This is ridiculous, but an awful lot of fun. I thought I was just going to relax and watch a Japanese action movie. Once again there was homework to be done. I didn’t realize Sukeban Deka was more like a franchise than a standalone movie.
I started watching the movie and felt that I was missing something, plotwise. All the characters seemed to know each other and I didn’t know why. There were flashbacks, too. After some research, I found that this movie followed on from two TV series and the filmmakers didn’t give the audience an opening roller to bring us up to speed. Seeing as we’re unlikely to see the TV series, you’ll need to know some things before watching.
The Backstory
What I needed to know was that Sukeban Deka translates as something like “delinquent girl detective”. The scheme was that the Japanese government was training troublesome schoolgirls to become special agents (shades of Luc Besson's Nikita). They are kitted out with weapons disguised as stuff you’d find in a school satchel (like a yo-yo) and trained to fight (with sharpened fingernails or glass marbles). After two TV series of hazardous missions, the teams around Sukeban Deka 1 and 2 have disbanded and gone their separate ways.
The Movie
Saki (Sukeban Deka 2) has forsaken her special agent status and has now re-entered normal life. She accidentally bumps into a young man trying to escape some thugs and decides to help him. He’s escaped from Hell’s Castle, where Saki’s old enemy Hattori is trying to brainwash young students into helping him stage a coup d’etat (shades of Yukio Mishima). She reforms the old gang and asks her old boss to return her weapon – namely a deadly steel yo-yo.
At a rendezvous with the newly-formed Sukeban Deka 3 team, Saki is ambushed and takes on a helicopter gunship (yes, with her yo-yo). Together with the "Red Rangers", she has to storm Hell’s Castle to stop the villain. Luckily she’s been given the Ultimate Yo-yo.
The Review
A nutty set-up like this, playing like a low-budget remake of Enter the Dragon with schoolgirls, is nothing but fun all the way. You have to cheer when the heroine finally swaps her yellow cardigan for a schoolgirl uniform. You suspend your disbelief as the girls defeat armed guards with yo-yos and marbles. You gasp when you see The Terminator so blatantly ripped off.
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Article comments
1 - Aaron Fleming
Haha, this sounds like the best film ever! I might try and track it down, or at least keep an eye or two peeled for that new one, although I didn't care much for Battle Royale 2 - it probably could have used a few yo-yos, rather than all that Saving Private Ryan nonsense.