M martial arts fantasy. The terms of the conflict are gendered - the sterile post-modern male world of the media and virtual reality; and the older female world of magic and nature. This tends to reinforce stereotypes, especially when the villainess is punished for wanting to be man, but who cares when you're having this much fun?

I've always been a fan of crazy, erotic asian romps, and this comedy is one of the best. Hell, there's even a lesbian sex scene thrown in with no relevance at all(not that I was worried). It was followed by a mild sequel that isn't worth seeing, but this one(based on a popular manga comic strip) certainly is. You'll never look at your local TV weatherperson the same way after this.