Cutie Honey

I saw this film at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, right after Blueberry. Holy smokes, this movie is totally awesome!!! Why can't north Americans make cool movies like this? It's super happy and action-packed, and it even makes fun of itself = it's perfect!!! For this vein of movies, Cutie Honey is the best I've ever seen!!!

If you have a vague idea what this movie is about, you'll be blown away by the extremes and humour presented on the screen. It's not serious. But a most excellent treat indeed!

All the acting is superficial, there's a constant(but not tumultuous) music track throughout, all the photography is extreme and the story itself is completely retarded. A lot of the humor comes from making fun of stupid little "cutesy" movies --> also, the sexism is exaggerated too: Cutie Honey behaves in a ... "special" way: always innocently making sexy poses wearing only underwear, etc... All the action sequences are completely over the top, super loud, and mixed with cartoons as well.

For what it is, it's unbeatable.

Saw Cutie Honey at the Leeds Film Festival on Saturday... not sure if James Maruyuma had been paying attention until the last half of the movie, because people breaking into song for no particular reason and "metaphysical" (actually psycho-sociological but nevermind) thoughts about love and opening your heart to people are there throughout. The film is 95% very very very silly, with a couple of curveball moments where things get a bit more serious, then right back into silliness and fluffiness again. The film is shot and edited in a very anime-esque way, with extensive use of CG to enhance the stylisation and "cartooniness" that's already quite abundant from the costumes and overacting. In fact, so much effort has been spent making the live action film feel like an animated film that one sometimes wonders why they didn't just animate it ;) The answer is, of course, the super-cuteness of Sato Eriko (though I was actually more partial to Ichikawa Mikako's super-repressed detective character, make of it what you will).

Overall, very very camp and silly fun with a fluffy message about the power of love n' stuff. Not the stuff classics are made of, but worth seeing if the opportunity arises.

There is simply no way to start this review without stating one simple fact. Cutie Honey absolutely, positively should not work as a movie on any kind of level. It has all the ingredients of celluloid disaster stamped across its hot pink exterior. Let's run off the checklist shall we? Live action version of a popular cartoon? Check. A model turned actress cast in the lead role? Check. Heavy usage of cheap looking CG throughout? Check. Outrageous levels of camp? Check.Acting that belongs in a Loony Toons cartoon? Check.

Yes, Cutie Honey should not work, but much to my surprise and resulting delight, it does on almost every level. Based on ageing anime and manga property that dates back to the 1970's, the movie tells the ludicrous tale of Honey Kisaragi, an almost unbearably cute office worker who leads a double life as the titular spandex clad Cutie Honey, self proclaimed 'warrior of love' and arch nemesis of the evil Panther Claw gang.

Opening with a bizarre sequence that sees Honey sprinting through the streets clad only in her underwear, a bin liner and scoffing Onigiri before leaping into battle against a strangely androgynous warrior in golden armour, the movie starts as it means to go on, namely in as silly a manner as possible. The movie is pure parody from start to finish and was clearly never intended as a straight piece in any way, shape or form. Everything from the costume and set design, through to the special effects and carefully studied but nevertheless broad performances work together surprisingly well. Indeed it is the performances that truly elevate the movie way beyond its early promise of being a big budget Power Rangers knockoff.

The lead trio of Eriko Sato (who I first saw in the TV version of Densha Otoko), Mikako Ichikawa and Jun Murakami as Honey, Detective Natsuko and shady photojournalist Seiji respectively deserve the biggest credit here which is fortunate as they have the lion's share of the screen time.

Sato's performance in particular comes as a surprise considering her relatively short acting career at this point. While the somewhat two dimensional Honey was never going to be a stretch for most actresses, the characters brainless manner and relentless optimism could easily have ruled her and turned our heroine into an excruciatingly annoying one note joke. Instead Sato turns Honey into a staunch and heroic fighter of evil one minute, and adorably dimwitted office girl the next with a steady through line of heart-warming kindness and optimism that ties the two characters together.

Visually Cutie Honey is something of a treat as well, being one of the closest things you will ever see to a live action anime. It even manages to go so far as including several knowing tips of the hat to its animated forefathers, including characters flying through the air, millions of rockets hurtling toward their targets and backgrounds giving way to speed lines when the action shifts into high gear. Even the cheap looking CG effects fit well within the movie. Since the reality of this film is quite plainly not our own, occasionally plastic looking CG characters or lapses in animation standards are more excusable and in their own way, prove to be as charming as the performances.

Of course not to mention the director of this inspired lunacy would be a crime unto itself. Hideaki Anno once again proves to be possessed of unique insight into the emotions of his characters. Some of the emotional beats the movie strums along to are curiously similar to his most famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) work in Neon Genesis Evangelion, although the tone of Honey is infinitely lighter than that of Evangelion. Anno's direction is confident and his playful, sometimes biting sense of humour is clear for all to see. The movie relentlessly mocks not only anime conventions and stereotypes but its own silliness at the same time, coming to a head in a very entertaining drunken Karaoke session involving our three leads.

Flaws are present though. The narrative, while hardly the movie's driving purpose, could still have been clearer and a little more focused. The Claws themselves make fun, if shallow villains, though they lack substantial motivation. The biggest drawback is the chief villain of Sister Jill, who feels more like a plot point presented as a full stop than a truly fun character in keeping with the spirit of the rest of the film. While the narrative does justify this personality (or lack thereof), it still makes for a staid and lacklustre final confrontation.

Overall though, Cutie Honey is such a relentlessly cheerful movie it is hard not to get swept up by its boundless optimism. As an antidote to the countless dour Hollywood action flicks of the near decade since the release of the first Matrix movie, it serves its purpose admirably, and as a movie guaranteed to put a smile on your face there is none better.

And I agree with the other reviewer, i think James totally missed the point! The idea as far as I can tell was to make a live action anime, it was a parody not a serious movie. The way the characters are posed, in particular the journalist, and one scene where a character has a megaphone covering her mouth was a nod to the way animation is shot-ie exaggerated poses, and objects over mouths to save on animation costs.It was supposed to be a large poke of fun at the silliness of magic girl anime series and anime standards, like a live action version of excel saga! I enjoyed it greatly, and laughed the whole way through, i suppose if you have seen the original series its difficult not to get precious about it. But for someone who has watched a lot of anime, it was enjoyable for all the references to other series and the way a master of the medium can poke fun at his own creations.The performances were good and in a way perfectly studied, they all acted like anime characters, which was the point, Anno was having a dig at how simplistic a lot of characters in anime are and in particular female characters. I agree the end with Sister Jill was a bit sappy but again i thought he was trying to make a point about soppy endings to anime series, as well as obviously trying to fill his need to have some comment on human nature in all his productions! All in all a highly enjoyable film!

I remember seeing posters for this in the weeks leading to the cinema release, and well ... Cutey Honey's outfit is pretty darn cute .. I have a figurine on my window that I got with a box of fizzy candy - much to my girlfriend's ire.

Next to ninja's, cute chic's in revealing armour highly rate with me, so I was instantly intrigued. I was familiar with the source material, and the the director (of Evangellion and Nadia fame) and I knew that this film had a very unique visual style, but I still wasn't prepared for what I witnessed when I finally put the disc in the slot and hit play.

This film IS Live Action Anime to the Nth degree! It lives and breaths anime craziness, and over the top silliness. Honey's facial expressions are something straight out of an SD anime. From the opening scene this film is an anime joy - yet live action.

It's a nutty film, and it had me chuckling constantly. I would love to show this to friends of mine, but I know they'd look at me strangely and try and lock me away. Cutey Honey won't be appreciated by everyone, but I think that anime fans, with an open mind will really dig this film.In the back of my mind a voice told me that I was not supposed to like this film, but try as it did, it couldn't pull me away. I was hooked .. right until the end.

It's strange that .. on first look, and without proper perspective, this film look bad. Everyone over-acts, and there are more butt and cleavage shots than you can shake a stick at - very much an exploitative fan service vehicle. Many viewers I assume would get so many bad Power Ranger flash backs that it'd hard for them to keep watching.

Watch it in the right context however and you will see genius! Well maybe that is taking it too far, but Hideaki Anno and the team that worked on this film should be praised for creating the closest live-action rendition of anime I have ever seen. It has all the ingredients, crazy over the top expressions, a VERY cute scantily clad girl, and ultra-surreal bad-guys, including bondage'ish outfits and an androgynous male villain.

It's all there. Until I find out later down the track that the film contained subliminal hypnotising messages, I will say that I really liked this film, but that I still can't really work out why I did so much. Cutey Honey is for anime fans, and I think anyone else would struggle a little to accept this film's wild personality.

Killion