This Japanese movie followed up a successful TV show that ran for three seasons, each with their own central 'Sukeban Deka'. From what I understand, a sukeban is a 'delinquent schoolgirl' and a deka is a 'special detective.' The set-up is that a team of reformed schoolgirl delinquents are deputized and working undercover to solve crimes in high schools. 1980s fashions, silly premise - think 21 Jump Street with yoyos instead of guns.

But Sukeban Deka - The Movie 2 is quite different from the first movie. Besides having a different star, there are many more characters and a more involved plot.

Having debuted in the first movie as a 'second fiddle,' the character of 17 year-old Yui Kazama (known as 'Sukeban Deka III') now has to carry this movie with her two older sisters, Yuka and Yuma. Yui is now working for the Juvenile Security Bureau, a student police force tackling juvenile crime with brute force and vicious triple-bladed yoyos!

Yui soon rebels against the heavy-handed tactics and quits the force. Teaming up with her sisters and a gang of young outcasts, she tries to prove the Bureau is corrupt - that it's been creating crimes and blaming them on teenagers to justify their own existence.

The overly complex story and its political subtext don't sit well with the patently silly array of weapons the heroines have to rely on - Yui's sisters don't have yoyos, only knitting needles and a metal origami crane! In the behind-the-scenes documentary, also included on this DVD, there's a brief comment from the director, Takeshi Hirota.  He claims he wanted to make a more serious, relevant movie. I think his plan backfired, and he strayed away from the successful formula he used while directing the TV series and the first movie.

There are fewer opportunities in the story for hand-to-hand fighting, because the action sequences are more ambitious - there are car stunts, a tank, a speedboat and even a blimp - but less time for the karate and, crucially, the yoyo action! This stuff might have been thrilling in the 1970s, but looks really unimpressive now. Also because of the more complex stunts, the girls have to be stunt-doubled. The thrills and intensity of the first movie were aided by the camera staying in close, because the actress playing Saki did most of her own stunts.

Even the fight scenes are less convincing. To persuade the viewer a schoolgirl can drop a multitude of evil henchmen isn't easy. One scene has little Yui leaping out of a wide river (how?) and diving single-handed into a fist fight with 6 baddies. Without the aid of her steel yoyo, she has no advantage, but still manages to fell them with single punches.

The behind-the-scenes extra footage gives us more sense of the 'logic' behind the script, when we learn that "the Kazama sisters" are a singing trio in real life, still performing concerts whilst shooting the movie. The only reason there are three sisters in the plot is to tie in with the real-life pop group. We also see how they've done a very good job of making actresss Yui Asaka look young enough to play a schoolgirl.

The movie lacks much of the originality and straightforward simplicity of the first - there's more low-rent action, but fewer memorable characters, more story, but less fun.

Hopefully the makers of the new 'next generation' Sukeban Deka movie Yoyo Girl Cop won't disappoint their audience again.