Samurai Chicks (2004) Dokuritsu shôjo gurentai (original title)

Director:

Mari Asato

Cast

Tomomi Miyashita	...	Saki
Chiaki Ohta	...	Mikkî / Micky
Raf	...	Cocoe
Megumi Shôji	...	Yuki
Ayano Tachibana	...	Aki
Kanji Tsuda	...	Abe

Directed by
Mari Asato

Produced by
Kenzô Horikoshi	....	producer
Atsuko Ohno	....	producer

Cinematography by
Tsukasa Tanabe

Film Editing by
Takehiro Ishitani

Other crew
Akihiko Shiota	....	series supervisor

Production Companies

• Euro Space
• Eurospace

Distributors

• Euro Space (2004) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Eleven Arts (2005) (worldwide) (all media)

Also Known As:

"Dokuritsu shôjo gurentai" - Japan (original title)
"Girls for Independence" - International (English title) (festival title)

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company:

Euro Space

Too bizarre for its own good

I would like to be able to write than if you like the title - "Samurai Chicks" - you'll probably like the movie, but it's not that simple. It begins as a Japanese teenage version of the Hong Kong hit "Naked Weapon", with four girls with outstanding dancing talent selected to be trained in the arts of espionage and killing. The girls must have had some real-life dancing experience, because they're pretty flexible, and the one who plays Yuki in particular (Megumi Shôji) is just incredibly beautiful. I mean it, she is BEAUTIFUL. There are also some clever ideas, like the way the girls communicate with their supervisors. Unfortunately, the film gets too bizarre and ambitious (not to mention depressing) in its second half, bringing supernatural elements, black comedy, and even attempts at political allegory into the mix, the action gets sparse, and the plotting gets weak (how do their enemies always find them so easily?). Not to give too much away, but I expected a lot more "team action" from this movie. (**)