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Reviews
Onna no kappa (2011)
Curious, perhaps worth seeing, but nothing really good or ming boggling.
This is a mildly pleasant and entertaining film, but also a very pedestrian effort at several areas as direction, acting, choreography... etc. I came to this film by virtue of being a Stereo Total fan; and though I can't say I'm disappointed with their effort, I'm left wondering how they were persuaded to do this. Sure, their approach to music and fame is comparable to a B-movie, but I still think that their talent was largely wasted. The movie's strong points are its warm heartedness, an interesting display of nature - the leaves of the aquatic plants surely leave an impression, the fact that we can develop sympathy for its main characters, and its purposeful embrace of a kitsch aesthetic. But sometimes the purposeful kitsch isn't enough to compensate the lack of production values. I think that the sketchy characterizations of the mythical creatures "kappa" are enjoyable, the sexual interaction with kappa and humans is very funny, but the movie suffers from the lack of crew talent and the apparent non-budget. For instance, the switches from regular acting to the musical numbers seem forced, as there isn't much change from camera angle, scenario, whatever... The actors often seem like they don't know how to diversify their dancing act, and, as they are not singing the songs but only dancing, they are often caught with a somewhat stupid expression, like "i'm sorry i can't dance very well". Also, I have never seen an erotic film (even one that is only vaguely erotic) with such an unattractive lead female character (well, and the same could be said about the male...). Sawa Masaki really isn't a beautiful woman and you don't want to see her naked, at best you can tolerate it. She's not a great actress, either. There is another sex scene with the main kappa and a prostitute that seems to be thrown in for the sake of giving the viewers some diversity and a better looking actress. I enjoyed the scene (it is sexy and funny), but it looks like an ad-hoc plot arrangement. That said, it surely is a curious movie, reasonably entertaining, and worth watching if you're a fan of Stereo Total, weird movies in general or Japanese weirdity in particular (not so much if you're looking for Asian erotica).