Hatsujô kateikyôshi: sensei no aijiru (2003)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Mitsuru Meike

Writer:

Takao Nakano (writer)

Release Date:

14 October 2003 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai is a Pink Film (a Japanese softcore pornography genre). Sachiko Hanai (Emi Kuroda) is a call girl...

Plot Keywords:

Call Girl | Shot In The Forehead | Softcore | Blow Job | Cafe

Cast

Kyoko Hayami
Kikujirô Honda
Yukijirô Hotaru	...	Toshio
Yuichi Ishikawa
Takeshi Ito	...	Kim
Yôta Kawase
Yoshimi Kinuta
Shinji Kubo	...	President George W. Bush
Emi Kuroda	...	Sachiko
Masataka Matsubara
Tetsuaki Matsue
Kanae Mizuhara
Yuji Motoi
Masayoshi Nogami
Mutsuo Yoshioka

Directed by
Mitsuru Meike

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Takao Nakano		writer

Produced by
Haruki Iwata	....	co-producer
Nakato Kinukawa	....	producer
Kyoichi Masuko	....	producer
Kazuto Morita	....	producer

Original Music by
Taro Kataoka
Tarô Kishioka

Cinematography by
Hiroshi Ito

Film Editing by
Naoki Kaneko

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Takuya Nagai	....	first assistant director

Visual Effects by
Yasuhiko Shimizu	....	visual effects supervisor

Camera and Electrical Department
Sachi Kagami	....	assistant camera
Shigeru Matsushita	....	assistant camera
Miki Nakajima	....	assistant camera
Yûji Tajiri	....	still photographer
Koichi Yanagisawa	....	assistant camera

Other crew
Rosemary Dean	....	co-subtitler
Bill Yokoyama	....	firearms

Production Companies

• Kokuei Company
• Shintoho Company

Distributors

• Palm Pictures (2007) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Shintoho Film Distribution Committee (2004) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Palm Pictures (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• UPLINK Company (2006) (Japan) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Argo Pictures  publicity

Also Known As:

Hanai Sachiko no karei na shôgai (Japan) (longer version)
The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai (International: English title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:R21 | Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Tokyo, Japan

Company:

Kokuei Company

Wonderful oddity, then downhill from there

A lot of soft-core sex, yes... after about the fifth sex scene they become not only gratuitous, but untitillating and annoying. In fact, some of the sex just blatantly screams "fanservice" (anime term).

The politics are heavy-handed and sledgehammer style. Yes, W.'s there, playing a demonic presence - but somehow it's less insulting to him than, say, a European movie would've been.

Great bizarre surreal stuff in the first 45 minutes. Kind of liked where it was going.

There's a lot of it that reminded me of manga mixed with 60's Italian surreal trippy movies. But then the last 1/2 of the movie just seems like they ran out of money and ideas.

After it hits the hour mark, you start to feel the momentum running down... some of the best ideas that you expect to be going somewhere just unravel. Characters are used up and disposed of, or sometimes just disposed of. A whole scene plays out in a cave that I thought would never ever ever end. I don't mind that they didn't spoon-feed the essential message of the film but... What WAS the message ? No clue. If any Amer/Euro etc. movie started dropping philosophy-bombs like this in an attempt to prove how smart it is, it'd be laughed off the street. But since they're spouted by a kawaii Japanese girl, well, then, bless her heart.

A strange title sequence at the end of the end credits, too.

Some budgetary constraints are very apparent - sound effects, many editing points, and one (I hesitate to even call it) shootout was hilariously awful. Some very cheap makeup jobs.

I compare this to Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Cure" - they're different kinds of movie but "Cure" also has a surreal sense - the characters feel like real people and it's terrifying. "Sachiko" just leaves me... pfft. nah. Good enough.