Zero Woman: Keishichô 0-ka no onna (1995)

Director:

Koji Enokido

Writer:

Tooru Shinohara (comic)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A famous businessman's links with organized crime are looked into by the Zero Division of the Tokyo Police...

Plot Keywords:

Businessman | Vehicular Homicide | Gun | Corrupt Cop | Internal Affairs

Cast

Misayo Haruki	...	Takako Fukuoka
Naoko Iijima	...	Rei
Takako Kitagawa
Miho Suzuki	...	Yumi

Also Known As:

Zero Woman: Final Mission (USA)

Runtime:

USA:75 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:R21 | USA:Unrated

Movie Connections:

Followed by Zero Woman: Namae no nai onna (1997) (V)

Mildly kinky and extremely slow

The first movie in a long-running Japanese series (ignore the American "Final Mission" add-on to the title). Rei, the heroine, is a secret agent working for Section Zero of the police department - a section specializing in the execution of bad people that are beyond or above the reach of the law. After successfully completing a couple of missions, Rei decides to take some time off to relax along with a couple of friends. But when they all witness a murder committed by the daughter of a powerful politician, they become his targets in his attempts to hush up the whole story. The plot is quite sketchy at points and the pacing is almost torturously slow, but Naoko Iijima (Rei) just about makes the film worth seeing: great face, great (rare but cute) smile, great body, great (red) hair, and experienced, comfortable handling of her guns (sure, she gets captured a bit too easily in the second half, but that's obviously a flaw of the script, not hers). She is gorgeous in every way, but be warned: this is a VERY slow movie that feels a lot longer than its 80-minute running time. (**)